WO2003083758A1

WO2003083758A1 - Personal financial management solution device

Info

Publication number: WO2003083758A1
Application number: PCT/KR2003/000352
Authority: WO
Inventors: Myung-Gi Lee
Original assignee: Bank25 Co., Ltd.
Priority date: 2002-03-29
Filing date: 2003-02-20
Publication date: 2003-10-09
Also published as: AU2003211642A1; KR100402753B1

Abstract

A terminal for supporting personal financial transactions enables a user to easily and quickly conduct his or her banking transactions over the Internet without visiting financial institutions such as a bank.

Description

PERSONALFINANCIALMANAGEMENT SOLUTIONDEVICE

Technical Field

The present invention relates to a system for supporting personal financial transactions, and more particularly to a terminal for supporting personal financial transactions which enables an individual user to easily and quickly conduct his or her banking transactions by himself or herself over the Internet without visiting financial institutions such as a bank.

Background Art

Typically, a user has usually visited financial institutions such as a bank to manage his or her financial properties by withdrawing his or her savings from the bank, depositing money in the bank, or conducting a transfer of funds between accounts, etc. To obviate this disadvantage, there have been proposed a phone banking service and an Internet banking service such that users freely and conveniently conduct their financial transactions from anywhere .

Provided that a transfer of funds between accounts is established using the Internet banking, a user gains access to a homepage of his or her financial institution over the Internet, and enters his or her password on the homepage in such a way that the user logs on to a server of the financial institution. Then, the user enters a variety of requested information such as a password and an account number, etc. while surfing a plurality of linked web pages provided from the server. In this case, surfing the plurality of linked web pages for only one financial transaction results in inconvenience in use and an undesired waste of time. The password for authenticating a user's identity in the

Internet banking service is entered using a keyboard. Provided that a hacking program for hacking the entry password or keyboard command is installed in a user' s computer, the user of the Internet backing service may suffer fatal financial damage.

Therefore, there is need for an improved financial management system to simplify a multistage financial transaction using an online service and protect a user's password from hacking. A conventional Internet banking system cannot provide a user with a giro payment service such that the user must visit a bank to pay taxes or a variety of fees printed on a giro paper. Therefore, there is also need for an improved financial management system to enable the user to freely use the giro payment service using the Internet banking from anywhere he or she wishes .

With reference to the Income Tax Law being in force in Korea since January 2002, it is noted that all business owners with an annual income of less 150 million won are under obligation to keep a simple account book, such that it is not too much to say that most of business owners must keep their simple account book.

Considering this situation, most of business owners do not have a professional knowledge of general accounting such that they preferably prepare their account book by hiring other companies such as a licensed tax accountant office. Therefore, provided that a new system for automatically creating an objective and reliable account book for the business owner and providing the business owner with the created account book is newly developed, it will be useful to the small-scale business owners or businessmen.

In the meantime, considering the Korean government policy of urging general people to use their credit cards to pay for purchases in order to accurately recognize gross incomes of all businesses, if such a system were provided for automatically creating an account book on the basis of payment data of a credit card, the small-scale business owners could easily make out their simple account book without spending additional time and" costs for preparing their account book, and the government could also easily and clearly obtain tax information of all business owners, resulting in increasing national revenues and reliability of tax records.

Disclosure of the Invention

Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a terminal for supporting personal financial transactions which enables an individual user to easily and quickly conduct his or her banking transactions by himself or herself over the Internet without additional costs and restrictions in space and time.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a terminal for supporting personal financial transactions which executes a financial settlement over an online network, classifies financial transaction information received over the online network into a plurality of financial sub-data for use in an account book, accumulates individual classified financial sub-data, and thereby automatically creates the a user's account book or household finances book.

It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a terminal for supporting personal financial transactions which minimizes the danger of hacking a user's password and a possibility of unexpectedly exposing the user's password to a third party.

It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a terminal for supporting personal financial transactions which provides a user with a giro payment service over the Internet such that the user is able to settle the amount of money printed on a giro paper using an Internet banking service.

It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a terminal for supporting personal financial transactions which enables a user to easily and conveniently inquire of financial institutions about information of various kinds of payable checks over an online network without additional costs and restrictions in space and time.

In accordance with the present invention, the above and other objects can be accomplished by the provision of a terminal apparatus for supporting personal financial transactions, including: an IC card information updater for recording downloaded customer information on an IC card, and reading the recorded customer information; a financial card reader for reading information recorded on a MS (Magnetic Stripe) -type financial card; a printer for printing financial transaction information created by a transfer of funds between accounts; a communicator for establishing transmission/reception of the financial transaction information over an Internet; a keypad for entering a financial transaction class and its financial transaction information; a display for displaying financial transaction information; a memory for storing program data for encoding/decoding the financial transaction information being transmitted/received over the Internet, and also storing control program data for supporting personal financial transactions; and a controller for performing a user authentication function by comparing a password read from the IC card with a password entered by a user, and controlling overall operations of the terminal to support financial transactions of an authenticated user on the basis of the program data stored in the memory.

Brief Description of the Drawings

The above and other objects, features and other advantages of the present invention will be more clearly understood from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which: Fig. 1 is a view illustrating a conceptual diagram of a personal financial transaction support terminal and its peripheral devices in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a detailed block diagram of the personal financial transaction support terminal shown in Fig. 1 in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 3 is a detailed block diagram of a service provider server shown in Fig. 1 in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 4 is an exemplary view illustrating a display screen for authenticating the personal financial transaction support terminal shown in Fig. 1 in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 5 is an exemplary view illustrating a display screen for authenticating a user of the personal financial transaction support terminal in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 6 is an exemplary view illustrating an initial display screen activated when an application program starts running in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

Figs . 7 and 8 are exemplary views illustrating display screens activated when a transfer of funds between accounts is selected in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 9 is an exemplary view illustrating a display screen activated when a transaction result inquiry service is selected in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 10 is an exemplary view illustrating a display screen activated when a transaction result inquiry service is selected in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 11 is an exemplary view illustrating a display screen activated when a giro payment service is selected in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 12 is an exemplary view illustrating a display screen activated when a check inquiry service is selected in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 13 is a flow chart illustrating a procedure for storing sales price information for use in a simple account book in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 14 is a flow chart illustrating a procedure for storing purchase price information for use in the simple account book in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention,-

Fig. 15 is a flow chart illustrating a procedure for storing other expense information for use in the simple account book in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 16 is an exemplary view illustrating a display screen activated when a "Simple Account Book" button is selected in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 17 is an exemplary view illustrating a display screen activated when a "Daily Settlement" button shown in Fig. 16 is selected in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 18 is an exemplary view illustrating a display screen activated when a "Purchase" button shown in Fig. 16 is selected in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 19 is an exemplary view illustrating a display screen activated when a "Purchase Card" button shown in Fig. 18 is selected in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 20 is an exemplary view illustrating a display screen activated when an "Other Expenses" button shown in Fig. 16 is selected in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention; and Fig. 21 is an exemplary view illustrating a display screen activated when a "Personnel Expenses" button shown in Fig. 20 is selected in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

Best Mode for Carrying Out the Invention Now, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the annexed drawings. In the drawings, the same or similar elements are denoted by the same reference numerals even though they are depicted in different drawings. In the following description, a detailed description of known functions and configurations incorporated herein will be omitted when it may make the subject matter of the present invention rather unclear. For reference, it should be noted that a representative transaction settlement method using a variety of financial cards, for example, a credit card, a cash card, and an IC (Integrated Circuit) card, etc. has been disclosed in Korean Patent Application No. 2001-60794, filed on 28 September 2002, by the same applicant as the present invention, and entitled "HomeBanking Transaction System and Method for controlling the same", which is hereby incorporated by reference.

