WO2013140397A1

WO2013140397A1 - Payment system and method

Info

Publication number: WO2013140397A1
Application number: PCT/IL2013/050250
Authority: WO
Inventors: Noam Danenberg
Original assignee: Pay Services Inc.
Priority date: 2012-03-19
Filing date: 2013-03-17
Publication date: 2013-09-26

Abstract

The invention relates to a payment transaction system for performing a transaction from a buyer terminal to a credit card server, which comprises: (a) a transaction application at the buyer's terminal, for storing details of the buyer's one or more credit cards; and (b) a credit card server which stores a points of sales table, said table comprising for each point of sale a respective point of sale code, the point of sale name, and, optionally, the GPS coordinates in which said point of sale is physically located.

Description

PAYMENT SYSTEM AND METHOD Field of the Invention

The present invention relates in general to the field of electronic payment systems. More particularly, the invention relates to a smart phone-based system for transferring payment details to a credit card company by means of a cellular phone.

Background of the Invention

Credit card payments have been effected for many years, and have become the most common type of payment for goods and services.

When buying at a store (hereinafter, also referred to as "point of sale"), the buyer typically submits his plastic credit card to the seller, who in turn: (a) uses a point-of- sale machine to extract the credit card details from the plastic card; (b) transfers electronically the credit card details typically taken from a magnetic strip of a chip together with the purchase details (point of sale code, product price, date and time, etc.) through a secured channel, to the server of the credit card company. The credit card company server, upon verifying the validity of the card, and the credit of the card holder standings against the purchase, either approves or disapproves the transaction, and a corresponding message is sent to the point of sale machine. When approved, the credit card company transfers an amount corresponding to the purchase charge (with or without subtracting a commission) from the buyer's account to the seller account, depending on to some additional predefined conditions that are beyond the scope of this application.

A main drawback that is associated with the typical credit card transaction method is the necessity of the buyer to submit his plastic card to the seller, in order for the seller to carry out the transaction with the credit card company. By presenting the credit card, all the credit card details are unavoidably exposed to the seller, while cases are known in which sellers have exploited the exposure of the credit card details fraudulently. US 2011/0276479 (Thomas) discloses a system for conducting financial and commercial transactions while avoiding the disclosure of a user's payment information. More specifically, the payee (seller, seller's agent, receiver of funds, etc.) provides information or a token to the payer (buyer, buyer's agent, or any other provider of funds) who then directs funds to that token, which is then sent to the credit card company. In other words, rather than the payer providing information that is used by the payee to "pull" funds from the payer, in the system of Thomas the payee (seller) provides information by which a payer "pushes" a payment to the seller. In such a manner, since the payment is "pushed" by the buyer to the seller's account using some type of communication, the conventional point-of-sale (POS) transaction terminal has essentially been transferred in Thomas from the seller to the customer.

As noted, in order to perform the transaction, the buyer of Thomas has to include in the transaction data that he sends to the credit card company at least some information which identifies the point of sale. This information is in fact equivalent to the "point of sale code" (hereinafter POSC), which is a unique code which is typically given to each point of sale machine by the credit card company, and whose purpose is to identify the seller who operates the POS machine. The POSC is typically a publicly known code, which, among others, is printed on each receipt which is issued by the POS machine. The POSC is typically a relatively large- number code, and typing of this code by the buyer of Thomas for each transaction is relatively inconvenient, and moreover, it is prone to errors that may cause a failure of the transaction. The present invention provides several manners by which this drawback is overcome.

The invention also surprisingly solves other problems. For instance, one family member (for example, a father) who holds a credit card may wish to let another family member (for example his son) perform limited transactions using his own credit card. For example, the father may wish to let his son perform transactions up to $100 per month in total. This type of limited transactions performance is currently impossible with the known prior art systems. The present invention provides a solution also for this situation.

The present invention also allows the performance of transactions with respect to several credit cards from one smart phone.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a system for performing payment transactions that relieves the buyer from the need to disclose his credit card details to the seller.

It is another object of the present invention to relieve the buyer from the need to enter the POSC (or another equivalent code) into his smart phone, each time he performs a transaction in a buyer-operated transaction system.

It is still another object of the invention to enable one credit card holder (e.g., one family member) to authorize another person (e.g., his son) to make a limited use of his card, with no involvement of the credit card company.

It is still an object of the present invention to provide a smart phone transaction system which enables performance of transactions with respect to several credit cards using one smart phone.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide all the above advantages in a secured and reliable manner.

Summary of the Invention

Preferably, the terminal is selected from smart phones, tablet PCs or the like portable devices.

