System for facilitating a transaction

• US 7,627,531 B2
• Filed: 03/07/2001
• Issued: 12/01/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/07/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Liberty Peak Ventures, LLC (Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC)
• Original Assignee: American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc. (American Express Company)
• Inventors: Wittwer, Martin, Breck, Lydia, Belt, Jan Nunney, Nambiar, Anant, Cunningham, Katie, Johnstone, David, Glazer, Elliot, Schwarz, William, Bishop, Fred, Chow, Christina, Salow, Glen, Armes, David, Zoob, Jessica
• Primary Examiner(s): Hewitt, II, Calvin L
• Assistant Examiner(s): Winter, John M
• Application Number:
  US09/800,461
• Publication Number:
  US 20010034720A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,191 Days
• Field of Search: 705 50- 79
• US Class Current: 705/65
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/04 Forecasting or optimisation specially adapted for administrative or management purposes, e.g. linear programming or "cutting stock problem" market predictions or forecasting for commercial activities G06Q30/0202
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/00 Payment architectures, schemes or protocols apparatus for performing or posting payment transactions G07F7/08, G07F19/00; electronic cash registers G07G1/12
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/04 Payment circuits
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/0855 involving a third party
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/105 involving programming of a portable memory device, e.g. IC cards, "electronic purses"
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/108 Remote banking, e.g. home banking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/14 specially adapted for billing systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/327 Short range or proximity payments by means of M-devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/346 Cards serving only as information carrier of service
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/367 involving electronic purses or money safes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3672 initialising or reloading thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/383 Anonymous user system
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/385 using an alias or single-use codes
• 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: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/28 the pass enabling tracking or indicating presence
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/29 the pass containing active electronic elements, e.g. smartcards
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/1008 Active credit-cards provided with means to personalise their use, e.g. with PIN-introduction/comparison system

Abstract

The present invention provides a system and method for facilitating a transaction using a secondary transaction number that is associated with a cardholder'"'"'s primary account. The cardholder provides the secondary transaction number, often with limited-use conditions associated therewith, to a merchant to facilitate a more secure and confident transaction.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for facilitating a transaction, comprising the steps of:

identifying, via a host computer, a primary account of a first party;

providing a smart card to the first party, the smart card being associated with the primary account of the first party and having information stored thereon;

associating a personal identification number (PIN) with the smart card;

receiving a transaction authorization request from a second party associated with a merchant, where the transaction authorization request includes a transaction number generated and associated with the transaction authorization request by, at least;

displaying a secondary transaction number icon on a transaction interface system;

launching a secondary transaction number application by selecting the icon;

interfacing the smart card with the transaction interface system and receiving the PIN from the first party;

generating, by at least one of a remote server and the smart card, a transaction number based, at least in part, on the information stored on the smart card;

transmitting, by the at least one the remote server and the smart card, the transaction number to the second party; and

auto-filling, by the second party, the transaction number into the transaction authorization request;

identifying, via the host computer, the primary account of the first party based, at least in part, on the transaction number;

authorizing, via the host computer, the transaction authorization request based, at least in part, on the primary account of the first party; and

returning an approval message from the host computer to the second party when the transaction authorization request is authorized.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the primary account is a non-currency based account.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the primary account is associated with an electronic line-of-credit system.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of receiving a dispute of a charge associated with the transaction authorization request and causing the charge to be charged back to the second party.

5. A method for facilitating a transaction, comprising the steps of:

identifying, via a host computer, a primary account of a first party;

providing a smart card to the first party, the smart card being associated with the primary account of the first party and having information stored thereon;

associating a personal identification number (PIN) with the smart card;

receiving a transaction authorization request from a second party associated with a merchant, where the transaction authorization request includes a transaction number generated and associated with the transaction authorization request by, at least;

displaying a secondary transaction number icon on a transaction interface system;

launching a secondary transaction number application by selecting the icon;

interfacing the smart card with the transaction interface system and receiving the PIN from the first party;

generating, by at least one of a remote server and the smart card, a transaction number based, at least in part, on the information stored on the smart card;

transmitting, by the at least one of the remote server and the smart card, the transaction number to the second party; and

auto-filling, by the second party, the transaction number into the transaction authorization request;

identifying, via the host computer, the primary account of the first party based, at least in part, on the transaction number;

processing, via the host computer, the transaction authorization request, wherein the processing includes identifying the primary account of the first party that is associated with the transaction number;

replacing the transaction number with an account number associated with the primary account of the first party; and

generating a billing statement that includes at least the account number associated with the primary account of the first party.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising the step of comparing the transaction authorization request with conditions-of-use parameters associated with the primary account of the first party to determine whether the conditions-of-use parameters have been satisfied, the conditions-of-use parameters defining at least a predetermined restriction on use of the transaction number.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the primary account is a non-currency based account.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the primary account is associated with an electronic line-of-credit system.

