System and method for electronic prepaid account replenishment

• US 8,479,980 B2
• Filed: 03/03/2011
• Issued: 07/09/2013
• 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): Labaze, Edwyn
• Application Number:
  US13/040,074
• Publication Number:
  US 20110270693A1
• Time in Patent Office: 859 Days
• Field of Search: 235/379, 235/381, 235/380, 235/375, 705/61, 705/66, 705/75, 705/39
• 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 facilitating crediting of 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 transaction processor, embedded transaction information extracted from an authorization message generated at the point-of-sale, wherein the authorization message includes at least an account number associated with the customer account and embedded transaction information, the embedded transaction information containing a payment amount encoding an offered service and a requested amount corresponding to the payment; and

transmitting, in response to the embedded transaction information, a request to credit the customer account based upon an amount encoded by the payment amount in order to facilitate an electronic transfer of funds 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 transaction processor, that the embedded transaction information defines a valid transaction and transmitting a response from the transaction processor 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 transaction processor that the customer account has been credited.

5. The method of claim 1 further including maintaining, within a database of the transaction processor, an association between the 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 1 further including maintaining, within a database of the transaction processor, 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.

8. A non-transitory processor-readable medium comprising instructions for facilitating crediting of a customer account maintained by a vendor of services in response to payment received from a customer at a point-of-sale, the instructions causing a processor of a transaction processing unit to:

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

transmit, in response to the embedded transaction information, a request to credit the customer account based upon an amount encoded by the payment amount in order to facilitate an electronic transfer of funds from a first account associated with the point-of-sale directly to a second account associated with the vendor.

9. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 8 wherein the instructions further cause the processor to verify that the embedded transaction information defines a valid transaction and to adapt the transaction processing unit to transmit a response to the point-of-sale.

10. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 9 wherein the response indicates transaction failure if the embedded transaction information is determined to not define a valid transaction.

11. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 9 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 transaction processing unit that the customer account has been credited.

12. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 8 wherein the instructions further cause the processor to maintain, within a database of the transaction processing unit, an association between the account number and a customer record identifying prepaid services used by the customer.

13. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 12 wherein the instructions further cause the processor to verify that the requested amount of the service corresponds to one of the prepaid services identified within the customer record.

14. The non-transitory processor-readable medium of claim 8 wherein the instructions further cause the processor to maintain, within a database of the transaction processing unit, 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.