Bill payment system and method with merchant information
First Claim
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1. A method of generating an instruction for paying bills, comprising the steps of:
- receiving, via a network, information identifying a particular merchant in association with a request to pay a bill of the particular merchant on behalf of a consumer;
searching a merchant database having information about each of a plurality of merchants to determine if the particular merchant is included in the merchant database;
adding the particular merchant to the merchant database if the particular merchant is not included in the merchant database;
associating a merchant credit limit with the particular merchant in the merchant database; and
processing the received request to generate an instruction to pay the bill in accordance with the merchant credit limit.
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Abstract
A computerized payment system by which a consumer may instruct a service provider by telephone, computer terminal, or other telecommunications methods to pay various bills without the consumer having to write a check for each bill. The system operates without restriction as to where the consumer banks and what bills are to be paid. The service provider collects consumers'"'"' information, financial institutions information and merchant information and arranges payment based on a financial risk analysis to the merchants according to the consumers instructions.
124 Citations
15 Claims
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1. A method of generating an instruction for paying bills, comprising the steps of:
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receiving, via a network, information identifying a particular merchant in association with a request to pay a bill of the particular merchant on behalf of a consumer; searching a merchant database having information about each of a plurality of merchants to determine if the particular merchant is included in the merchant database; adding the particular merchant to the merchant database if the particular merchant is not included in the merchant database; associating a merchant credit limit with the particular merchant in the merchant database; and processing the received request to generate an instruction to pay the bill in accordance with the merchant credit limit. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 11)
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4. An article of manufacture for generating an instruction for paying bills, comprising:
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a computer readable medium; and computer programming stored on the computer readable medium wherein the stored computer programming is configured to be readable from the computer readable medium by a computer to thereby cause the computer to operate so as to; receive, via a network, information identifying a particular merchant in association with a request to pay a bill of the particular merchant on behalf of a consumer; search a merchant database having information about each of a plurality of merchants to determine if the particular merchant is included in the merchant database; add the particular merchant to the merchant database if the particular merchant is not included in the merchant database; associate a merchant credit limit with the particular merchant in the merchant database; and process the received request to generate an instruction to pay the bill in accordance with the merchant credit limit. - View Dependent Claims (5, 6, 12)
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7. A system for processing a request to pay a bill, comprising:
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an input port for receiving, via a network, information identifying a particular merchant in association with a request to pay a bill of the particular merchant on behalf of a consumer; a merchant database storing merchant information about each of a plurality of merchants, wherein for at least one of the plurality of merchants the merchant information includes a merchant credit limit; and a first processor configured to search the merchant database to determine if the particular merchant is included in the merchant database, and to add the particular merchant to the merchant database if the particular merchant is not included in the merchant database. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 13, 14, 15)
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Specification