Prepayment wristband and computer debit system

• US 6,474,557 B2
• Filed: 11/05/2001
• Issued: 11/05/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 10/23/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Seaworld Parks & Entertainment (Busch Entertainment Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Busch Entertainment Corporation
• Inventors: Mullins, Joseph M., Mills, Donald W. Jr.
• Primary Examiner(s): Pitts, Harold I.
• Application Number:
  US09/993,280
• Publication Number:
  US 20020070275A1
• Time in Patent Office: 365 Days
• Field of Search: 235/472.03, 235/375
• US Class Current: 235/472.03
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/04 characterised by the shape
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/07762 the adhering arrangement making the record carrier wearable, e.g. having the form of a ring, watch, glove or bracelet record carriers for insertion in the human body for medical purposes A61B90/00; record carriers adapted for attachment to animals A01K11/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/04 Payment circuits
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/28 Pre-payment schemes, e.g. "pay before"
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/342 Cards defining paid or billed services or quantities
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/403 Solvency checks
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/025 by means, e.g. cards, providing billing information at the time of purchase, e.g. identification of seller or purchaser, quantity of goods delivered or to be delivered

Abstract

A financial transaction system that does not require the need for cash, checks or credit cards to carry out financial transactions. In return for prepayment of specified sum, a bar coded wristband is issued to a customer. On issuance of the wristband, a data base record is created that is cross-referenced with the bar code number, as well as an account number, an issue date and a present balance of the account. When the user wishes to purchase goods or services, the bar code of the wristband is scanned, and the amount of the transaction is then placed into the system. The corresponding account is debited. The wristband is constructed so as to be waterproof, and includes an adhesive strip with small tear strips for fastening around the user'"'"'s wrist. An attempted removal of the wristband is effective to substantially destroy it and render it unusable to other persons.

Claims

1. A transaction system, comprising:

at least one article usable in lieu of money, said article being attachable to a user and bearing an identification, and said article being usable for financial transactions to purchase goods and services for a predetermined period of time;

a computerized accounting system programmed to initialize an account associated with said article when issued to a user, said accounting system being programmed to accept said identification of said article and a date of issuance of said article to the user and programmed to maintain in association therewith an initial monetary value to be credited to the associated account; and

said accounting system being programmed to thereafter respond to a purchase transaction for a predetermined period of time after issuance of said article to the user by accepting said identification of said article in conjunction with a monetary value of a purchase and arithmetically debiting a balance maintained in the associated account in the computerized accounting system in association with the article identification.

2. The transaction system of claim 1, wherein said article is constructed so as to be attachable to the user and not reusable by another person once removed from the user.

3. A method of carrying out financial transactions, comprising the steps of issuing an article usable in lieu of money, attachable to a user, having an identification thereon;

inputting the article identification and a predetermined time period for use thereof into a computer data base;

associating the article identification in the data base with an account; and

in response to a request for the purchase of goods or services by a user of the attachable article, inputting the article identification into the computer data base and comparing if a time of the request for the purchase is within said predetermined time period, and if so, debiting the account in the data base by the requested purchase amount of the good or services.

4. The method of claim 3, further including inputting the attachable article identification into the computer data base by scanning a bar code on the attachable article.

5. The method of claim 3, further including providing a unique identification on each attachable article issued.

6. The method of claim 3, further including associating a plurality of different attachable article identifications in the data base with a single account number.

7. The method of claim 3, further including forming plural identical bar codes on the attachable article for facilitating the scanning thereof while attached to a user.

8. The method of claim 3, further including providing a human readable identification and a machine readable identification on the attachable article.

9. The method of claim 3, further including prohibiting purchase transactions of goods and services when a requested purchase amount is greater than a balance in the data base account associated with the attachable article identification.

10. The method of claim 3, further including associating the attachable article identification in the data base with a credit card number and a name of a user of the credit card.

11. A transaction system, comprising:

a plurality of attachable articles, attachable to respective persons, said attachable articles each providing a machine readable identification thereon that is unique with respect to each other;

a reader for reading the identification of the attachable article;

a computer system programmed to associate the plural identifications with a single account; and

said computer system being programmed so as to be responsive to receipt of any one of the identifications for accessing the single account and debiting the account is according to a respective transaction cost, and providing a resulting current balance of the account, whereby financial transactions can be carried out without using cash.

12. The transaction system of claim 11, further including a plurality of transaction stations, and wherein said computer system is coupled to the plurality of transaction stations, each having a reader for reading the identification of the attachable article, and including a device to input transaction data into the computer system.

13. The transaction system of claim 11, further including at least one initialization type transaction coupled to the computer system for issuing the attachable articles to the users and inputting the respective identifications into the computer system, and for associating the account with the attachable article identifications, and including at least one transaction station of a second type coupled to the computer system for carrying out financial transactions by inputting at least one of the identifications and a corresponding monetary transaction amount into the computer system for the payment of goods or services.