Internet payment system and method

• US 8,566,237 B2
• Filed: 01/18/2008
• Issued: 10/22/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/01/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Western Union Financial Services Incorporated (Western Union)
• Original Assignee: Western Union Financial Services Incorporated (Western Union)
• Inventors: Forzley, Marwan
• Primary Examiner(s): Trammell, James
• Assistant Examiner(s): Malhotra, Sanjeev
• Application Number:
  US12/016,647
• Publication Number:
  US 20080114657A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,104 Days
• Field of Search: 705/4, 705/26, 705/39, 705/40, 705/42, 705/44, 705/75, 709/206, 709/225, 709/227, 713/172, 713/200, 379/114.2, 345/156
• US Class Current: 705/40
• 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 20/02 involving a neutral party, e.g. certification authority, notary or trusted third party [TTP]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/102 Bill distribution or payments
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/26 Debit schemes, e.g. "pay now"
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0222 During e-commerce, i.e. online transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0236 Incentive or reward received by requiring registration or ID from user
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0239 Online discounts or incentives
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0635 Processing of requisition or of purchase orders

Abstract

A system and method for facilitating payment for online purchases is disclosed. The system allows consumers/customers who shop online to select, at the time of checkout, direct payment from an account as the payment option. An electronic bill (ebill), independent of any confidential financial information pertaining to the consumer, is automatically displayed and emailed to the consumer. The consumer pays the ebill at their bank the same way they pay their utility bill, which then results in a payment confirmation sent from the bank to the payee. Payment information from the bank is sent to the system to update the purchase transactions. Once the payment information is processed, the consumer and merchant accounts are balanced and both receive automatic notification of the payment.

Claims

1. A payment processing system for facilitating payment for online purchase transactions comprising:

a merchant interface to receive, from an online merchant, purchase transaction information related to an online purchase transaction by a consumer, the purchase transaction information including merchant identification, payment processing system account identification for the consumer, a transaction description, and a transaction amount related to the online purchase transaction, the purchase transaction information being independent of confidential financial information pertaining to the consumer;

an electronic bill manager to generate an electronic bill based on the received purchase transaction information and send the electronic bill to the consumer, the electronic bill including the transaction description, amount due, payment due date, and payee information specifying the payment processing system as a payee to which payment for the online purchase is made at a financial institution trusted by the consumer thereby avoiding disclosure of the consumer'"'"'s confidential financial information to the online merchant and the payment processing system;

a payment interface to receive, from the financial institution, payment information indicating the consumer has directed the financial institution to pay the electronic bill in favor of the payee, and to provide, to the online merchant and the consumer, a payment notification;

an account settlement module to process parsed payment information and to allocate payments to outstanding online purchase transactions from an account of the payment processing system to appropriate online merchants; and

a database, to store information pertaining to the online merchant, the consumer, and the electronic bills associated with the online purchase transactions.

2. The payment processing system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

a user verification module to verify the existence of an account related to the consumer in the database based on the payment processing system account identification for the consumer and to create a consumer account in the absence of an existing consumer account prior to generating the electronic bill.

3. The payment processing system as claimed in claim 2, wherein the merchant interface provides error notifications to the online merchant or the consumer for correction prior to generating the electronic bill.

4. The payment processing system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

a billing manager to provide overdue payment and recurring billing information in accordance with a billing schedule to the electronic bill manager to generate overdue and recurring electronic bills.

5. The payment processing system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the payment interface provides the payment notification through the electronic bill manager.

6. The payment processing system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the payment interface receives payment information electronically from the financial institutions or through manual data entry into a debit manager.

7. The payment processing system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the payment interface parses the payment information, upon automatic or manual trigger, to provide the payment notification and to update the database.

8. The payment processing system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a consumer wallet module to facilitate management of the consumer account by the consumer.

9. The payment processing system as claimed in claim 8, wherein the account settlement module allocates payments to outstanding online purchase transactions automatically or as manually allocated by the consumer through the consumer wallet.

10. The payment processing system as claimed in claim 9, wherein the payment interface provides, to the consumer and to the online merchant, a payment complete, an over payment or an insufficient payment notification for outstanding online purchase transactions upon allocation of payments.

11. The payment processing system as claimed in claim 9, further comprising a coupon interface module to generate online coupons for use against pending or future online purchase transactions and to send the coupons to the consumer via the electronic bill manager.

12. The payment processing system as claimed in claim 11, wherein the account settlement module matches coupons against pending online transactions and allocates payments in conjunction with the terms of the coupons.

13. The payment processing system as claimed in claim 9, further comprising a leasing tool to manage leasing options for online purchase transactions.

14. The payment processing system as claimed in claim 13, wherein the account settlement module allocates payments in conjunction with the leasing option associated with the online purchase transaction.

15. The payment processing system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a service provider administration tool to allow authorized service providers to view and manage information pertaining to one or more online merchants.

16. The payment processing system as claimed in claim 15, further comprising business to business interface to interface with third-party applications residing in the online merchant or service provider premises.

17. The payment processing system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a merchant administration tool to allow the online merchants to view and manage information pertaining to themselves and their consumers.

18. The payment processing system as claimed in claim 17, wherein the merchant administration tool allows the online merchants to modify or delete pending online purchase transactions.

19. The payment processing system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the account settlement module routes payments to a plurality of transaction for which payment is pending.

20. The payment processing system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the payment processing system is configured to register itself as a payee with a plurality of financial institutions.