Payment system and methods

• US 9,064,252 B2
• Filed: 06/30/2014
• Issued: 06/23/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/11/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: National Payment Card Association
• Original Assignee: National Payment Card Association
• Inventors: Randazza, Joseph R., Portal, Danilo
• Primary Examiner(s): Labaze, Edwyn
• Application Number:
  US14/318,763
• Publication Number:
  US 20150006305A1
• Time in Patent Office: 358 Days
• Field of Search: 235/379, 235/375, 235/487, 235/472.01, 705 16- 17, 705/39, 705/41, 705/44
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/02 involving a neutral party, e.g. certification authority, notary or trusted third party [TTP]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/023 the neutral party being a clearing house
• 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 20/204 comprising interface for record bearing medium or carrier for electronic funds transfer or payment credit
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/26 Debit schemes, e.g. "pay now"
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3226 Use of secure elements separate from M-devices
• 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 20/4012 Verifying personal identification numbers [PIN]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/4014 Identity check for transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0617 Representative agent
• CPC Class Codes: G07G 1/0009 Details of the software in the checkout register, electronic cash register [ECR] or point of sale terminal [POS]
• CPC Class Codes: G07G 1/14 Systems including one or more distant stations co-operating with a central processing unit data transmission in general H04L; telemetry systems for selectively calling a substation from a main station H04Q9/00

Abstract

Disclosed are payment system and methods in which a shopper pays with a temporary payment token that is a number (such as a 7-digit number that appeared on the screen of the shopper'"'"'s mobile phone) at a POS device, without the shopper needing have his own mag-stripe card.

Claims

1. A payment method, comprising:

operating a mobile application server that communicates with at least one consumer mobile device;

operating a financial switch that communicates with at least one POS device;

providing, performed by the mobile application server, a temporary token that is a multi-digit number displayed on the consumer mobile device;

after a consumer associated with the consumer mobile device has entered the temporary token into the POS device, and after merchant personnel has swiped a merchant-side card into the POS device, receiving, by the financial switch, a set of data comprising (1) a merchant identification number read from the merchant-side card, and (2) a multi-digit number received by the POS device as entered by the consumer;

the merchant personnel keeping possession of the merchant-side card during a shift, and selectively swiping the merchant-side card into the POS device when a customer indicates a certain mobile payment mode.

2. The payment method of claim 1, wherein the step of providing the temporary token to the consumer-side mobile device is performed after a step of receiving, performed by the mobile application server, an email address and a PIN that had been entered into a consumer-side mobile device.

3. The payment method of claim 1, wherein the temporary token is a 7-digit number.

4. The payment method of claim 1, further comprising identifying a customer associated with the multi-digit number at the time of the POS transaction and settling a payment transaction for the identified customer via an ACH system selected from the group consisting of the Federal Reserve ACH system and the Electronic Payment Network (EPN) system.

5. The payment method of claim 1, further comprising identifying a customer associated with the multi-digit number and settling a payment transaction for the identified customer without using the Federal Reserve ACH system or the Electronic Payment Network (EPN) system.

6. The payment method of claim 1, wherein a single merchant-side card over a period of hours is swiped “

n”

times to process transactions by “

n”

separate consumers, wherein n is 2 or greater.

7. The payment method of claim 6, wherein n is 10 or greater.

8. The payment method of claim 1, wherein the POS device is conventional POS hardware.

9. The payment method of claim 1, further comprising a step performed by a computer of treating a temporary payment token as expired after a predetermined period of time.

10. The payment method of claim 1, performed without any physical card having been issued to a consumer.

11. The payment method of claim 1, performed without the consumer carrying any physical card.

12. The payment method of claim 1, wherein the POS device is never connected to, or in electronic communication with, the consumer mobile device.

13. A payment method of, comprising:

operating a mobile application server that communicates with at least one consumer mobile device;

operating a financial switch that communicates with at least one POS device;

providing, performed by the mobile application server, a temporary token that is a multi-digit number displayed on the consumer mobile device;

after a consumer associated with the consumer mobile device has entered the temporary token into the POS device, and after merchant personnel has swiped a merchant-side card into the POS device, receiving, by the financial switch, a set of data comprising (1) a merchant identification number read from the merchant-side card, and (2) a multi-digit number received by the POS device as entered by the consumer;

wherein the method steps are repeatedly performed so that one merchant-side card has processed a plurality of separate customers, with no customer having their own swipable card.

14. The payment method of claim 13, wherein the method steps are repeated and a number “

x”

of merchant-side cards are in operation, wherein “

x”

is a number approximately equal to a number of cashiers or a number of POS devices.