Preferably, the system further comprises a GPS module.

Preferably, the transaction application is adapted to: (a) obtain a present location of the buyer's terminal from said GPS module; (b) transmit to said credit card server GPS coordinates relating to a present location of the buyer's terminal, and to receive in response the respective point of sale name and point of sale code; (c) display said point of sale name on the display of said buyer's terminal for the buyer's approval; (d) receive from the user of the purchase details which comprise at least a purchase price and a user password; (e) transmit the transaction to the credit card server, wherein said transaction transmission comprises at least said user password, said user credit card details, said point of sale code, and said purchase price; and (f) receive a transaction approval from said credit card server, in response to said transaction transmission, and displaying the same on said buyer's terminal display.

Preferably, the system further includes a secured website accessible by the point of sale operator, for displaying said transaction approval.

Preferably, the system further includes transmission of said transaction approval to a terminal at said point of sale.

Preferably, the system further comprises a fourth party server, wherein said points-of- sale table is stored at said fourth party server, and wherein said transaction application is adapted to: (a) obtain a present location of the buyer's terminal from a GPS module; (b) transmit to said fourth party server GPS coordinates relating to a present location of the buyer's terminal, and receive in response from said fourth party server the respective point of sale name and point of sale code; (c) display said point of sale name on the display of said buyer's terminal for the buyer's approval; (d) receive from the user of the purchase details which comprise at least a purchase price and a user password; (e) transmit the transaction to said fourth party server, wherein said transaction transmission comprises at least said user password, said user credit card details, said point of sale code, and said purchase price; and (f) receive a transaction approval from said fourth party server, in response to said transaction transmission, and displaying the same on said buyer's terminal display; wherein said fourth party server further transmits said transaction to said credit card server, receives a transaction approval from said credit card server, and forwards said approval to said buyer's terminal.

Preferably, said fourth party server receives predefined transaction conditions from subscribers' buyers, and forwards said transaction transmission which it receives from a buyer's terminal to said credit card server only if said transaction meets said predefined condition.

Preferably, said predefined condition is a limited authorization from a first buyer to a second buyer to use said first buyer's credit card.

Preferably, when said transaction application stores details of more than one of buyer's credit cards, said application allows the buyer to select an appropriate credit card.

The invention further relates to a method for performing a transaction from a buyer terminal to a credit card server, which comprises: (a) providing a transaction application at the buyer's terminal, for storing details of the buyer's one or more credit cards; and (b) providing a credit card server which stores a points-of-sales table, said table comprising for each point of sale a respective point of sale code, the point of sale name, and, optionally, the GPS coordinates in which said point of sale is physically located. Preferably, the terminal is selected from smart phones, tablet PCs or the like portable devices.

Preferably, the terminal further comprises a GPS module.

Preferably, the transaction application further performs: (a) obtaining of a present location of the buyer's terminal from said GPS module; (b) transmitting to said credit card server GPS coordinates relating to a present location of the buyer's terminal, and to receive in response the respective point of sale name and point of sale code; (c) displaying said point of sale name on the display of said buyer's terminal for the buyer's approval; (d) receiving from the user of the purchase details which comprise at least a purchase price and a user password; (e) transmitting the transaction to the credit card server, wherein said transaction transmission comprises at least said user password, said user credit card details, said point of sale code, and said purchase price; and (f) receiving a transaction approval from said credit card server, in response to said transaction transmission, and displaying the same on said buyer's terminal display.

Preferably, the method further includes the providing of a secured website accessible by the point of sale operator, for displaying said transaction approval.

Preferably, the method further includes transmission of said transaction approval to a terminal at said point of sale.

Preferably, the method further comprises the providing of a fourth party server, wherein said points of sale table is stored at said fourth party server, and wherein said transaction application further performs: (a) obtaining of a present location of the buyer's terminal from a GPS module; (b) transmitting to said fourth party server GPS coordinates relating to a present location of the buyer's terminal, and receive in response from said fourth party server the respective point of sale name and point of sale code; (c) displaying said point of sale name on the display of said buyer's terminal for the buyer's approval; (d) receiving from the user of the purchase details which comprise at least a purchase price and a user password; (f) transmitting the transaction to said fourth party server, wherein said transaction transmission comprises at least said user password, said user credit card details, said point of sale code, and said purchase price; and (g) receiving a transaction approval from said fourth party server, in response to said transaction transmission, and displaying the same on said buyer's terminal display; wherein said fourth party server further transmits said transaction to said credit card server, receives a transaction approval from said credit card server, and forwards said approval to said buyer's terminal.

