System and method for electronic prepaid account replenishment

• US 7,131,578 B2
• Filed: 05/17/2004
• Issued: 11/07/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 05/28/2003
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: EWI Holdings Inc. (Albertsons Cos., Inc.)
• Original Assignee: EWI Holdings Inc. (Albertsons Cos., Inc.)
• Inventors: Paschini, Miles, Rose, Marshall
• Primary Examiner(s): Le, Thien M.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Labaze, Edwyn
• Application Number:
  US10/848,529
• Publication Number:
  US 20050061872A1
• Time in Patent Office: 904 Days
• Field of Search: 235/379, 235/380, 235/381, 235/375, 705 16- 17, 705/66, 705/64, 705/75, 705/39, 705/61
• US Class Current: 235/379
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/18 involving self-service terminals [SST], vending machines, kiosks or multimedia terminals
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/20 Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/202 Interconnection or interaction of plural electronic cash registers [ECR] or to host computer, e.g. network details, transfer of information from host to ECR or from ECR to ECR
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/24 Credit schemes, i.e. "pay after"
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/28 Pre-payment schemes, e.g. "pay before"
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/346 Cards serving only as information carrier of service
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/349 Rechargeable cards
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/363 with the personal data of a user
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3672 initialising or reloading thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/40 Authorisation, e.g. identification of payer or payee, verification of customer or shop credentials; Review and approval of payers, e.g. check credit lines or negative lists
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/0866 by active credit-cards adapted therefor G07F7/1008 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/1008 Active credit-cards provided with means to personalise their use, e.g. with PIN-introduction/comparison system
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 17/00 Prepayment of wireline communication systems, wireless communication systems or telephone systems using a coded card to authorise calls from a telephone set H04M1/675
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 17/20 with provision for recharging the prepaid account or card, or for credit establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 17/204 on-line recharging, e.g. cashless
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2017/24 with on-line recharging of an account or card, e.g. cashless

Abstract

A method for crediting a customer account maintained by a vendor of services in response to payment received from a customer is disclosed herein. The method includes issuing, to the customer, a membership account number associated with at least the customer account. A membership account number and a payment corresponding to a requested amount of a service offered by the vendor are received from the customer at a point-of-sale. The method further includes generating, at the point-of-sale, an authorization message including at least the membership account number and embedded transaction information identifying the service offered by the vendor and the requested amount. The embedded transaction information is then communicated from the point-of-sale to a database server. The customer account is credited, in response to the embedded transaction information, based upon an amount of the payment. The method also includes electronically transferring funds based upon the amount of the payment from a first account associated with the point-of-sale to a second account associated with the vendor.

Claims

1. A method for crediting a customer account maintained by a vendor of services in response to payment received from a customer, the method comprising:

issuing, to the customer, a membership account number associated with at least the customer account;

receiving, from the customer at a point-of-sale, the membership account number and a payment corresponding to a requested amount of a service offered by the vendor;

generating, at the point-of-sale, an authorization message including at least the membership account number and embedded transaction information containing a virtual payment amount identifying both the service offered by the vendor and the requested amount;

communicating the embedded transaction information from the point-of-sale to a database server;

crediting, in response to the embedded transaction information, the customer account based upon an amount encoded by the virtual payment amount; and

electronically transferring funds based upon the_amount encoded by the virtual payment amount from a first account associated with the point-of-sale directly to a second account associated with the vendor.

2. The method of claim 1 further including verifying, at the database server, that the embedded transaction information defines a valid transaction and transmitting a response from the database server to the point-of-sale.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the response indicates transaction failure if the embedded transaction information is determined to not define a valid transaction.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein the response indicates successful transaction completion if the embedded transaction information is determined to define a valid transaction and confirmation is received at the database server that the customer account has been credited.

5. The method of claim 2 further including maintaining, within a database of the database server, an association between the membership account number and a customer record identifying prepaid services used by the customer.

6. The method of claim 5 further including verifying that the requested amount of the service corresponds to one of the prepaid services identified within the customer record.

7. The method of claim 2 wherein the response indicates a predefined status if the embedded transaction information is determined to define a valid transaction and confirmation is received at the database server that the customer account has been credited, such predefined status not being selected from the group including:

approved, declined or processing error.

8. The method of claim 1 further including maintaining, within a database of the database server, an association between a merchant account number applicable to the point-of-sale and a list of approved prepaid services authorized to be purchased at the point-of-sale.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the merchant account number is included within the transaction information.

10. The method of claim 9 further including verifying that the requested amount of the service corresponds to a prepaid service included within the list of approved prepaid services.

11. The method of claim 1 further including issuing a membership card to the customer, the membership card storing the membership account number.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the membership account number is received at the point-of-sale by swiping the membership card through a terminal and wherein a virtual payment amount included within the embedded transaction information is entered into the terminal.

13. The method claim 1 further including transmitting, in response to the embedded transaction information, an account credit request from the database server to a vendor server operated by the vendor.