9. The method of claim 5, further comprising the step of receiving a dispute of a charge associated with the transaction authorization request and causing the charge to be charged back to the second party.

10. A method of processing authorization and settlement requests in a transaction system, comprising steps of:

receiving a transaction authorization request from a second party associated with a merchant, where the transaction authorization request includes a transaction number generated and associated with the transaction authorization request by, at least;

displaying a secondary transaction number icon on a transaction interface system;

launching a secondary transaction number application by selecting the icon;

interfacing a smart card with the transaction interface system and receiving a personal identification number (PIN) from a first party associated with the smart card, the smart card having information stored thereon;

generating, by at least one of a remote server and the smart card, a transaction number based, at least in part, on the information stored on the smart card;

transmitting, by the at least one of the remote server and the smart card, the transaction number to the second party; and

auto-filling, by the second party, the transaction number into the transaction authorization request;

routing the transaction authorization request to a card authorization system to determine whether limited-use conditions of an account associated with the transaction number have been satisfied;

returning, via the card authorization system, a message to the second party based on whether the limited-use conditions have been satisfied;

receiving, from the second party, a settlement request for payment of a transaction associated with the transaction number;

routing the settlement request for payment to a financial capture system;

creating an accounts payable file and routing the accounts payable file to an accounts payable system for payment processing; and

creating an accounts receivable file and routing the accounts receivable file to a service that retrieves an account number corresponding with the transaction number, replaces the transaction number with the account number, and forwards the resulting accounts receivable file to an accounts receivable system to generate a billing statement.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the account is a non-currency based account.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the account is associated with an electronic line-of-credit system.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising the step of receiving a dispute of a charge associated with the transaction authorization request and causing the charge to be charged back to the second party.

14. A computer readable storage medium having stored thereon a plurality of instructions, said plurality of instructions when executed by one or more processors, cause said one or more processors to perform:

identifying, via a host computer, a primary account of a first party;

providing a smart card to the first party, a smart card being associated with the primary account of the first party and having information stored thereon;

associating a personal identification number (PIN) with the smart card;

receiving a transaction authorization request from a second party associated with a merchant, where the transaction authorization request includes a transaction number generated and associated with the transaction authorization request by, at least;

displaying a secondary transaction number icon on a transaction interface system;

launching a secondary transaction number application by selecting the icon;

interfacing the smart card with the transaction interface system and receiving the PIN from the first party;

generating, by at least one of a remote server and the smart card, a transaction number based, at least in part, on the information stored on the smart card;

transmitting, by the at least one of the remote server and the smart card, the transaction number to the second party; and

auto-filling, by the second party, the transaction number into the transaction authorization request;

identifying, via the host computer, the primary account of the first party based, at least in part, on the transaction number;

authorizing, via the host computer, the transaction authorization request based, at least in part, on the primary account of the first party; and

returning an approval message from the host computer to the second party when the transaction authorization request is authorized.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the primary account is a non-currency based account.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the primary account is associated with an electronic line-of-credit system.

17. The method of claim 14, further comprising the step of receiving a dispute of a charge associated with the transaction authorization request and causing the charge to be charged back to the second party.

18. A method comprising the steps of:

identifying, via a host computer, a primary account of a first party;

providing a smart card to the first party, the smart card being associated with the primary account of the first party and having information stored thereon;

associating a personal identification number (PIN) with the smart card;

receiving a transaction authorization request from a second party associated with a merchant, where the transaction authorization request includes a transaction number generated and associated with the transaction authorization request by, at least;

displaying a secondary transaction number icon on a transaction interface system, wherein the secondary transaction number icon is driven by a card provider application specific to a card provider of the smart card;

launching the card provider application by selecting the icon;

interfacing the smart card with the transaction interface system and receiving the PIN from the first party;

generating, by at least one of a remote server and the smart card, a transaction number based, at least in part, on the information stored on the smart card;

transmitting, by the at least one of the remote server and the smart card, the transaction number to the second party; and

auto-filling, by the second party, the transaction number into the transaction authorization request;

identifying, via the host computer, the primary account of the first party based, at least in part, on the transaction number;

authorizing, via the host computer, the transaction authorization request based, at least in part, on the primary account of the first party; and

transmitting, via the host computer, an approval message to the second party when the transaction authorization request is authorized.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the primary account is a non-currency based account.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the primary account is associated with an electronic line-of-credit system.

21. The method of claim 18, further comprising the step of receiving a dispute of a charge associated with the transaction authorization request and causing the charge to be charged back to the second party.