Fig. 1 is a view illustrating a conceptual diagram of a personal financial transaction support terminal 100 and its peripheral devices in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention. Referring to Fig. 1, the personal financial transaction support terminal 100 is one of a variety of personal financial transaction support terminals widely used in household and business equipments, and is connected to a user computer 200 over an USB (Universal Serial Bus) or serial bus. Although the personal financial transaction support terminal 100 is connected to the user computer 200 in the present invention, it may independently gain access to the Internet without using the user computer 200, and may be integrated with the user computer 200 as one body, such that the user computer 200 can independently support a personal financial transaction service.

It will hereinafter be assumed that one personal financial transaction support system is composed of the personal financial transaction support terminal 100 and the user computer 200. The personal financial transaction support terminal 100 has not only an IC reading function and an IC information update function, but also a financial card reading function recorded on a MS (Memory Stick) financial card such as a credit card, and interfaces data with the user computer 200 over a USB. The user computer 200 gains access to the service provider server 300 over the Internet.

The service provider server 300 is connected to a plurality of public utility servers 450 for use in the Waterworks Bureau and the Korea Electric Power Corporation, etc. over a dedicated line or the Internet, and is also connected to a card company server 400 and a bank server 500 over the dedicated line. The reason why the service provider server 300 is connected to such financial institution servers is to support a charging function of an IC card using the personal financial transaction support terminal 100 and financial transaction services using a variety of financial cards . With reference to Fig. 1, the personal financial transaction support terminal 100 conducts a financial transaction by enabling a business owner (or an individual user) to read a customer' s electronic cash such as an IC card, a credit card, and a cash card, etc. The personal financial transaction support terminal 100 enables each business owner to pay various expenses, for example, public taxes and monthly salaries for their employees , etc . , by himself or herself using his or her purchase-only card, and as well as to pay for purchases using the purchase-only card. In addition, the personal financial transaction support terminal 100 enables each business owner to conduct a giro payment and a check inquiry service by himself or herself. A detailed block diagram of the personal financial transaction support terminal 100 is shown in Fig. 2. The user computer 200 is a general personal computer, which functions to compare a private password (recorded on an IC card) read from the personal financial transaction support terminal 100 with a password entered by a user, and authenticate the user's identity when the private password is identical with the user-entered password. The user computer 200 sequentially executes a plurality of subroutines accompanied with a selection menu of the authenticated user to obtain financial transaction information, transmits the financial transaction information to the service provider server 300, receives^' the resultant data from the service provider server 300, and displays the resultant data on its own display screen. In this way, in order to enable the user computer 200 to support personal financial transactions, the user computer 200 must download an application program for supporting personal financial transactions from the service provider server 300, and store the application program in its own memory. It will be preferable for this application program to contain program data for encoding/decoding financial transaction information.

Provided that the personal financial transaction support terminal 100 is contained in either peripheral accessories of the personal computer 200 or the personal computer itself, the application program must be previously stored in a memory in a manufacturing process of the user computer 200. Preferably, this user computer system should include: an interface unit for interfacing data with a terminal for reading a financial card or IC card; a communication unit for establishing transmission/reception of financial transaction information; a memory for storing program data for encoding/decoding the financial transaction information being transmitted/received over the Internet, and control program data for supporting personal financial transactions; a data entry unit for entering a financial transaction class and its financial transaction information; a display for displaying the financial transaction information; and a controller for performing a user authentication function by comparing a password read from the IC card with a password entered by a user, and controlling a personal financial transaction support function on the basis of the program data stored in the memory after performing the user authentication.

Provided that the personal financial transaction support terminal 100 is constructed as an independent system irrespective of the above computer system, the application program should be stored in a ROM (Read Only Memory) .

On the other hand, the service provider server 300 basically conducts financial settlements or financial transactions between the user computer 200 and the financial institution servers 400 and 500, receives financial settlement information from the user computer 200, classifies the financial settlement information into a plurality of financial data (i.e., sales information, purchase information, and incidental expenses) , and respectively accumulates the classified financial data, resulting in creating an account book (or a household finances book) on the basis of the financial settlement information. In the case where a customer requests the service provider server 300 to charge his or her electronic cash with a desired amount of money, the service provider server 300 receives customer information recorded on a cash card or credit card and information indicative of the charged amount of money from the user computer 200, and inquires of the card company server or bank server about the customer information and the charged amount of money. If the customer information and the charged amount of money are authorized by the card company server or the bank server, the service provider server 300 transmits update information to the user computer 200 to update an initial charged amount of money with the new authorized charged amount of money. A detailed block diagram of the service provider server 300 is shown in Fig. 3.

In the meantime, in the case where the card company server 400 and the bank servers 500, 510, 520, and 530 receive a financial settlement or financial transaction request from the service provider server 300, they receive financial transaction information accompanied with the financial settlement or financial transaction request, control the financial transaction information, and transmit the resultant data to the service provider server 300. For example, in the case where a user (i.e., customer) wants to charge his or her card with a desired amount of money or to pay for a purchase using his or her cash card, the bank server 500 compares the balance in the customer's account with the user-desired charged amount of money and a sales settlement amount in order to determine whether the user- desired charged amount or the sales settlement amount is approved, and transmits the determination information to the service provider server 300. If the user-desired charged amount or the sales settlement amount is authorized by the service provider server 300, the service provider server 300 remits the user-desired charged amount or the sales settlement amount to a service provider's account using a transfer of funds between accounts . Although a plurality of seller servers are not shown in Fig. 1, it should be noted that they may also be connected to the service provider server 300 over the dedicated line or the Internet, such that this system configuration with the above seller servers accessible to the service provider server 300 effectively allows a user to pay a variety of incidental expenses shown in Fig. 20.

Fig. 2 is a detailed block diagram of the personal financial transaction support terminal 100 shown in Fig. 1 in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention. Referring to Fig. 2, a printer 102 is controlled by a controller 110, and prints a detailed account of financial transaction information such as a transfer of funds between accounts and balance inquiry. Even in the case of a cash settlement, the printer 102 prints a receipt for cash settlement according to a control signal of the controller 110. A representative example of the printer 102 is a thermal transfer printer. A financial card reader (also called a magnetic stripe reader) 104 reads personal information from a variety of MS-type financial cards (i.e., a credit card, a cash card, a debit card, and a purchase- only card) inserted into a card coupling groove (not shown) , and transmits the read personal information to the controller 110. An IC card information update unit 106 reads customer information (e.g., personal information of the customer, and a password entered by the customer, etc.) and current charged amount information from an IC card inserted into the IC card coupling groove, and writes new charged amount data on the IC card according to a control signal of the controller 110. An interface (I/F) unit 108 for executing signal transmission/reception is placed among the printer 102, the financial card reader 104, the IC card information update unit 106, and the controller 110.