14. The method of claim 13 further including communicating, from the database server to the point-of-sale, a processing error response if the database server fails to receive a response from the vendor server within a predetermined time period following transmittal of the account credit request to the vendor server.

15. The method of claim 13 further including communicating, from the database server to the customer via an out-of-band communication channel, a transaction-success notification if the database server receives a transaction-completed response from the vendor server following transmittal of the account credit request to the vendor server.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein the membership account number is stored upon a membership card issued to the customer by an issuing entity, the method further including receiving the authorization message at an issuing processor of the issuing entity.

17. The method of claim 16 further including transmitting the embedded transaction information contained within the authorization message from the issuing processor to the database server.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein, in response to the embedded transaction information, the database server retrieves account identifying information from a database of the database server that is specific to the customer account.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein the database server transmits, to a vendor server, a request to credit the customer account based upon the amount of the payment.

20. The method of claim 1 further including maintaining, within a database of the database server, an association between virtual payment amounts and monetary amounts of prepaid services offered by a plurality of vendors wherein the embedded transaction information includes one of the virtual payment amounts.

21. The method of claim 1 further including:

receiving the authorization message at an issuing processor of an entity issuing the membership account number;

determining, at the issuing processor, whether the embedded transaction information corresponds to a valid credit or debit transaction; and

forwarding the embedded transaction information to the database server in the event that the embedded transaction information is determined to not correspond to a valid debit or credit transaction.

22. The method of claim 1 wherein the customer account is a prepaid long-distance telephone service account.

23. The method of claim 1 wherein the customer account is a prepaid wireless telephone service account.

24. The method of claim 1 wherein the communicating embedded transaction information within the authorization message from the point-of-sale to the database server includes transmitting the authorization message over a card association network.

25. The method of claim 1 wherein the communicating the authorization message includes:

transmitting the authorization message from the point-of-sale to an acquiring processor associated with the point-of-sale;

forwarding the authorization message from the acquiring processor into a card association network;

receiving the authorization message at an issuing processor of an entity responsible for issuing the membership account number; and

routing the embedded transaction information from the issuing processor to the database server.

26. The method of claim 1 wherein the electronically transferring funds is effected using an automated clearinghouse system.

27. The method of claim 1 further including maintaining, within the database server, a database associating the membership account number with identifying information pertaining to the customer account.

28. The method of claim 1 wherein the electronically transferring funds is effected using a card association network.

29. A method for crediting a customer account maintained by a vendor of prepaid services in response to payment received from a customer, the method comprising:

issuing to the customer a membership card containing a membership account number;

receiving, from the customer at a point-of-sale, the membership account number and a payment corresponding to a requested amount of a prepaid service offered by the vendor;

maintaining, within a database server, a database associating the membership account number with identifying information pertaining to the customer account;

maintaining, within the database, an association between a merchant account number applicable to the point-of-sale and a list of approved prepaid services authorized to be purchased at the point-of-sale;

generating, at the point-of-sale, an authorization message including at least the membership account number and embedded transaction information containing a virtual payment amount identifying both the prepaid service offered by the vendor and the requested amount;

maintaining, within the database, an association between virtual payment amounts and monetary amounts of prepaid services offered by a plurality of vendors, the embedded transaction information including a first of the virtual payment amounts;

communicating the embedded transaction information from the point-of-sale to the database server;

crediting, subsequent to receipt of the embedded transaction information at the database server, the customer account based upon an amount encoded by the virtual payment amount; and

electronically transferring funds based upon the amount encoded by the virtual payment amount from a first account associated with the point-of-sale directly to a second account associated with the vendor.

30. The method of claim 29 wherein the membership account number is received at the point-of-sale by swiping the membership card through a terminal and wherein the first of the virtual payment amounts is entered into the terminal.

31. The method of claim 29 further including verifying, at the database server, that the embedded transaction information defines a valid transaction and transmitting a response from the database server to the point-of-sale.

32. The method of claim 29 wherein the membership account number is associated with a plurality of additional customer accounts maintained by a plurality of additional vendors.

33. The method of claim 29 wherein said electronically transferring funds is performed without transferring funds to an intermediary account prior to transfer of said funds to said second account.

34. A method for crediting a customer account maintained by a vendor of services in response to payment received from a customer at a point-of-sale, the method comprising:

receiving, at a database server, embedded transaction information extracted from an authorization message generated at the point-of-sale, wherein the authorization message includes at least a membership account number associated with the customer account and embedded transaction information, wherein the embedded transaction information contains a virtual payment amount encoding an offered service and a requested amount corresponding to the payment;

crediting, in response to the embedded transaction information, the customer account based upon an amount encoded by the virtual payment amount; and

electronically transferring funds based upon the amount encoded by the virtual payment amount from a first account associated with the point-of-sale directly to a second account associated with the vendor.

35. The method of claim 34 further including verifying, at the database server, that the embedded transaction information defines a valid transaction and transmitting a response from the database server to the point-of-sale.

