Data processing: financial – business practice – management – or co – Automated electrical financial or business practice or... – Finance
Reexamination Certificate
1997-12-19
2001-12-04
Millin, V. (Department: 2164)
Data processing: financial, business practice, management, or co
Automated electrical financial or business practice or...
Finance
C705S035000, C705S037000, C705S038000, C705S039000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06327577
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to electronic commerce. More particularly, the present invention relates to an electronic bill payment system with account number scheming.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
It has been common for many years for consumers to pay bills by way of a personal check written by the consumer to the order of an entity and delivered to that entity by mail or in person. With the proliferation of computers interconnected to computer networks, particularly the Internet, consumers can now pay bills electronically. However until recently it was not possible for a consumer, using a computer terminal, to interact with a single payment system capable of paying all the consumer's bills whether by electronic means or by a paper check. Such a system now exists in the form of a consolidated bill payment system as described by Kight, et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,383,113, entitled SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ELECTRONICALLY PROVIDING CUSTOMER SERVICES INCLUDING PAYMENT OF BILLS, FINANCIAL ANALYSIS AND LOANS.
Although the consolidated bill payment system described by Kight, et al. significantly advanced the state of the art, it did not focus on several problems which may arise in implementing a consolidated bill payment system capable of automatically paying consumer bills to merchants. One such problem is that consumers or data entry personal sometimes make mistakes in entering payment data required by the bill payment system.
Such a case arises when a consumer's account number with a merchant is incorrectly entered. The payment system must submit a correct account number to the merchant who will use this account number to associate the payment with the consumer. Thus, a technique is needed to validate the submitted consumer's account number.
A data entry person may also enter payment data which incorrectly specifies the merchant's name or parts of the merchant's address. It has been found that merchant information such as the merchant name, address, zip code are typically mangled at the data entry stage. It has been further observed that errors will often be made upon entry of the zip code. The merchant's name, address, and zip code is typically required by the payment system in order to, for example, retrieve merchant records from the merchant database. If this data is incorrect, the payment system may be unable to retrieve the correct merchant's record for processing a payment. Thus, a technique is needed to correctly identify a merchant record notwithstanding the submission of erroneous merchant data.
A consolidated bill payment system must also have the capability to properly remit payments to the same merchant at more than one remittance center. Commonly a large commercial merchant,(e.g., shoe company, Sears) will have several remittance centers distributed geographically so that customers can submit bills to a center within their location. Thus, a technique is required to ensure that consumer payments are remitted to the proper one of multiple remittance centers associated with the same.
Advantageously, a consolidated payment system must also be able to handle the different processing formats and requirements of numerous separate merchant accounting systems. For example, each merchant's account system may require payment information, such as consumer account numbers, in a format different than that submitted by the consumer. For example, many merchant accounting systems will only accept an account number with some portion of a consumer's last name or the consumer's zip code appended to the end of the account number presented by the customer.
A merchant account system may even require an altered consumer account number which uniquely identifies the consumer. For example, two consumers, e.g., spouses, may have identical account numbers, but the merchant accounting system may designate the account of each consumer uniquely, such as by combining the account number with the prospective customer's name. Additionally, it is not unusual for a merchant to have different account numbers for a single customer. For example, an account number on an invoice which goes out electronically may be different from an account number for the same customer which goes out as a paper transaction.
Thus, a consolidated bill payment system must be able to handle the various formats required by the merchant accounting system of each merchant. Accordingly, a technique is required to transform payment data received from the consumer into a form compatible with a merchant's accounting system.
OBJECTIVES OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a bill payment system capable of receiving bill payment data on behalf of consumers via electronic means and automatically paying their bills to merchants.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a technique for correcting erroneous bill payment data received from customers.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a technique for furnishing payment information, including a payor's account number with a merchant, in a format acceptable to a particular merchant accounting system.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a technique for validating a consumer's account number with a merchant.
Additional objects, advantages, novel features of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this disclosure, including the following detailed description, as well as by practice of the invention. While the invention is described below with reference to preferred embodiment(s), it should be understood that the invention is not limited thereto. Those of ordinary skill in the art having access to the teachings herein will recognize additional implementations, modifications, and embodiments, as well as other fields of use, which are within the scope of the invention as disclosed and claimed herein and with respect to which the invention could be of significant utility.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with the present invention, an account number for a payor, typically a consumer, is received from a source and transformed into an altered account number according to previously stored alteration rules corresponding to a payee account number format. Preferably, the altered account number is then transmitted to the payee, typically a merchant, in association with a payment remitted to the payee.
The alteration rules can specify a wide variety of formats and may be realized as templates specifying fields or values, or as instructions for combining information from different fields. Typically, an altered account number is formed by combining the account number with some part of payment information or other information related to the payee. For example, the altered account number may include a portion of the payor's name, a portion of the payor's address, or a portion of the payor's zip code combined with the account number.
According to another aspect of the present invention, validation rules for the account number are stored, and a determination is made as to whether the received account number conforms with the validation rules. The validation rules identify the expected general format for any payor account number associated with a payee. Validation rules are preferably realized as templates specifying fields or values, but may take on other forms, and may even be algorithms. For example, a check digit algorithm could process the account number and compare the result to a check digit.
Typically, the present invention is realized in a programmed general computer having a storage device and a processor. The storage device is configured to store the alteration rules and the validation rules. As will be understood by those skilled in the art, the storage device may be configured in any one of many arrangements to store and manage databases, and could include a long term bulk storage configuration, such as one or more hard disks.
Preferably, the general
Garrison David Lee
Kerin Amy Lynn
Kight Patricia A.
Lawson Mary Elizabeth
Perkins Brad
CheckFree Services Corporation
Millin V.
Patel Jagdish N
Stadnicki Alfred A.
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