Preferably, said fourth party server further receives predefined transaction conditions from subscribers' buyers, and forwards said transaction transmission which it receives from a buyer's terminal to said credit card server only if said transaction meets said predefined condition.

Brief Description of the Drawings

- Fig. 1 illustrates in a general block diagram form the structure of a buyer's operated payment system according to a first embodiment of the invention;

- Fig. 2 illustrates in a general block diagram form the structure of the buyer's operated payment system according to a second embodiment of the invention;

- Fig. 3 shows the structure of a table which is stored either at the CCS or at the FPS, according to embodiments of the present invention.

Detailed Description of Preferred Embodiments

As will be further elaborated hereinafter, according to the present invention, the buyer uses his "Buyer Smart Phone" BSP to transmit transaction details to the credit card server (CCS). The buyer uses an application in his smart phone for this purpose. In a first embodiment, the transmission from the BSP to the CCS is performed directly. In a second embodiment, the transmission from the BSP to the CCS is performed via a "Fourth Party Server" (FPS).

There is a simple set-up procedure which is performed by the buyer at his smart phone, in which the buyer feeds into the application the details of his credit card, such as, the credit card number, the expiration date, the name of card holder, the Card Verification Code CVC, and the ID of the buyer. If the user wishes to use more of his credit cards, he should add details for each credit card.

Fig. 1 illustrates in a general block diagram form a structure of a buyer's operated payment system according to one embodiment of the invention. As is conventional, the CCS maintains details of all buyers (credit card holders), and of all the sellers (including the corresponding point of sales codes). The present invention assumes that all said details that stored at the CCS are known, and therefore will discuss only issues that differentiate the invention over the known prior art systems. In addition to said conventional details, the CCS of the present invention maintains a table such as of Fig. 3, which stores for each conventional POSC, its corresponding GPS coordinates (GPSC), more specifically, the GPS coordinates of the seller's store.

The payment transaction according to the illustrative and non-limitative embodiment of Fig. 1 is performed as follows: a. The buyer operates the transaction application at his smart phone;

b. The transaction application, using the GPS module existing at the smart phone, obtains the GPSC relating to the present location of the smart phone, said coordinates in fact relate to the GPS coordinates of the store at which the buyer is located.

c. The transaction application communicates the GPSC (as obtained in step b) to the CCS, and the CCS in response, and using the table of Fig. 3, communicates back to the BSP the name of the store which corresponds to said GPS coordinates, and in addition, the corresponding POSC. The name of the store is displayed to the buyer at his smart phone for verification. If the GPSC that are transmitted from the smart phone match two or more stores, the names of all said stores are displayed to the user, for selection by the buyer of the correct one.

d. The buyer feeds the transaction price into the application in his smart phone, and a password which is pre-established with the CCS (or alternatively any other agreed personal details, such as the user ID, etc.). Upon completion, the application transmits to the CCS the buyer's password, the buyer's credit card details, the POSC of the selected store, and the transaction price. Additional details may also be transmitted.

e. The CCS, upon receipt of said buyer's communication with all the transaction details, verifies the user password, and if approved, it completes the transaction in a conventional manner.

f. Finally, the CCS sends an approval message both to the buyer's smart phone, and to a seller's terminal. Alternatively, the seller may access a secured location at the CCS website to verify that the transaction has been completed. Having approval of the transaction, the POS terminal may print a receipt to the buyer.

The communication between the BSP and the CCS is performed over a secured channel.

As shown, the transaction is completed in the system of Fig. 1 while not disclosing any of the buyer's personal or credit card details to the seller.

Fig. 2 illustrates in a general block diagram form the structure of a buyer's operated payment system according to a second embodiment of the invention. The system of the second embodiment comprises a fourth party server - FPS, which is typically operated by an entity which is independent from the credit card company, and from the buyer and seller. In this embodiment, the FPS contains the table of Fig. 3.

The payment transaction according to the embodiment of Fig. 2 is performed as follows: a. The buyer operates the transaction application at his smart phone;

c. The transaction application communicates the GPSC (as obtained in step b) to the FPS, and the FPS in response, and using the table of Fig. 3, communicates back to the BSP the name of the store which corresponds to said GPS coordinates, and in addition, it communicates the corresponding POSC. The name of the store is displayed to the buyer at his smart phone for verification. If the GPSC that are transmitted from the smart phone match two or more stores, the names of all said stores are displayed to the user, for selection by the buyer of the correct one.

d. The buyer feeds the transaction price into the application in his smart phone, and a password which is pre-established with the FPS (or alternatively any other agreed personal details, such as the user ID, etc.). Upon completion, the application transmits to the FPS the buyer's password, the buyer's credit card details, the POSC of the selected store, and the transaction price. Additional details may also be transmitted.

