Payment selection and authorization

• US 10,055,740 B2
• Filed: 06/27/2011
• Issued: 08/21/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2011
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Hanson, Robert, Seeley, Brad L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Agwumezie, Chinedu Charles
• Application Number:
  US13/170,121
• Publication Number:
  US 20120330787A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,612 Days
• Field of Search: 705 75
• 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 30/00 Commerce

Abstract

When making a payment with an electronic payment type, a user may provide additional verification of ownership through communications with the user'"'"'s mobile computing device. For example, the user may swipe her bank card at a retailer'"'"'s store. The retailer may authorize the bank card through an issuing party (“host”). The host may transmit a request to the user via a mobile application running on the mobile computing device, which may request the user to approve or decline the purchase request. In various embodiments, the host'"'"'s request may require the user to enter personal and/or authorization information (e.g., a PIN, password, biometrics, etc.) via the mobile application to approve the request. In some aspects, the host may allow the user to split or allocate a payment amount across one or more electronic payment types available to the user from the host via the mobile application during the authorization process.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, by one or more computing devices, one or more predetermined rules for payment authorization from a mobile device, the one or more predetermined rules including a time threshold, wherein at least one computing device of the one or more computing devices includes an authorization manager;

receiving, by the one or more computing devices, a request to authorize a payment from a merchant device, the request including at least a payment identifier and an amount of a transaction;

receiving, by the at least one computing device, the request;

executing, by the at least one computing device, the authorization manager;

identifying, by the at least one computing device via the authorization manager, the mobile device with the payment identifier;

associating, by the at least one computing device via the authorization manager, a plurality of known locations with the mobile device based at least in part on the identifying the mobile device;

determining, by the at least one computing device via the authorization manager, a current location of the mobile device;

comparing, by the at least one computing device via the authorization manager, the current location of the mobile device with the plurality of known locations;

determining, by the at least one computing device via the authorization manager, an authorization requirement, the authorization requirement including the one or more predetermined rules and at least one requirement prompting additional verification information associated with the mobile device;

determining, by the at least one computing device via the authorization manager, that the mobile device is unavailable to receive an authorization message at a current time based at least in part on the current time being within the time threshold;

transmitting, by the one or more computing devices, a first message to the merchant device based on the one or more predetermined rules;

determining, by the at least one computing device via the authorization manager, a delay for a second message transmission based the time threshold;

determining, by the at least one computing device via the authorization manager, that the delay has expired and transmitting the authorization message to the mobile device, wherein the authorization message includes a first prompt and a second prompt;

receiving, by the one or more computing devices, a user response via the mobile device corresponding to the first prompt and the second prompt;

determining, by the at least one computing device via the authorization manager, that the user response corresponding to the first prompt satisfies the at least one requirement of the authorization requirement;

transmitting, by the one or more computing devices, a response to the merchant device including an acceptance of the payment based at least in part on the user response corresponding to the second prompt; and

transferring, by the one or more computing devices, the amount of the payment to an account of a merchant associated with the merchant device.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the additional verification information includes biometric data.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the authorization requirement includes an additional rule that indicates that the payment is to be declined utilizing a black list or to be accepted utilizing a white list.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the authorization requirement includes an additional rule prompting additional user input of biometric data, in response to determining that the mobile device is located at one of the plurality of known locations associated with the mobile device.

5. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the plurality of known locations associated with the mobile device includes at least one of a home address associated with the mobile device, a work address associated with the mobile device, or a school address associated with the mobile device.

9. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the authorization message to the mobile device includes a third prompt enabling a selection of an electronic payment type, and further comprising:

requesting financial data associated with the electronic payment type;

determining that the electronic payment type has sufficient funds to accommodate an amount of the transaction; and

wherein transmitting the response to the merchant device including the acceptance of the payment is further based at least in part on determining that the electronic payment type has sufficient funds to accommodate the amount of the transaction.

6. A method, comprising:

receiving, by one or more computing devices, a request to authorize a payment from a merchant device, the request including at least a payment identifier and an amount of a transaction, wherein at least one computing device of the one or more computing devices includes an authorization manager;

retrieving, by the one or more computing devices, one or more predetermined rules for payment authorization from user data associated with the payment identifier, the one or more predetermined rules including a time threshold;

receiving, by the at least one computing device, the request;

executing, by the at least one computing device, the authorization manager;

identifying, by the at least one computing device via the authorization manager, a mobile device with the payment identifier;

associating, by the at least one computing device via the authorization manager, a plurality of known locations with the mobile device based at least in part on the identifying the mobile device;

determining, by the at least one computing device via the authorization manager, a current location of the mobile device;

comparing, by the at least one computing device via the authorization manager, the current location of the mobile device with the plurality of known locations;

determining, by the at least one computing device via the authorization manager, an authorization requirement, the authorization requirement including the one or more predetermined rules and at least one requirement prompting additional verification information associated with the mobile device;

determining, by the at least one computing device via the authorization manager, that the mobile device is unavailable to receive an authorization message at a current time being within the time threshold;

determining, by the at least one computing device via the authorization manager, a delay for a message transmission based the time threshold;

determining, by the at least one computing device via the authorization manager, that the delay has expired and transmitting the authorization message to the mobile device, wherein the authorization message includes a first prompt, a second prompt, and a third prompt;

receiving, by the one or more computing devices, a user response via the mobile device corresponding to the first prompt, the second prompt, and the third prompt;

determining, by the at least one computing device via the authorization manager, that the user response corresponding to the first prompt satisfies the at least one requirement of the authorization requirement; and

transmitting, by the one or more computing device, a response to the merchant device including an acceptance of the payment based at least in part on the user response corresponding to the second prompt and the third prompt.