The controller 110 controls an overall operation of the personal financial transaction support terminal 100 according to control program data stored in a memory 114. For example, in the case where the terminal 100 acts as an independent personal financial transaction support system, the controller 100 compares a private password recorded on the IC card with a password entered by the user, and authenticates the user's identity when the private password of the IC card is identical with the user-entered password. In this case, the memory 114 should store program data for encoding/decoding financial transaction information communicating with the Internet, and control program data for supporting personal financial transactions . In the case where the terminal 100 is connected to the user computer 200, the controller 110 reads a password recorded on the IC card, and transmits the read password to the user computer 200.

A display/keypad unit 112 serves as a user interface. The keypad is adapted to enter a financial transaction class and its associated financial transaction information. This keypad is preferable only in the case where the terminal 100 serves as a personal financial transaction support terminal. Therefore, in the case where the terminal 100 is connected to the user computer 200, the keypad is ineffective. The display displays a variety of financial transaction information and a variety of operation information of the terminal 100 thereon. The memory 114 is a ROM for storing program data for controlling an overall operation of the terminal 100, a RAM for temporarily storing data created in the execution of a control operation and a variety of data, or an EEPROM for storing reception financial transaction information. The memory 114 is accessible by the controller 110.

The communication unit 116 interfaces financial transaction information and financial settlement information communicating between the personal financial transaction support terminal 100 and the service provider server 300. In the case where the personal financial transaction support terminal 100 gains access to the user computer 200, the communication unit 116 is implemented with a serial port or an USB. In the case where data transmission/reception is established over the Internet, the communication unit 116 is implemented with an interface having a data conversion function based on the TCP/IP standard.

The service provider server 300 for establishing financial transaction information transmission/reception with the user computer 200 will hereinafter be described in more detail .

Fig. 3 is a detailed block diagram of the service provider server 300 shown in Fig. 1 in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention. With reference to Fig. 3, a network interface unit 330 accesses the Internet to interface financial transaction information or financial settlement information with the personal financial transaction support terminal 100 or 200. A settlement transaction unit 315 requests a financial institution server to conduct a credit inquiry approval, a transfer of funds between accounts, or a giro payment for a desired amount of money upon receiving financial transaction information from the network interface unit 330, and stores transaction result data in a settlement data database (DB) 340. For example, the settlement transaction unit 315 conducts a financial settlement on the basis of financial transaction information received from the personal financial transaction support terminal 100 or 200. In more detail, in the case of conducting a credit card settlement, the settlement transaction unit 315 transmits customer information and a balance of the credit card to the card company server 400 such that the card company server 400 conducts a credit inquiry of the customer. In the case of receiving approval result information from the card company server 400, the settlement transaction unit 315 sends the approval result information to the personal financial transaction support terminal, and stores settlement data information in the settlement data DB 340.

An electronic cash manager 320 receives an electronic cash charge request for every customer over the network interface unit 330, and inquires about a financial settlement for the electronic cash charge request of each customer. In the case where the electronic cash charge request is approved, the electronic cash manager 320 transmits an update command for a user-desired charged amount to the personal financial transaction support terminal 100. In this case, the electronic cash manager 320 stores a user-desired charged amount in a customer' s account management DB 350 for every customer in order to request a bank or card company to pay the charged amount of money for every customer.

On the other hand, an account book generation controller 310 receives financial transaction information and cash settlement information from the financial transaction support terminal, and creates an account book for every business owner. In more detail, the account book generation controller 310 stores financial transaction information differently received according to a sales settlement request, a purchase settlement request, and an other expense settlement request, while being classified according to individual business owners . The account book generation controller 310 collects the sales information, the purchase information, and the other expense information, that are stored while being classified according to individual business owners, to create an account book, and outputs the created account book upon receiving a prescribed request from individual business owners . A customer management DB 335 needs to create this account book for every business owner. The customer management DB 335 stores a total settlement amount of money being identical with the sum of a sales settlement amount, a purchase settlement amount, and other expense settlement amount for individual business owners . Although the account book generation controller 310 creates the account book for every business owner upon receiving financial transaction information having cash settlement information in the present invention, an account book (or a household finances book) can be easily created using only financial settlement information created by financial card use on the condition that all the transactions are payable by a credit card. For reference, the customer management DB 335 contains a variety of information for authenticating the personal financial transaction support terminal 100, for example, system terminal identification (ID) information, an business owner's (or an individual user's) resident registration number, and a password recorded on a membership application form by the business owner (or the individual), etc. Information required for authenticating this terminal may also be controlled by a cooperating bank server for supporting such financial transactions. In the case where a customer who gains access to a web server 325 over the Internet requests the web server 325 to create financial transaction details and an account book, the web server 325 creates them and provides the customer with them over the Internet. Also, the web server 325 provides the customer with an application program of the present invention over the Internet.

The service provider server 300 matches a commodity identification (ID) code with its accounting information, and stores the matched information in a commodity code DB 345. The commodity code database 345 provides the customer with the commodity item information and its price information over the Internet, and pays for purchased commodities using the commodity ID code. The commodity ID code may further include a code for public utilities such as a gas charge, an electric charge, and a waterworks charge. The service provider server 300 includes a settlement data DB 340 for storing settlement data details therein. The settlement data DB 340 stores personal information of settled customers, taxes, commodity ID codes, settlement amounts, settlement dates, commodity receipt information, financial settlement details, and financial transaction details .

The information of a customer who purchases commodities may be additionally stored in the customer management DB 335. The server 300 further includes a customer's account management DB 350 for managing a charge amount of money on account for every customer, such that the customer's account management DB 350 can charge a card company and a bank for the charged amount of money.

A process for enabling individuals or business owners to conduct their banking transactions using their personal financial transaction support terminals, a process for enabling them to conduct a giro payment, and a process for enabling them to create their simple account books will hereinafter be described in detail with reference to the annexed drawings .

Fig. 4 is an exemplary view illustrating a display screen for authenticating the personal financial transaction support terminal 100 shown in Fig. 1 in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to Fig. 4, a user of the personal financial transaction support terminal 100 gains access to the user computer 200, and the user computer 200 downloads an application program for supporting personal financial transactions from the personal financial transaction support terminal 100. The user makes out an offline membership application request form for receiving a personal financial transaction support service, and transmits the membership application request form to financial institutions or a service provider. The user enters his or her resident registration number and password, and ID information of his or her terminal 100 on the application request form.

As described above, if the above process for supporting personal financial transactions is completed, then the user executes an application program stored in the user computer 200. A terminal authentication display window shown in Fig. 4 is displayed on a display screen of the user computer 200. If the user enters his or her resident registration number and password in an information entry field and clicks on an "ENTER" button, the application program reads ID information from the terminal 100, and transmits the ID information functioning as authentication information to the service provider server 300 along with the resident registration number and the password. The service provider server 300 compares the received information with another terminal's ID information previously stored in the customer management DB 335, and outputs the result of authenticating the terminal 100. If it is determined that the terminal 100 is a normal terminal, the application program displays a display screen for executing a user authentication as shown in Fig. 5. The user authentication is established by comparing a password recorded on an ID card with a password entered by a user. That is, the user authentication is completed on the condition that the password of the IC card is identical with the user-entered password. If the user wishes to change a current password to a new password and gain access to a homepage of the service provider server 300, the new password entered by the user is recorded on the IC card inserted into the terminal 100 in such a way that the user freely changes his or her password. To protect a password from hacking, the present invention displays a plurality of numeral buttons in the form of a matrix on a user authentication display screen, such that a user is able to enter his or her password using a mouse.