e. The FPS, upon receipt of said buyer's communication with all the transaction details, verifies the user password, and if approved, it transmits the transaction, including the credit card details, the POSC, the transaction price, and optionally some of the user's personal details over a secured channel to the CCS. This communication from the FPS to the CCS essentially mimics a conventional transmission of a transaction which is typically made between a POS and the CCS, therefore, the CCS even not be aware that this latter transmission is performed from the FPS, and not from a conventional POS.

f. The CCS, upon receipt of said transmission, completes the transaction in a conventional manner.

g. Finally, the CCS sends a first approval message to the FPS, which in turn conveys this message to the BSP. The CCS may also send a second approval message to the seller's terminal. Alternatively, the seller may access a secured location either at the CCS website or at the FPS to verify that the transaction has been completed. Having approval of the transaction, a terminal at the POS may print a receipt to the buyer.

As noted, the communication between the FPS and the CCS is performed over a secured channel that mimics conventional transmissions that are made between POS machines and a CCS. The communication between BSP and the FPS is performed over a secured channel.

As illustrated, also in the second embodiment of Fig. 2 the transaction is completed while not disclosing any of the buyer's personal or credit card details to the seller.

As previously noted, the table of Fig. 3 contains data which is entirely open to the public. The POSC of each store is typically printed on each receipt which is issued by a conventional POS machine. The Store_Name is also known, and the GPSC (i.e., the GPS coordinates of each store) can be easily obtained. Still, there may be a problem for the FPS to collect all said data with respect to a huge number of stores. There are essentially three main ways by which the FPS may build its table of Fig. 3, as follows:

a. The entire list of POSCs and Store_Names may be provided to the FPS by the credit card company. The missing GPSCs (i..e, the GPS coordinates of all stores respectively) may also be provided to the FPS by the credit card company. Otherwise, the FPS may collect it by its own. For example, the FPS may publish in its web site the two POSC and Store_Name columns, letting each individual store, who wishes to participate, to complete the table with respect to its corresponding own GPSC.

b. The entire list may be built using a community network. An individual buyer, after buying at a specific store, may access the table at the FPS website, and add the respective Store_Name, POSC, and GPSC. In such a manner, after some time a mass table can be built.

c. The owner of each specific store who wishes to participate and enjoy the advantages nay access once to the web site of the FPS and feed the complete raw with respect to his own business.

Alternative ways to build the table may of course be devised by skilled persons.

The FPS, which is operated by an entity independent from the credit card company that operates the CCS, may provide additional services to the buyer, some of them are not presently provided by conventional credit card companies. For example, if a credit card holder having a credit card wishes to authorize a limited use to another person, this can be done by the FPS. For example, if a father wishes to let his son (who has no credit card of his own) use his credit card up to a limit (say, of $100 per month), this service can be provided by the FPS. In that case, the FPS should maintain an additional table with respect to buyers' subscribers. This condition may be recorded at the FPS with respect to the father's account, and a second password may be given to the son (in addition to the first password which is given to the father). Therefore, when a transaction is received at the FPS from the father (i.e., with said first password), it will be processed as described above. However, if a transaction is received from the son with said second password, it will be verified as to whether it meets said condition, prior to forwarding it to the CCS. The above is only one example of a service which can be provided by the FPS. Various of other conditions and services may be provided as well. It should be noted that the credit card server may be operated by a telephone company at which the owner of the smart phone is a client. The rest of the operations may be performed by this server essentially as described above, mutatis mutandis.

While some embodiments of the invention have been described by way of illustration, it will be apparent that the invention can be carried out with many modifications, variations and adaptations, and with the use of numerous equivalents or alternative solutions that are within the scope of persons skilled in the art, without departing from the spirit of the invention or exceeding the scope of the claims.

Claims

1. Payment transaction system for performing a transaction from a buyer terminal to a credit card server, which comprises:

a transaction application at the buyer's terminal, for storing details of the buyer's one or more credit cards; and

a credit card server which stores a points of sales table, said table comprising for each point of sale a respective point of sale code, the point of sale name, and, optionally, the GPS coordinates in which said point of sale is physically located.

2. A payment system according to claim 1, wherein the terminal is selected from smart phones, tablet PCs or the like portable devices.

