Systems and methods for the payment of customer bills utilizing payment platform of biller

• US 8,566,240 B2
• Filed: 08/26/2010
• Issued: 10/22/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/16/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: e2Interactive Incorporated
• Original Assignee: e2Interactive Incorporated
• Inventors: Smith, Merrill Brooks, Graves, Phillip Craig, Chakiris, Phil M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Meinecke Diaz, Susanna M
• Application Number:
  US12/807,046
• Publication Number:
  US 20110066517A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,153 Days
• Field of Search: 705/41
• US Class Current: 705/41
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/02 involving a neutral party, e.g. certification authority, notary or trusted third party [TTP]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/06 Private payment circuits, e.g. involving electronic currency used among participants of a common payment scheme
• 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 20/14 specially adapted for billing systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/20 Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/207 Tax processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/347 Passive cards
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/351 Virtual cards
• 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

Abstract

The present invention is directed to systems and methods providing payment into a pre-existing customer account with a provider of goods or services, the method facilitated between a customer, a provider of goods or services, and a processor. The method including steps such as receiving from the customer value, identifying information of the customer, and information sufficient to identify the provider and pre-existing account of the customer; accessing a payment platform of the provider; determining information required by the provider in order to provide payment into the customer account; communicating information required by the provider in order to provide payment into the customer account; and providing a value into the customer account.

Claims

1. A computerized method of providing payment into a pre-existing customer account with a provider of goods or services, the method facilitated between a customer, a provider of goods or services, and a central processor, the method comprising:

receiving at the central processor from the customer;

value;

identifying information of the customer; and

information sufficient to identify the provider and the pre-existing customer account;

accessing by the central processor a payment platform of the provider;

determining by the central processor information required by the payment platform of the provider in order to provide payment into the pre-existing customer account utilizing the payment platform of the provider;

communicating from the central processor to the payment platform of the provider information required by the payment platform of provider in order to provide payment into the pre-existing customer account;

determining by the central processor if the provider accepts payment via the payment website in the form of value received from the customer;

upon a determination that the provider does not accept payment via the payment website in the form of value received from the customer, creating, by the central processor, a virtual prepaid debit card number funded with an amount equal to the value to be provided to the payment platform of the provider;

providing the virtual prepaid debit card number by the central processor to the payment platform of the provider for conveyance of the associated value into the pre-existing customer account.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the value, identifying information of the customer, and information sufficient to identify the provider and the pre-existing customer account of the customer are received via a manner selected from the group consisting of:

the Internet, an automated voice recognition (IVR) system, a message sent via short message service (SMS), a message sent via media message service (MMS), an application running on a mobile device, a kiosk, a point-of-sale device, and a merchant location.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the value received from the customer comprises access to a stored value account.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the stored value account is a closed-loop stored value account.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the value received from the customer comprises payment made by the customer to a point-of-sale device, and wherein the central processor settles with the point-of-sale device at a later time.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying information of the customer comprises information required by the payment platform of the provider to make a payment into the pre-existing customer account.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the identifying information includes log-in information and a password.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the information sufficient to identify the provider and pre-existing customer account-comprises an account number.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the information sufficient to identify the provider and pre-existing customer account comprises an indicia associated with the customer'"'"'s account with the provider.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the indicia comprises a telephone number.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of accessing a payment platform of the provider is accomplished by the central processor via the Internet.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of accessing a payment platform of the provider comprises accessing by the central processor a payment web-page maintained by or associated with the provider.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of determining information required by the payment processor of the provider is accomplished by the central processor via a web-scraping or web data extraction program performed by the processor.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of communicating by the central processor information required by the payment processor of the provider in order to provide payment into the pre-existing customer account comprises inserting identifying information received from the customer into appropriate fields in the payment platform of the provider.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of communicating by the central processor information required by the payment platform of the provider comprises:

identifying each piece of information requested by the payment platform of the provider;

determining the appropriate information from the identifying information received from the customer;

providing, in response to each piece of information requested by the payment platform of the provider, the appropriate information.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the step of communicating information required by the payment platform of the provider comprises automatically filling in an online form.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of providing a value into the pre-existing customer account comprises transmitting the value received from the customer to the pre-existing customer account with the provider.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the value provided into the pre-existing customer account is the remainder of the value received from the customer once applicable fees and taxes have been deducted.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein value is received from the customer at a point-of-sale device and wherein applicable fees and taxes are calculated based upon one or more factors selected from the group consisting of:

the location associated with the pre-existing customer account;

the location of the point-of-sale device;

the location of the processor; and

the location of the provider.

20. A computerized method of providing payment into a pre-existing customer account with a provider of goods or services, the method facilitated between a customer, a provider of goods or services, and a central processor, the method comprising:

receiving by the central processor from the customer;

value;

identifying information of the customer, comprising the customer'"'"'s name and address; and

information sufficient to identify the provider and the pre-existing customer account, comprising the account number of the pre-existing customer account;

identification of an amount of payment to make to the pre-existing customer account;

accessing, by the central processor via the internet, a payment website of the provider;

scraping the payment website by the central processor in order to determine the information required by the provider to make a payment;

the central processor acting in lieu of the customer and entering identifying information received from the customer into the payment website;

determining by the central processor if the provider accepts payment via the payment website in the form of value received from the customer;

upon a determination that the provider accepts payment via the payment website in the form of value received from the customer, conveying value received from the customer to the provider via the payment website;

upon a determination that the provider does not accept payment via the payment website in the form of value received from the customer, creating a virtual prepaid debit card number funded with an amount equal to the payment to be made to the provider, and conveying the virtual prepaid debit card number to the provider via the payment website;

providing a confirmation of payment to the customer.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the value, identifying information of the customer, and information sufficient to identify the provider and the pre-existing customer account are received via a manner selected from the group consisting of:

the Internet, an automated voice recognition (IVR) system, a message sent via short message service (SMS), a message sent via media message service (MMS), an application running on a mobile device, a kiosk, a point-of-sale device, and a merchant location.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the value received from the customer comprises a payment made by the customer to a point-of-sale device, and wherein the central processor settles with the point-of-sale device at a later time.

23. The method of claim 20, wherein the value received from the customer comprises access to a stored value account.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the stored value account is a closed-loop stored value account.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the value received from the customer comprises a payment made by the customer at a merchant using a closed-loop stored value card that is only redeemable with the merchant.