If the user enters his or her password using the mouse and clicks on the "Enter" button, the application program determines whether a password read from the IC card is the same as the user-entered password, and conducts a user authentication when these two passwords are equal to each other. After conducting such user authentication, an initial display screen shown in Fig. 6 is displayed on a display.

Fig. 6 is an exemplary view illustrating the initial display screen activated when the application program starts running in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention. Referring to Fig. 6, the initial display screen of the application program includes a "Simple Account Book" button, a "Banking Transactions" button, a "Giro/Check" button, and an "Environment Setup" button, etc. Therefore, the user conveniently and easily conducts financial transactions over the Internet by clicking on one of these buttons on the display screen mode shown in Fig. 6, because the application program contains a plurality of sub- routine programs for supporting a variety of functions activated by the above buttons, for example, a banking transaction sub-routine program, a giro payment sub-routine program, and a simple account book sub-routine program.

Program functions associated with individual program buttons shown in Fig. 6 will hereinafter be described in more detail .

Figs . 7 and 8 are exemplary views illustrating display screens activated when a transfer of funds between accounts is selected in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

In the case where a user clicks on a "Transfer of funds between accounts" button shown in Fig. 6, the application program sequentially executes the following operations on the basis of the banking transaction sub- routine program data.

Firstly, the application program requests the user to insert his or her financial card into a given device upon receiving a control signal of the "Transfer of funds between accounts" button from the terminal 100. Secondly, the application program receives financial card information (e.g., cash card information) from the inserted financial card through the terminal 100. Thirdly, the application program requests the user to enter his or her account's password on a display screen shown in Fig. 7. In this case, the user enters his or her account's password by clicking on necessary number buttons shown in Fig. 7 using a mouse, thereby guaranteeing password security. If the user enters his or her account's password on the display screen shown in Fig. 7, then the application program requests the user to enter payee's account information on a display screen shown in Fig. 8. If the user enters the payee's account information on the display screen of Fig. 8, the application program installed to the user computer 20 encodes the financial card information, payer account's password, and payee account's information, and transmits the encoded information to the service provider server 300.

The service provider server 300 determines a transfer of funds between accounts by analyzing the received encoded information, and transmits the received information to the bank server 500 in the transfer case between accounts. Then, upon receiving the received information from the service provider server 300, the bank server 500 inquires of a corresponding bank about the payee information, and transmits the result of payee inquiry to the service provider server 300. Then, if the service provider server 300 also transmits the result of payee inquiry to the user computer 200, the application program of the user computer 200 decodes and displays the result data of payee inquiry. If the user enters a command for executing a transfer of funds between accounts after visually checking the result data of payee inquiry on a display screen, the application program transmits a transfer message to the service provider server 300 upon receiving the transfer execution command from the user computer 200. This transfer message is transferred to the bank server 500 such that the user's desired transfer service between accounts can be normally established. The application program receives the execution result of the transfer of funds between accounts from the bank server 500 and the service provider server 300, and displays it on a display screen. This execution result of the transfer of funds between accounts may also be printed on a paper through the printer 102.

In this way, the user can easily and conveniently conduct a transfer of funds between accounts using only the personal financial transaction support terminal 100 and the user computer 200, without visiting a homepage of financial institutions and surfing a plurality of linked web pages provided from servers of the financial institutions .

On the other hand, if the user clicks on a "Balance Inquiry" button shown in Fig. 6, the application program sequentially executes the following operations on the basis of the banking transaction sub-routine program data for conducting the balance inquiry function.

Firstly, the application program requests the user to insert his or her financial card into a given device upon receiving a control signal of the "Balance Inquiry" button from the terminal 100. Secondly, if the user inserts the financial card into a card coupling groove, then the application program receives financial card information from the inserted financial card through the terminal 100. Thirdly, the application program requests the user to enter his or her account's password on a display screen shown in Fig. 7. If the user enters his or her account's password on the display screen shown in Fig. 7, then the application program encodes the financial card information and the user- entered account's password as financial transaction information, transmits the encoded information to the service provider server 300, and thereby inquires of the service provider server about the balance in the user's account. If the service provider server 300 transmits a balance inquiry request to the bank server 500, the bank server 500 transmits the result of balance inquiry to the service provider server 300, such that the application program of the user computer 200 receives the result data of balance inquiry from the service provider server 300, decodes the data, and then displays the data on the display 112. It should be noted that this execution result of the transfer of funds between accounts is also printed on a paper through a printer 102. In this way, the user can easily and conveniently view the balance in his or her account using only the personal financial transaction support terminal 100 and the user computer 200, without visiting a homepage of financial institutions and surfing a plurality of linked web pages for conducting such a balance inquiry.

Fig. 9 is an exemplary view illustrating a display screen activated when a transaction result inquiry service is selected in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention. Fig. 10 is an exemplary view illustrating a display screen activated when a transaction result inquiry service is selected in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

In accordance with the present invention, a user can view the result data of banking transactions using the personal financial transaction support terminal 100 and the user computer 200 in the same manner as in the aforementioned balance inquiry case and a transfer case between accounts. In more detail, if the user clicks on a "Transaction Result Inquiry" button shown in Fig. 9, the application program provides a display screen shown in Fig. 9 to enable the user to view the banking transaction result . In this way, provided that the display screen for the transaction result view is provided as shown in Fig. 9, the user can always visually check the result of his or her desired banking transactions even though data is unavoidably lost due to communication interference. The display screen shown in Fig. 9 may also be effectively used even in the case of re-checking the result of such banking transactions. Therefore, if the user enters a banking transaction number on the display screen of Fig. 9, the application program inquires of the service provider server 300 about the user-entered banking transaction number. Otherwise, if the user clicks on the "Enter" button shown in Fig. 9 to view only the result data of a previous financial transaction, the application program inquires of the service provider server 300 about the result data of previous banking transactions. Then the service provider server 300 inquires of a prescribed bank server 500 about the result data of previous banking transactions, searches for the settlement data DB 340, and transmits the searched result to the user computer 200. Therefore, the application program of the user computer 200 displays the banking transaction result data on the display 112, and selectively prints the result data upon receiving a prescribed command from the user. On the other hand, the user may recognize transaction result data by viewing a display screen shown in Fig. 10. In this case, the application program sequentially executes the following operations on the basis of the banking transaction sub-routine data for executing the transaction result data inquiry.

Firstly, the application program requests a user to insert his or her financial card into a given device upon receiving a control signal of the "Transaction Result Data Inquiry" button from the terminal 100. Secondly, if the application program receives financial card information from the financial card through the terminal 100, the application program requests the user to enter his or her account's password on a display screen shown in Fig. 7. Then, the application program requests the user to enter his or her desired inquiry date on a display screen shown in Fig. 10. If the user enters his or her desired inquiry date on the display screen of Fig. 10, the application program encodes the financial card information and the user-entered password and date as financial transaction information, and transmits the encoded information to the service provider server 300. Thereafter, the service provider server 300 retransmits the received information to the bank server 500, such that the application program receives transaction result inquiry data from the bank server 500. If the service provider server 300 transmits the transaction result inquiry data to the user computer 200, then the application program receives the transaction result inquiry data from the user computer 200, decodes the reception data, and then displays the reception data on a display. This display result may also be printed on a paper upon receiving a prescribed command from the user,

In this way, the user can easily and conveniently view his or her financial transaction result over the Internet by entering or clicking on only his or her password on a display screen.

