Routing methods and systems for increasing payment transaction volume and profitability
First Claim
1. A method for charging a payment transaction to a customer, said method comprising the steps of:
- (a) offering an incentive to identify a plurality of payment instruments usable to consummate said transaction;
(b) obtaining from said customer information describing at least two payment instruments from said plurality of payment instruments identified by said customer, wherein;
(i) said customer is willing to allow said payment transaction to be processed using any of said described payment instruments,(ii) said described payment instruments utilize different funding sources, and(iii) each of said described payment instruments is usable for processing said payment transaction in its entirety;
(c) submitting information regarding said described payment instruments to a computer-implemented transaction evaluator configured to automatically select one of said described payment instruments based on relative economic utility of said described payment instruments;
(d) receiving from said transaction evaluator the transaction evaluator'"'"'s selection of one of said described payment instruments;
(e) notifying said customer which of said payment instruments was selected; and
(f) receiving funds for the payment of said transaction using said selected payment instrument.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
Customers often have access to multiple payment methods for any given transaction. In one embodiment of the invention, a merchant obtains information regarding multiple payment methods from a customer, and sends said information to a transaction evaluator. Via computer networks, the transaction evaluator sends information about the transaction to the issuers of one or more of the payment methods. The issuers perform a cost/benefit analysis of the transactions and respond with a description of the terms under which they are willing to process the transaction. Based on the issuer response, the transaction evaluator selects one of the payment methods. By enabling participating issuers to select favorable transactions and avoid unprofitable ones, the invention can thus improve issuer profitability by directing profitable transactions to participating issuers while directing unprofitable transactions away from participating issuers or to alternate transaction methods that are more profitable or less costly.
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Citations
46 Claims
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1. A method for charging a payment transaction to a customer, said method comprising the steps of:
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(a) offering an incentive to identify a plurality of payment instruments usable to consummate said transaction; (b) obtaining from said customer information describing at least two payment instruments from said plurality of payment instruments identified by said customer, wherein; (i) said customer is willing to allow said payment transaction to be processed using any of said described payment instruments, (ii) said described payment instruments utilize different funding sources, and (iii) each of said described payment instruments is usable for processing said payment transaction in its entirety; (c) submitting information regarding said described payment instruments to a computer-implemented transaction evaluator configured to automatically select one of said described payment instruments based on relative economic utility of said described payment instruments; (d) receiving from said transaction evaluator the transaction evaluator'"'"'s selection of one of said described payment instruments; (e) notifying said customer which of said payment instruments was selected; and (f) receiving funds for the payment of said transaction using said selected payment instrument. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32)
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33. Apparatus for charging a payment transaction to a customer, said apparatus comprising:
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(a) means for offering an incentive to identify a plurality of payment instruments usable to consummate said transaction; (b) means for obtaining from the customer information describing at least two payment instruments from said plurality of payment instruments identified by said customer, wherein; (i) said customer is willing to allow said payment transaction to be processed using any of said described payment instruments, (ii) said described payment instruments utilize different finding sources, and (iii) each of said described payment instruments is usable for processing said payment transaction in its entirety; (c) means for submitting information regarding said described payment instruments to a computer-implemented transaction evaluator configured to automatically select one of said described payment instruments based on relative economic utility of said described payment instruments to an entity from the group of entities consisting of a merchant interfacing with the customer and an issuer of a described payment instrument; (d) means for receiving from said transaction evaluator the transaction evaluator'"'"'s selection of one of said described payment instruments; and (e) means for outputting which of said payment instruments was selected. - View Dependent Claims (34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46)
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Specification