Integrating payment accounts and an electronic wallet

• US 7,155,411 B1
• Filed: 09/28/2000
• Issued: 12/26/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Blinn, Arnold N., Coco, Joseph N., Marks, Greg A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Millin, Vincent
• Assistant Examiner(s): FELTEN, DANIEL S
• Application Number:
  US09/675,466
• Time in Patent Office: 2,280 Days
• Field of Search: 705/40, 705/41, 705/1, 705/14
• US Class Current: 705/40
• 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 20/102 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 20/227 characterised in that multiple accounts are available, e.g. to the payer
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0234 Rebates after completed purchase
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03

Abstract

An electronic wallet including is made available to a user and is capable of storing a wide variety of different types of accounts (including both payment accounts and traditional credit card accounts). An identification of the different accounts corresponding to a user is displayed to the user and the user is allowed to manipulate these accounts. The electronic wallet also allows the user to combine funds from multiple different accounts into a single account. This combination allows the interface on a merchant server to be designed to accommodate a single account without concern for what types of accounts a user may wish to combine. Furthermore, in accordance with one aspect, when the user is purchasing goods and/or services from a merchant on-line, only those accounts that are useable at the merchant are presented as being available to the user.

Claims

1. One or more computer readable media having stored thereon a plurality of instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform acts including:

receiving, from a merchant server, an indication of a purchase a user is attempting to make;

identifying a plurality of accounts corresponding to the user;

selecting a subset of the plurality of accounts to make available to the user, the subset including only those accounts that can be used by the user to make a purchase at the merchant server; and

presenting the subset of accounts to the user.

2. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein the plurality of accounts include one or more of:

credit card accounts, debit card payment accounts, gift certificate payment accounts, rebate payment accounts, reward payment accounts, and cash payment accounts.

3. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein the accounts that can be used to make a purchase at the merchant server are those accounts of a type identified by the merchant server as well as additional accounts of a type that are mapped to an account type identified by the merchant server as being useable.

4. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein the accounts that can be used to make a purchase at the merchant server are those accounts of a type identified by the merchant server as well as additional accounts of a type from which funds can be added to an account of a type identified by the merchant server.

5. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 3, wherein the plurality of instructions further cause the one or more processors to perform acts including receiving, from the merchant server, the identification of types of accounts as part of the indication of the purchase the user is attempting to make.

6. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein the plurality of instructions further cause the one or more processors to perform acts including:

receiving a user selection of one of the subset of accounts; and

forwarding, to the merchant server, payment information corresponding to the selected account.

7. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein the plurality of instructions further cause the one or more processors to perform acts including:

receiving a user selection of two or more of the subset of accounts;

allowing the user to combine funds from the selected accounts into a combined account; and

forwarding, to the merchant server, payment information corresponding to the combined account.

8. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 7, wherein the plurality of instructions further cause the one or more processors to perform acts including allowing the user to combine finds from one account that is not identified by the merchant as acceptable with another account that is identified by the merchant as acceptable.

9. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein the plurality of instructions further cause the one or more processors to perform acts including:

receiving a user selection of one of the subset of accounts;

mapping payment information corresponding to the account to a format that can be used to make a purchase at the merchant server; and

forwarding, to the merchant server, the mapped payment information.

10. One or more computer readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein the plurality of accounts are identified in an electronic wallet, and wherein the plurality of instructions further cause the one or more processors to perform acts including:

receiving, from the merchant server, a request for information not included in the electronic wallet;

querying the user for the information;

receiving a response to the query,

returning the response to the merchant server as the requested information.

11. A method comprising:

presenting a plurality of accounts of different types to a user, the plurality of accounts being included in an electronic wallet; and

allowing the user to transfer value from one of the plurality of accounts to another of the plurality of accounts.

12. A method as recited in claim 11, further comprising storing the plurality of accounts in the electronic wallet on a remote server.

13. A method as recited in claim 11, wherein the different types of accounts include two or more of:

debit card payment accounts, gift certificate payment accounts, rebate payment accounts, reward payment accounts, allowance payment accounts, and cash payment accounts.

14. A method as recited in claim 11, wherein the allowing comprises allowing the user to transfer value from one of the plurality of accounts to another of the plurality of accounts while in the process of making an on-line purchase.

15. A method as recited in claim 14, wherein the allowing further comprises allowing the user to transfer value from an account that is not accepted by a merchant at which the on-line purchase is being made to an account that is accepted by the merchant.

16. One or more computer-readable memories containing a computer program that is executable by a processor to perform the method recited in claim 11.

17. A system comprising;

a wallet server to store a plurality of payment accounts for a user; and

a user interface component, coupled to the wallet server, to display the plurality of payment accounts and to allow manipulation of the payment accounts including transferring value from one payment account to another.

18. A system as recited in claim 17, wherein the user interface component comprises a web page.

19. A method comprising:

receiving a request from a user to make a purchase using a particular type of fund included in an electronic wallet of the user;

converting payment information corresponding to the particular fund to a credit card format; and

communicating the converted payment information to a merchant for the purchase.

20. A method as recited in claim 19, wherein the particular type of fund comprises a gift certificate.

21. A method as recited in claim 19, wherein the particular type of fund comprises a rebate.

22. A method as recited in claim 19, wherein the converting comprises converting the payment information to the credit card format without the user'"'"'s knowledge.

23. A method as recited in claim 19, wherein the converting comprises converting the payment information to a Visa®

credit card format.

24. A method as recited in claim 19, wherein the communicating comprises communicating the converted payment information to the merchant without any indication of the conversion from the particular type of fund.

25. One or more computer-readable memories containing a computer program that is executable by a processor to perform the method recited in claim 19.

26. A method comprising:

maintaining, in an electronic wallet, a plurality of different types of payment accounts for a user;

allowing the user to transfer payment information stored in the payment accounts to merchants to make purchases; and

allowing the user to transfer funds between different ones of the plurality of different types of payment accounts.

27. A method as recited in claim 26, wherein the types of payment accounts include one or more of:

debit cards, gift certificates, rebates, allowances, and cash.

28. A method as recited in claim 26, wherein the maintaining comprises maintaining the plurality of different types of payment accounts at a remote server.

29. A method as recited in claim 26, further comprising allowing additional funds to be added to a payment account.

30. A method as recited in claim 29, wherein allowing additional funds to be added to the payment account comprises allowing additional finds to be added to the payment account by the user.

31. A method as recited in claim 29, further comprising:

receiving a request from a merchant for information that is not included in the electronic wallet;

obtaining the requested information from the user;

returning the requested information to the merchant.

32. One or more computer-readable memories containing a computer program that is executable by a processor to perform the method recited in claim 26.

33. One or more computer readable media having stored thereon a plurality of instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform acts including:

maintaining a gift certificate account including payment information corresponding to the gift certificate account;

presenting, to the user, the gift certificate account as a gift certificate; and

presenting, to a merchant, the gift certificate account as a credit card.