36. The method of claim 35 wherein the response indicates transaction failure if the embedded transaction information is determined to not define a valid transaction.

37. The method of claim 35 wherein the response indicates successful transaction completion if the embedded transaction information is determined to define a valid transaction and confirmation is received at the database server that the customer account has been credited.

38. The method of claim 35 further including maintaining, within a database of the database server, an association between the membership account number and a customer record identifying prepaid services used by the customer.

39. The method of claim 38 further including verifying that the requested amount of the service corresponds to one of the prepaid services identified within the customer record.

40. The method of claim 34 further including maintaining, within a database of the database server, an association between a merchant account number applicable to the point-of-sale and a list of approved prepaid services authorized to be purchased at the point-of-sale.

41. A method for providing authorization to credit a customer account maintained by a vendor of services in response to payment received from a customer, the method comprising:

receiving, from the customer at a point-of-sale, a membership account number and a payment corresponding to a requested amount of a service offered by the vendor wherein the membership account number is associated with at least the customer account;

generating, at the point-of-sale, an authorization message including at least the membership account number and embedded transaction information containing a virtual payment amount identifying both the service offered by the vendor and the requested amount; and

transmitting the embedded transaction information from the point-of-sale to a database server;

wherein the embedded transaction information is used to facilitate crediting of the customer account based upon an amount encoded by the virtual payment amount.

42. The method of claim 41 further including receiving, at the point-of-sale, a response indicating that the embedded transaction information defines a valid transaction.

43. The method of claim 42 wherein the response indicates transaction failure if the embedded transaction information is determined to not define a valid transaction.

44. The method of claim 42 wherein the response indicates successful transaction completion if the embedded transaction information is determined to define a valid transaction and confirmation is received at the database server that the customer account has been credited.

45. The method of claim 41 further including issuing a membership card to the customer, the membership card storing the membership account number.

46. The method of claim 45 wherein the membership account number is received at the point-of-sale by swiping the membership card through a terminal and wherein a virtual payment amount included within the embedded transaction information is entered into the terminal.

47. A method for crediting a customer account maintained by a vendor of services in response to payment received from a customer, the method comprising:

receiving, from the customer at a point-of-sale, a membership account number and a payment corresponding to a requested amount of a service offered by the vendor;

generating, at the point-of-sale, an authorization message including at least the membership account number and a virtual payment amount;

distinguishing the virtual payment amount from a set of standard payment amounts;

crediting the customer account based upon an amount encoded by the virtual payment amount; and

electronically transferring funds based upon the amount encoded by the virtual payment amount from a first account associated with the point-of-sale to a second account associated with the vendor.

48. The method of claim 47 further including verifying that the authorization message includes information defining a valid transaction and transmitting a response to the point-of-sale.

49. The method of claim 48 wherein the response indicates transaction failure if the information is determined to not define a valid transaction.

50. The method of claim 48 wherein the response indicates successful transaction completion if the information is determined to define a valid transaction and confirmation is received that the customer account has been credited.

51. A method for crediting a first customer account maintained by a first vendor of services in response to payment received from a customer, the method comprising:

issuing, to the customer, a membership account number associated with both the first customer account and a second customer account;

receiving, from the customer at a point-of-sale, the membership account number and a first payment corresponding to a first requested amount of a first service offered by the first vendor;

generating, at the point-of-sale, a first authorization message including at least the membership account number and first embedded transaction information containing a first virtual payment amount identifying both the first service offered by the first vendor and the first requested amount;

communicating the first embedded transaction information from the point-of-sale to a database server;

crediting, in response to the first embedded transaction information, the first customer account based upon an amount encoded by the first virtual payment amount; and

electronically transferring funds based upon the amount encoded by the first virtual payment amount from a first account associated with the point-of-sale directly to a second account associated with the first vendor.

52. The method of claim 51, further comprising:

generating a second authorization message including at least second embedded transaction information;

communicating the second embedded transaction information to the database server, wherein the second embedded transaction information contains a second virtual payment amount identifying both a second service offered by a second vendor and a second requested amount; and

crediting, in response to the second embedded transaction information, the second customer account based upon an amount encoded by the second virtual payment amount, wherein the second customer account is maintained by the second vendor.

53. The method of claim 52, further comprising:

electronically transferring funds based upon the amount encoded by the second virtual payment amount directly to a third account associated with the second vendor.

54. The method of claim 51, further comprising:

generating a second authorization message including at least second embedded transaction information;

communicating the second embedded transaction information to the database server, wherein the second embedded transaction information contains a second virtual payment amount identifying both a second service offered by the first vendor and a second requested amount; and

crediting, in response to the second embedded transaction information, the second customer account based upon an amount encoded by the second virtual payment amount, wherein the second customer account is maintained by the first vendor.

55. The method of claim 54, further comprising:

electronically transferring funds based upon the amount encoded by the second virtual payment amount directly to the second account associated with the first vendor.