A giro payment service and a check inquiry service will hereinafter be described in more detail. Fig. 11 is an exemplary view illustrating a display screen activated when the giro payment service is selected in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention. Fig. 12 is an exemplary view illustrating a display screen activated when the check inquiry service is selected in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention. If the user clicks on the "Giro/Check" button shown in

Fig. 6 and then clicks on the "Giro payment" button, the application program sequentially executes the following operations on the basis of the sub-routine program data for conducting the giro payment function. Firstly, the application program requests a user to insert his or her financial card into a given device upon receiving a control signal of the "Giro Payment" button from the terminal 100. Secondly, if the user inserts the financial card into a card coupling groove, then the application program receives financial card information from the inserted financial card through the terminal 100. Thirdly, the application program requests the user to enter his or her account's password on a display screen shown in Fig. 7. If the user enters his or her account's password on the display screen shown in Fig. 7, then the application program requests the user to enter giro payment information on a display screen shown in Fig. 11. If the user enters a giro code, a subscriber number, and a settlement amount of money on the display screen of Fig. 11, the application program encodes the financial card information, the user- entered account's password, and the user-entered giro payment information, and transmits the encoded information to the service provider server 300. The service provider server 300 transmits the information received from the user computer 200 to the bank server 500, the bank server 500 pays the settlement amount of money ^'by transferring funds to a payee's account, and transmits the result of giro payment to the service provider server 300. Then, the application program of the user computer 200 receives the result data of giro payment from the service provider server 300, decodes the result data, and then displays it on the display 112.

In this way, the user can easily and conveniently conduct a giro payment using the personal financial transaction support terminal 100 or the user computer 200 with such a personal financial transaction support terminal . This giro payment result may also be printed on a paper through the printer 102.

In the meantime, the user can inquire about various kinds of general checks widely used offline using the terminal 100. Fig. 12 is an exemplary view illustrating a display screen activated when a check inquiry service is selected in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention. If the user clicks on a "Check Inquiry" button shown in Fig. 11, the application program sequentially executes the following operations on the basis of the sub-routine program data for executing the check inquiry service.

Firstly, the application program provides a "Check Inquiry" display screen shown in Fig. 12. If the user enters a variety of check inquiry information on information entry fields contained in the display screen, for example, an issuer bank, a check number, an issuer bank's code, a check type, an amount of issued money, an issue date, and a personal check's account number, the application program encodes the check inquiry information, and transmits the encoded information to the service provider server 300. The service provider server 300 transmits the received check inquiry information to the bank server 500 to inquire of the bank server 500 about the check, receives the result of check inquiry from the bank server 500, and then transmits the reception result of check inquiry to the user computer 200. Thereafter, the application program of the user computer 200 decodes the check inquiry result received from the service provider server 300, and displays it on the display 112, such that the user may easily determine whether the his or her check has been forged.

In this way, the user can easily and conveniently conduct banking transactions (i.e., a transfer of funds between accounts, a balance inquiry, a check inquiry, and a giro payment) using the personal financial transaction support terminal 100 without additional costs and restrictions in space and time.

A method for creating a simple account book using the personal financial transaction support terminal will hereinafter be described with reference to Figs. 13 to 16. Fig. 13 is a flow chart illustrating a procedure for storing sales price information for use in the simple account book. Fig. 14 is a flow chart illustrating a procedure for storing purchase price information for use in the simple account book. Fig. 15 is a flow chart illustrating a procedure for storing other expense information for use in the simple account. Fig. 16 is an exemplary view illustrating a display screen activated when a "Simple Account Book" button is selected. Firstly, if the user (i.e., business owner or seller) clicks on the "Sale" button shown in Fig. 16, the application program requests the user to select only one of payable financial card settlement and cash settlement. If the user clicks on "Credit Card" button shown in Fig. 16 to read the credit card information and enters a settlement amount of money, the application program transmits financial settlement information, which is composed of ID information of the personal financial transaction support terminal 100, sales settlement request information, a settlement amount of money, financial card ID information, and customer information, to the service provider server 300 at step 600. Upon receiving such a sales settlement request from the application program, the service provider server 300 receives financial settlement information at step 605. For reference, the ID information of the personal financial transaction support terminal 100 is adapted as ID information of business owners, and the settlement amount of money is adapted to accumulate the ongoing sales accounts .

On the other hand, the service provider server 300 determines whether the reception financial settlement information is created by a credit card at step 610. If it is determined at step 610 that the reception financial settlement information is created by the credit card, the service provider server 300 inquires of a card company server 400 about a credit inquiry at step 615. After the application program receives an approval result of the credit inquiry from the card company server 400 at step 620, the service provider server 300 transmits the reception result to the user computer at step 625. The service provider server 300 stores the amount of settled money information in a customer management DB 335 as sales information at step 630. In this case, in order to create and verify an account book, customer information and settlement financial institution information may also be stored in the customer management DB 335. In this way, the service provider server 300 accumulates the amount of all sales transactions paid by a credit card according to individual business owners (i.e., sellers).

In the meantime, in the case where a customer or buyer pays for purchased commodities or services in cash to a business owner, this cash must also be added to the total sales price, such that the service provider server 300 periodically receives receipt issuance information created by a customer's cash payment from the user computer 200 at step 635, and stores the receipt issuance information as sales information at step 640, thereby accumulating accurate sales information. In the case where the business owner provides a customer with a thank-you gift on the basis of number information recorded on the receipt created by the customer's cash payment, or the receipt information of all customers is applied to create the year-end settlement of the whole accounts of individual customers, settlement data created by such cash payment of the customers may also be adapted as the sales information in the same manner as in their credit card payment.

In addition, the service provider server 300 receives daily settlement information entered by the business owners, and accumulates a cash sale amount of money of each business owner. In more detail, in the case where the business owner clicks on a "Daily Settlement" button on a display screen shown in Fig. 16, the application program provides a "Cash Daily Settlement" display screen as shown in Fig. 17. Therefore, if the business owner enters the number of cash settlements and the total amount of money paid in cash in a data input field shown in Fig. 17, the service provider server 300 receives and accumulates daily cash settlement information.

On the other hand, in the case where the customer pays for purchased commodities or services using a cash card instead of the credit card, the service provider server 300 recognizes a cash card payment of the customer at step 645, and goes to step 650. The service provider server 300 transmits customer information, a settlement amount of money, and the business owner's account information to a bank server providing the customer with the cash card, and requests the bank server to conduct a transfer of funds between accounts at step 650. In the case where the balance in the customer's account is higher than the received settlement amount of money, the bank server subtracts the settlement amount of money from the balance, and pays the settlement amount of money by transfer of funds to a business owner's account. If result data of the transfer of funds between accounts is transferred to the service provider server 300, the service provider server 300 receives information indicative of a completion or failure of the transfer of funds between accounts from the bank server at step 655, and transmits this information to the user computer 200. The service provider server 300 stores the settlement amount of money paid by the cash card as the sales information at step 630.