7. The method as recited in claim 6, further comprising causing the amount of the payment to be transferred to an account of the merchant device in response to the transmitting the response to the merchant device including the acceptance of the payment.

8. The method as recited in claim 6, wherein the receiving the user response corresponding to the first prompt, the second prompt, and the third prompt is performed in communication with a payment application that is different than an application used to transmit the payment to the merchant device.

10. The method as recited in claim 6, wherein the at least one requirement includes at least one of white listing or black listing a merchant in association with a threshold payment amount for a specified period of time.

11. The method as recited in claim 6, wherein the user response that corresponds to the third prompt includes a selection of an electronic payment type other than a payment type having the payment identifier, the electronic payment type to be used to satisfy at least a portion of the amount due to a merchant for the transaction.

12. The method as recited in claim 6, further comprising:

before transmitting the authorization message, transmitting an initial message to the merchant device to at least temporarily reject the payment.

13. The method as recited in claim 6, further comprising:

determining that the mobile device is unavailable to receive the authorization message at a current time based at least in part on the one or more predetermined rules, the one or more predetermined rules further including a number of attempts to transmit the authorization message to the mobile device; and

delaying transmission of the authorization message to the mobile device when the mobile device is unavailable to receive the authorization message at the current time based at least in part on the one or more predetermined rules.

14. The method as recited in claim 6, wherein the third prompt enables a selection that corresponds to allocating portions of the amount of the payment across two or more different electronic payment types and at least one of the different electronic payment types is determined based at least in part on electronic payment types used in previous transactions between the merchant device and the mobile device.

15. The method as recited in claim 6, wherein the additional verification information includes at least one of a personal identification code (PIN), biometric data, a password, or a pattern.

16. One or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed on one or more processors, performs acts comprising:

receiving a request to authorize a payment from a merchant device, the request including at least a payment identifier and an amount;

retrieving one or more predetermined rules for payment authorization from account data associated with the payment identifier, the one or more predetermined rules including a time threshold;

executing an authorization manager based at least in part on the retrieving the one or more predetermined rules;

identifying, via the authorization manager, a mobile device with the payment identifier;

determining, via the authorization manager, a current location of the mobile device;

determining, via the authorization manager, that the current location of the mobile device is located at one of a plurality of known locations;

determining, via the authorization manager, an authorization requirement including includes the one or more predetermined rules and at least one requirement prompting biometric data of a user associated with the mobile device;

determining, via the authorization manager, that the mobile device is unavailable to receive an authorization message at a current time based at least in part on the current time being within the time threshold;

determining, via the authorization manager, a delay for a message transmission based on the time threshold;

determining, via the authorization manager, that the delay has expired and transmitting the authorization message to the mobile device, wherein the authorization message includes a first prompt, a second prompt, and third prompt;

receiving a user response via the mobile device corresponding to the first prompt, the second prompt, and the third prompt;

determining, via the authorization manager, that the user response corresponding to the first prompt satisfies the authorization requirement; and

transmitting a response to the merchant device including an acceptance of the payment based at least in part on the user response corresponding to the second prompt and the third prompt.

17. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 16, wherein the authorization message is a second authorization message;

and

wherein the acts further comprise transmitting a first authorization message to the mobile device prior to the second authorization message, the first authorization message comprising a soft decline notification to the merchant device to at least temporarily reject the payment prior to transmitting the second authorization message to the mobile device.

18. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 16, wherein the acts further comprise:

determining that the mobile device is unavailable to receive the authorization message at a current time based at least in part on predetermined rules; and

delaying transmission of the authorization message to the mobile device when the mobile device is unavailable to receive the authorization message at the current time based at least in part on the predetermined rules.

19. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 16, wherein the user response that corresponds to the third prompt includes a selection of a second electronic payment type that is different than a first electronic payment type associated with the payment identifier, and wherein the acts further comprising transacting a payment to the merchant device using the first and second electronic payment types.

20. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 16, wherein the authorization requirement includes an additional rule that selects an authentication process based at least in part on an amount of payment and a merchant associated with the merchant device, wherein at least one selection of the authentication process includes requesting a personal identification number (PIN) associated with the mobile device.

21. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 16, wherein the acts further comprise:

determining that the mobile device is unavailable to receive the authorization message at a current time; and

attempting to transmit the authorization message to the mobile device at a time after the current time based at least in part on predetermined rules, the predetermined rules indicating a number of attempts to transmit the authorization message to the mobile device.