3. A payment system according to claim 2, further comprising a GPS module.

4. A payment system according to claim 3, wherein, the transaction application is adapted to:

obtain a present location of the buyer's terminal from said GPS module;

transmit to said credit card server GPS coordinates relating to a present location of the buyer's terminal, and to receive in response the respective point of sale name and point of sale code;

display said point of sale name on the display of said buyer's terminal for the buyer's approval;

receive from the user of the purchase details which comprise at least a purchase price and a user password;

transmit the transaction to the credit card server, wherein said transaction transmission comprises at least said user password, said user credit card details, said point of sale code, and said purchase price; and

receive a transaction approval from said credit card server, in response to said transaction transmission, and displaying the same on said buyer's terminal display.

5. System according to claim 4, which further includes a secured website accessible by the point of sale operator, for displaying said transaction approval.

6. System according to claim 4, which further includes transmission of said transaction approval to a terminal at said point of sale.

7. System according to claim 4, further comprising a fourth party server, wherein said points of sale table is stored at said fourth party server, and wherein said transaction application is adapted to:

obtain a present location of the buyer's terminal from a GPS module;

transmit to said fourth party server GPS coordinates relating to a present location of the buyer's terminal, and receive in response from said fourth party server the respective point of sale name and point of sale code;

transmit the transaction to said fourth party server, wherein said transaction transmission comprises at least said user password, said user credit card details, said point of sale code, and said purchase price; and

receive a transaction approval from said fourth party server, in response to said transaction transmission, and displaying the same on said buyer's terminal display; wherein said fourth party server further transmits said transaction to said credit card server, receives a transaction approval from said credit card server, and forwards said approval to said buyer's terminal.

8. System according to claim 7, wherein said fourth party server receives predefined transaction conditions from subscribers' buyers, and forwards said transaction transmission which it receives from a buyer's terminal to said credit card server only if said transaction meets said predefined condition.

9. System according to claim 5, wherein said predefined condition is a limited authorization from a first buyer to a second buyer to use said first buyer's credit card.

10. System according to claim 1, wherein when said transaction application stores details of more than one of buyer's credit cards, said application allows the buyer to select an appropriate credit card.

11. Method for performing a transaction from a buyer terminal to a credit card server, which comprises:

providing a transaction application at the buyer's terminal, for storing details of the buyer's one or more credit cards; and

providing a credit card server which stores a points-of-sales table, said table comprising for each point of sale a respective point of sale code, the point of sale name, and, optionally, the GPS coordinates in which said point of sale is physically located.

12. A method according to claim 11, wherein the terminal is selected from smart phones, tablet PCs or the like portable devices.

13. Method according to claim 12, wherein the terminal further comprising a GPS module.

14. A method according to claim 13, wherein the transaction application further performs:

obtaining of a present location of the buyer's terminal from said GPS module; transmitting to said credit card server GPS coordinates relating to a present location of the buyer's terminal, and to receive in response the respective point of sale name and point of sale code;

displaying said point of sale name on the display of said buyer's terminal for the buyer's approval;

receiving from the user of the purchase details which comprise at least a purchase price and a user password; transmitting the transaction to the credit card server, wherein said transaction transmission comprises at least said user password, said user credit card details, said point of sale code, and said purchase price; and

receiving a transaction approval from said credit card server, in response to said transaction transmission, and displaying the same on said buyer's terminal display.

15. A method according to claim 14, further including the providing of a secured website accessible by the point of sale operator, for displaying said transaction approval.

16. A method according to claim 14, further including transmission of said transaction approval to a terminal at said point of sale.

17. A method according to claim 4, further comprising providing of a fourth party server, wherein said points of sale table is stored at said fourth party server, and wherein said transaction application further performs:

obtaining of a present location of the buyer's terminal from a GPS module; transmitting to said fourth party server GPS coordinates relating to a present location of the buyer's terminal, and receive in response from said fourth party server the respective point of sale name and point of sale code;

receiving from the user of the purchase details which comprise at least a purchase price and a user password;

transmitting the transaction to said fourth party server, wherein said transaction transmission comprises at least said user password, said user credit card details, said point of sale code, and said purchase price; and receiving a transaction approval from said fourth party server, in response to said transaction transmission, and displaying the same on said buyer's terminal display; wherein said fourth party server further transmits said transaction to said credit card server, receives a transaction approval from said credit card server, and forwards said approval to said buyer's terminal.

18. A method according to claim 17, wherein said fourth party server further receives predefined transaction conditions from subscribers' buyers, and forwards said transaction transmission which it receives from a buyer's terminal to said credit card server only if said transaction meets said predefined condition.

19. A method according to claim 15, wherein said predefined condition is a limited authorization from a first buyer to a second buyer to use said first buyer's credit card.

20. A method according to claim 11, wherein when said transaction application stores details of more than one of buyer's credit cards, said application allows the buyer to select an appropriate credit card.