Systems and methods for enrolling consumers in goods and services

• US 8,706,640 B2
• Filed: 07/17/2006
• Issued: 04/22/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Western Union
• Original Assignee: Western Union
• Inventors: Hansen, Kurt L., Diveley, Keith W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ravetti, Dante
• Application Number:
  US11/488,447
• Publication Number:
  US 20070016489A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,836 Days
• Field of Search: 705 50- 53, 726/26
• US Class Current: 705/64
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/02 involving a neutral party, e.g. certification authority, notary or trusted third party [TTP]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/04 Payment circuits
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/042 characterized in that the payment protocol involves at least one cheque
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/085 involving remote charge determination or related payment systems
• 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 20/102 Bill distribution or payments
• 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 20/1085 involving automatic teller machines [ATMs]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/12 specially adapted for electronic shopping systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/20 Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/28 Pre-payment schemes, e.g. "pay before"
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/342 Cards defining paid or billed services or quantities
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3433 the counter having monetary units
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/347 Passive cards
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/351 Virtual cards
• 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 20/3674 involving authentication
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/382 : insuring higher security of transaction
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3821 : Electronic credentials
• 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 20/401 : Transaction verification
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 : Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0207 : Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0224 : based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0234 : Rebates after completed purchase
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0236 : Incentive or reward received by requiring registration or ID from user
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0267 : Wireless devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0268 : at point-of-sale [POS]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0273 : Determination of fees for advertising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 : Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 : Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 : Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/02 : by keys or other credit registering devices
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/025 : by means, e.g. cards, providing billing information at the time of purchase, e.g. identification of seller or purchaser, quantity of goods delivered or to be delivered

Abstract

Systems and methods for enrolling consumers in goods and services offered by a consumer provider are disclosed herein. Various of the methods include providing an enrollment system and displaying enrollment options via the enrollment system. Further, the methods include receiving enrollment requests and enrolling a consumer based on the enrollment request. The systems can be configured for effectuating the various enrollment methods.

Claims

1. A method for displaying information to a consumer making payment to a consumer provider, the method comprising:

providing a point-of-sale device at a payment provider location;

associating the point-of-sale device with a host computer maintained by the payment provider, wherein the point-of-sale device includes an entry device, a display device and a memory;

receiving, at the payment provider location, by the point-of-sale device, identifying information regarding a consumer, wherein the identifying information relates to a prior indebtedness of the consumer to a first consumer provider for a good or service provided by the first consumer provider;

sending, by the point-of-sale device, the identifying information from the point-of-sale device to the host computer;

using, by the host computer, the received identifying information to locate a transaction record relating to the consumer and the first consumer provider;

returning, by the host computer, at least a portion of the transaction record to the point-of-sale device;

facilitating payment for the first consumer provider from the consumer relating to the prior indebtedness by using the point-of-sale device and transaction record at the payment provider location;

identifying, by the host computer, a non-competing good or service that is from a second consumer provider different than the first consumer provider and that does not compete with the good or service provided by the first consumer provider, based on at least a portion of the transaction record and using a programmed rule set at the host computer;

using the host computer to retrieve, from a payment provider database, information on the non-competing good or service and to download the information on the non-competing good or service to the memory of the point-of-sale device;

displaying, by the display device of the point-of-sale device, the information on the non-competing good or service;

determining, by the host computer, that payment for the first consumer provider is received at the payment provider location;

based on a determination that the payment for the first consumer provider is received at the payment provider location, associating the received payment with a payment identifier at the host computer;

sending, by the host computer, the payment identifier from the host computer to both the point-of-sale device and to the first consumer provider; and

providing the payment identifier to the consumer at the point-of-sale device;

receiving, by the first consumer provider from the consumer, the received payment identifier at the point-of-sale device;

receiving, by the host computer, the payment identifier received by the first consumer provider;

validating the received payment identifier by comparing the received payment identifier from the first consumer provider against the received payment identifier from the host computer.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

displaying via the display device an enrollment option, wherein the enrollment option includes the information associated with the good or service available from the second consumer provider.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the information on the non-competing good or service comprises information provided by a third party and related to the good or service offered by the second consumer provider.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the information provided by the third party is reliability information related to the good or service offered by the second consumer provider.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving identifying information from a database maintained by the payment provider.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying information comprises credit information about the consumer.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

authenticating the consumer by comparing the identifying information against a database of known information.

8. The method of claim 1, the method further comprising:

receiving payment for the good or service from the consumer.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

forwarding, at least a portion of the payment electronically to the first consumer provider.