Therefore, even in the case where the amount of money charged for sold commodities or services are paid by the cash card, sales information of each business owner may be stored in the customer management DB 335. If the amount of charged money is paid by an IC card serving as electronic cash, the service provider server 300 determines at step 665 whether the charged money is payable by the balance charged in the IC card. That is, the service provider server 300 determines at step 665 whether the received balance is higher than the settlement amount of money. If it is determined at step 665 that the customer's balance is sufficient to perform financial settlement, then a settlement transaction is executed by general electronic cash at step 670, and the service provider server 300 transmits information indicative of settlement completion or failure to the user computer 200. The service provider server 300 requests a corresponding financial institution to pay the amount of charged money by transfer of funds to a business owner's account at step 675, and then returns to step 630. The settlement amount of money paid by the IC card is stored in a prescribed DB as sales information at step 630.

Therefore, upon receiving financial settlement information and receipt issuance information (or daily cash settlement information) from the user computer 200, the service provider server 300 is able to accurately accumulate the total sales amounts of all the business owners.

A process for accumulating/calculating the amount of purchases will hereinafter be described in detail . Firstly, the purchase price information of the business owner is created in the case where the business owner buys his or her desired commodities. In this case, the purchase price may also be paid by a purchase-only card for the business owner. But the purchase price may also be paid by a credit card, cash card or IC card of the business owner. In these cases, the server 300 should recognize that the commodities have been purchased by the business owner, and needs to accumulate the settlement amount • of money associated with purchasing the commodities . A process for accumulating the purchases information of the business owner using a customer-only card without using others will hereinafter be described in detail .

Firstly, in the case where the business owner purchases the commodities and clicks on a "Purchase-only card" button shown in Fig. 18 to pay for the purchased commodities, the application program requests the business owner to insert his or her purchase-only card into a given device. If a user inserts his or her purchase-only card into the personal financial transaction support terminal 100, the application program provides a "Purchase by Purchase-only card" button shown in Fig. 19. The business owner enters the place, articles, and purchase amount of money on the display screen shown in Fig. 19, and then clicks on the "Enter" button on the display screen. Therefore, the user computer 200 transmits purchase settlement information, which is composed of purchases settlement request information, ID information of the personal financial transaction support terminal 100, a settlement amount of money (i.e., a purchase price) , a purchase commodity code for every purchase commodity, and purchase place code functioning as an optional item, to the service provider server 300.

In this case, if the user computer 200 requests to conduct purchases settlement at step 700, the service provider server 300 receives purchases settlement information from the user computer 200 at step 705. For reference, the purchase commodity code may be a unique code assigned to the business owner, or a prescribed code assigned to a specific commodity. By this purchase commodity code, tax information of the supplier who sold the commodities may be tracked.

After receiving the purchases settlement information, the service provider server 300 makes a credit inquiry of the card company server 400 issuing the purchase-only card at step 710. If the card company server 400 transmits an approval result of credit inquiry to the service provider server 300 at step 715, the service provider server 300 transmits the approval result to the user computer 200 at step 720. The service provider server 300 stores the amount of paid money as purchase information in the customer management DB 335 at step 725. In this case, information required for creating/verifying an account book along with customer information and the amount of purchases may also be stored in the customer management DB 335.

Therefore, upon receiving purchases settlement information created by the purchase-only card from the user computer 200, the service provider server 300 accurately accumulates the total purchases of all the business owners, and adapts the accumulated data to create an account book.

Although the aforementioned preferred embodiment of the present invention discloses a credit purchase case established by only the purchase-only card, the amount of money charged for purchased commodities may be paid by a credit card of each business owner. In this case, upon receiving purchases settlement request information created by clicking on a "Purchase" button shown in Fig. 19, the service provider server 300 is able to recognize that commodities are purchased. Because the server 300 is able to recognize each business owner upon receiving ID information of the terminal 100, business owner's information, settlement amount of money, and a purchase commodity code are obtained and stored in a prescribed place. Even in the case where the purchases settlement is executed by a cash card and an IC card, purchases of individual business owners can be accumulated in the same manner as in the credit purchase case of the credit card. Also, the service provider server may receive a cash purchase amount of money as in daily cash settlement information, and accumulate purchases.

A method for accumulating other expenses to create an accounting book will hereinafter be described with reference to Fig. 15, 20 and 21. Fig. 15 is a flow chart illustrating a procedure for storing other expense information for use in the simple account book. Fig. 20 is an exemplary view illustrating a display screen activated when an "Other Expenses" button shown in Fig. 16 is selected. Fig. 21 is an exemplary view illustrating a display screen activated when a "Personnel Expenses" button shown in Fig. 20 is selected.

To create an account book, the sales amount, the purchases, and other expenses other than the sales and purchases should be accumulated. In accordance with the present invention, all items other than the purchases are classified in the other expenses, and the application program provides a commodity information display screen shown in Fig. 20. In more detail, if a user selects one settlement commodity information from among a plurality of menus on the display screen shown in Fig. 20, the application program receives information needed for paying other expenses, and transmits the received information to the service provider server 300. For reference, although such other expenses are paid by only the cash card in the preferred embodiment of the present invention as shown in Fig. 20, the amount of money charged for purchasing commodities may also be paid by a credit card of each business owner, a purchase-only card, and an IC card.

In more detail, provided that the business owner wishes to pay personnel expenses using his or her cash card, the application program requests the business owner to insert the cash card into a prescribed device, and also requests the business owner to enter his or her password of the inserted cash card. After reading the cash card and password entered by the business owner, the application program provides a "Personnel Expenses" display screen shown in Fig. 21, and requests the business owner to enter detailed information required for conducting settlement transaction. Therefore, the business owner enters a variety of information such as a receipt bank, an account number, the amount of remittance, and additional information on the display screen of Fig. 21, and transmits the entered information to the service provider server 300. Then, upon receiving settlement request information from the business owner at step 800, the service provider server 300 receives settlement commodity information at step 805. The service provider server 300 analyzes the received settlement commodity information, and executes sub-routines for personnel expenses settlement or taxes settlement according to the analyzed result. If the business owner clicks on the "Personnel Expenses" button on the display screen, the service provider server 300 transmits received salary payee's information and card information to the bank server 500 at steps 810 and 815, and requests the bank server 500 to conduct a transfer of funds between accounts at step 820. The bank server 500 pays the salary by a transfer from an account of received card's account to a salary payee's account, and transmits resultant data to the service provider server 300. If the service provider server 300 receives information indicative of completion or failure of the transfer of funds between accounts at step 825, it transmits information indicative of completion or failure of personnel expenses settlement to the user computer. In this way, the business owner receives the information indicative of completion or failure of salary transfer to an employee's account. The service provider server 300 stores the salary payee information and the amount of remittance information as other expenses information at step 855, thereby automatically accumulating other expenses associated with the personnel expenses.

In the meantime, provided that the settlement commodity information is tax settlement information, the service provider server 300 transmits the tax settlement information to the bank server 500 at step 840. In this case, the tax settlement information should contain a giro code, a customer's number, a settlement amount of money, and financial card information required for executing settlement transactions. Likewise, if the tax settlement information is transmitted to the bank server 500, the service provider server 300 requests the bank server 500 to pay the taxes using a transfer of funds between accounts at step 845. Then, the bank server 500 collects the taxes on the basis of the reception tax settlement information, transmits the collected taxes by transfer of funds to an account of a corresponding pubic institution, and transmits the transfer result data^' to the service provider server 300. The service provider server 300 receives tax settlement completion information at step 850, and retransmits it to the user computer 200. The service provider server 300 stores the tax settlement amount of money and the business owner's ID information as other expenses information at step 855.

Therefore, the service provider server 300 stores the reception financial settlement information created by the above other expenses settlement request in a prescribed place as other expenses, such that this financial settlement information is adapted to create an account book.

In the case where sales price information, purchase price information, and other expenses information for every business owner are accumulated for a prescribed settlement period, the service provider server 300 collects sales information, purchases information, and other expenses information for the same business owner to create an account book, and outputs the created account book upon receiving a request from the business owner, such that each business owner is able to easily prepare a simple account book.

For reference, upon receiving a prescribed request from a business owner in online and offline states, a business owner' s terminal may download the account book created by the server 300. The created account book may be printed on a paper, such that the account book printed on the paper may be transferred to the business owner by post .

Industrial Applicability

As apparent from the above description, a personal financial transaction support terminal according to the present invention enables an individual user to easily and quickly conduct his or her banking transactions by himself or herself over the Internet without additional costs and restrictions in space and time.

The personal financial transaction support terminal executes a financial settlement over an online network, classifies financial transaction information received over the online network into a plurality of financial sub-data for use in an account book, accumulates individual classified financial sub-data, and thereby enables business owners to easily create their account books .

The personal financial transaction support terminal enables a user to enter his or her password using a mouse, and thereby minimizes the danger of hacking the user's password and a possibility of unexpectedly exposing the user's password to a third party. In addition, a plurality of users are able to conduct their financial transactions using only one terminal in their household or office, resulting in greater convenience for the user. The general checks widely used may also be checked as check inquiry information over the Internet .

The personal financial transaction support terminal enables the business owner to prepare clear tax records, and the government to collect taxes on the basis of such clear tax records, resulting in guaranteeing reliability of the tax records .

Although the present invention has been described in connection with specific preferred embodiments, those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications, additions, and substitutions to the specific elements are possible, without departing from the scope and spirit of the present invention as disclosed in the accompanying claims .

Claims

Claims :

1. A terminal apparatus for supporting personal financial transactions, comprising: an IC card information updater for recording downloaded customer information on an IC card, and reading the recorded customer information; a financial card reader for reading information recorded on a MS (Magnetic Stripe) -type financial card; a printer for printing financial transaction information created by a transfer of funds between accounts; a communicator for establishing transmission/reception of the financial transaction information over an Internet; a keypad for entering a financial transaction class and its financial transaction information; a display for displaying financial transaction information; a memory for storing program data for encoding/decoding the financial transaction information being transmitted/received over the Internet, and also storing control program data for supporting personal financial transactions; and a controller for performing a user authentication function by comparing a password read from the IC card with a password entered by a user, and controlling overall operations of the terminal to support financial transactions of an authenticated user on the basis of the program data stored in the memory.

2. The apparatus as set forth in claim 1, wherein the control program data stored in the memory to support personal financial transactions includes : banking transaction sub-routine program data for executing a balance inquiry of an authenticated user's account, a transfer of funds to the user's account, and a transaction result data inquiry of the user's account, respectively; giro payment sub-routine program data for executing a giro payment of the authenticated user; and simple account book sub-routine program data for creating an account book using settlement details of sales, purchases, and other expenses .

3. The apparatus as set forth in claim 2, wherein the banking transaction sub-routine program data for executing the balance inquiry in the user' s account includes program data, said program data including the steps of: a) requesting the user to insert his or her MS-type financial card into a prescribed place upon receiving the balance inquiry request from the user; b) reading financial card information from the MS-type financial card; c) requesting the user to enter his or her account's password, and receiving the user's account's password from the user; d) encoding the financial card information and the password as financial transaction information, and requesting the balance inquiry; e) receiving and decoding a result of the balance inquiry; f) displaying the decoded result of the balance inquiry; and g) printing the result of the balance inquiry.

4. The apparatus as set forth in claim 3, wherein the banking transaction sub-routine program data for executing the transfer of funds to the user's account includes program data, said program data including the steps of: a) requesting the user to insert his or her MS-type financial card into a prescribed place upon receiving a request for the transfer of funds from the user; b) reading financial card information from the MS-type financial card; c) requesting the user to enter his or her account's password, and receiving the account's password from the user; d) requesting the user to enter payee's account information; e) encoding the financial card information, the user's account's password, and the payee's account information, and transmitting the encoded information; f) receiving a result of payee inquiry, decoding and displaying the result of payee inquiry; g) transmitting a transfer message according to a transfer execution command; and h) receiving and displaying a result of the transfer execution command.

5. The apparatus as set forth in claim 4 , wherein the banking transaction sub-routine program data for executing the transaction result data inquiry includes program data, said program data including the steps of : a) requesting the user to insert his or her MS-type financial card into a prescribed place upon receiving a request for the transaction result data inquiry from the user; b) reading financial card information from the MS-type financial card; c) requesting the user to enter his or her account's password, and receiving the account's password from the user; d) requesting the user to enter his or her desired inquiry date; e) encoding the financial card information, and the password and the inquiry date entered by the user as financial transaction information, and transmitting the encoded information; and f) receiving a result of transaction result data inquiry, decoding and displaying the result of transaction result data inquiry.

6. The apparatus as set forth in claim 5 , wherein the giro payment sub-routine program data includes program data, said program data including the steps of: a) requesting the user to insert his or her MS-type financial card into a prescribed place upon receiving a request for the giro payment from the user; b) reading financial card information from the MS-type financial card; c) requesting the user to enter his or her account's password, and receiving the account's password from the user; d) requesting the user to enter giro payment information, and receiving the giro payment information from the user; e) encoding the financial card information, and the user-entered account's password, and the user-entered giro payment information, and transmitting the encoded information; f) receiving a result of giro payment, decoding and displaying the giro payment result; and g) printing the giro payment result .

7. The apparatus as set forth in claim 2 or 6, wherein the banking transaction sub-routine program data further includes check inquiry sub-routine program data for inquiring about various kinds of general checks .

8. The apparatus as set forth in claim 7 , wherein the check inquiry sub-routine program data includes program data, said program data including the steps of: a) upon receiving a check inquiry request, requesting the user to insert various kinds of check issuance information such as an issuer bank, a check number, an issuer bank's code, a check type, an amount of issued money, and an issue date; b) receiving the check issuance information having the issuer bank, the check number, the issuer bank's code, the check type, the amount of issued money, and the issue date; and c) receiving a result of check inquiry, decoding and displaying the check inquiry result.

9. The apparatus as set forth in claim 2 or 6, wherein the simple account book sub-routine program data further includes program data, said program data including the steps of: a) requesting the user to insert his or her MS-type financial card into a prescribed place upon receiving a sales settlement request; b) reading financial card information from the MS-type financial card; c) inquiring of the communicator about a credit inquiry on the basis of the read financial card information and a user-entered sales price information; d) displaying a result of credit inquiry received from the communicator; and e) printing the credit inquiry result according to a print command.

10. The apparatus as set forth in claim 9, wherein the simple account book sub-routine program data further includes program data when the financial card is a cash card, said program data including the steps of : a) requesting the user to enter his or her account's password when the read financial card information relates to the cash card, and receiving the account's password; b) transmitting sales settlement amount information, the account's password, and the read financial card information through the communicator, and requesting a transfer of funds to a seller's account; c) receiving a result of the transfer of funds between accounts, and displaying it; and d) printing the result of transfer of funds between accounts .

11. The apparatus as set forth in claim 9, wherein the simple account book sub-routine program data further includes program data, said program data including the steps of: a) requesting the user to insert his or her MS-type financial card into a prescribed place upon receiving a purchases settlement request; b) reading financial card information from the MS-type financial card; c) transmitting the read financial card information, purchases information, and purchase commodity code information along with purchases settlement request information through the communicator; d) displaying purchases settlement completion information; and e) printing the purchases settlement completion information .

12. The apparatus as set forth in claim 11, wherein the simple account book sub-routine program data further includes program data, said program data including the steps of: a) requesting the user to enter his or her desired commodity information upon receiving a settlement request of other expenses; b) requesting the user to insert his or her MS-type financial card into a prescribed place; c) reading financial card information from the MS-type financial card; d) transmitting the read financial card information, a user-entered settlement amount of money, and settlement commodity information along with the settlement request of other expenses through the communicator; e) displaying settlement completion information received from the communicator; and f) printing the settlement completion information.

13. A terminal apparatus for supporting personal financial transactions which is accessible to a terminal for reading an IC card and MS-type financial card, comprising: an interface unit for interfacing data with the terminal for reading the financial card and the IC card; a communicator for establishing transmission/reception of financial transaction information over the Internet; a data entry unit for entering a financial transaction class and its financial transaction information; a display for displaying the financial transaction information; a memory for storing program data for encoding/decoding the financial transaction information being transmitted/received over the Internet, and control program data for supporting personal financial transactions; and a controller for performing a user authentication function by comparing a password read from the IC card with a password entered by a user, and controlling a personal financial transaction support function on the basis of the program data stored in the memory after performing the user authentication.

14. The apparatus as set forth in claim 13 , wherein the data entry unit includes a keyboard, and the controller receives a password for the user authentication from only a mouse.

15. The apparatus as set forth in claim 13 , wherein the control program data stored in the memory to support personal financial transactions includes : banking transaction sub-routine program data for executing a balance inquiry of an authenticated user' s account, a transfer of funds to the user's account, and a transaction result data inquiry of the user's account, respectively; giro payment sub-routine program data for executing a giro payment of the authenticated user; and simple account book sub-routine program data for creating an account book using settlement details of sales, purchases, and other expenses .

16. The apparatus as set forth in claim 15, wherein the banking transaction sub-routine program data for executing the balance inquiry in the user's account includes program data, said program data including the steps of: a) requesting the user to insert his or her MS-type financial card into a prescribed place upon receiving the balance inquiry request .from the user; b) reading financial card information from the MS-type financial card; c) requesting the user to enter his or her account's password, and receiving the user's account's password from the user; d) encoding the financial card information and the password as financial transaction information, and requesting the balance inquiry; e) receiving and decoding a result of the balance inquiry; f) displaying the decoded result of the balance inquiry; and g) printing the result of the balance inquiry.

17. The apparatus as set forth in claim 16, wherein the banking transaction sub-routine program data for executing the transfer of funds to the user's account includes program data, said program data including the steps of: a) requesting the user to insert his or her MS-type financial card into a prescribed place upon receiving a request for the transfer of funds from the user; b) reading financial card information from the MS-type financial card; c) requesting the user to enter his or her account's password, and receiving the account's password from the user; d) requesting the user to enter payee's account information; e) encoding the financial card information, the user's account's password, and the payee's account information, and transmitting the encoded information; f) receiving a result of payee inquiry, decoding and displaying the result of payee inquiry; g) transmitting a transfer message according to a transfer execution command; and h) receiving and displaying a result of the transfer execution command.

18. The apparatus as set forth in claim 17, wherein the banking transaction sub-routine program data for executing the transaction result data inquiry includes program data, said program data including the steps of: a) requesting the user to insert his or her MS-type financial card into a prescribed place upon receiving a request for the transaction result data inquiry from the user; b) reading financial card information from the MS-type financial card; c) requesting the user to enter his or her account's password, and receiving the account's password from the user; d) requesting the user to enter his or her desired inquiry date; e) encoding the financial card information, and the password and the inquiry date entered by the user as financial transaction information, and transmitting the encoded information; and f) receiving a result of transaction result data inquiry, decoding and displaying the result of transaction result data inquiry.

19. The apparatus as set forth in claim 15 or 18, wherein the giro payment sub-routine program data includes program data, said program data including the steps of: a) requesting the user to insert his or her MS-type financial card into a prescribed place upon receiving a request for the giro payment from the user; b) reading financial card information from the MS-type financial card; c) requesting the user to enter his or her account's password, and receiving the account's password from the user; d) requesting the user to enter giro payment information, and receiving the giro payment information from the user; e) encoding the financial card information, and the user-entered account's password, and the user-entered giro payment information, and transmitting the encoded information; f) receiving a result of giro payment, decoding and displaying the giro payment result; and g) printing the giro payment result .

20. The apparatus as set forth in claim 19, wherein the banking transaction sub-routine program data further includes check inquiry sub-routine program data for inquiring about various kinds of general checks.

21. The apparatus as set forth in claim 20, wherein the check inquiry sub-routine program data includes program data, said program data including the steps of: a) upon receiving a check inquiry request, requesting the user to insert various kinds of check issuance information such as an issuer bank, a check number, an issuer bank's code, a check type, an amount of issued money, and an issue date; b) receiving the check issuance information having the issuer bank, the check number, the issuer bank's code, the check type, the amount of issued money, and the issue date; and c) receiving a result of check inquiry, decoding and displaying the check inquiry result.

22. The apparatus as set forth in claim 15 or 18, wherein the simple account book sub-routine program data further includes program data, said program data including the steps of : a) requesting the user to insert his or her MS-type financial card into a prescribed place upon receiving a sales settlement request; b) reading financial card information from the MS-type financial card; c) inquiring of the communicator about a credit inquiry on the basis of the read financial card information and a user-entered sales price information; d) displaying a result of credit inquiry received from the communicator; and e) printing the credit inquiry result according to a print command.

23. The apparatus as set forth in claim 22, wherein the simple account book sub-routine program data further includes program data when the financial card is a cash card, said program data including the steps of: a) requesting the user to enter his or her account's password when the read financial card information relates to the cash card, and receiving the account's password; b) transmitting sales settlement amount information, the account's password, and the financial card information through the communicator, and requesting a transfer of funds to a seller's account; c) receiving a result of the transfer of funds between accounts, and displaying it; and d) printing the result of transfer of funds between accounts .

24. The apparatus as set forth in claim 22, wherein the simple account book sub-routine program data further includes program data, said program data including the steps of: a) requesting the user to insert his or her MS-type financial card into a prescribed place upon receiving a purchases settlement request; b) reading financial card information from the MS-type financial card; c) transmitting the read financial card information, purchase price information, and purchase commodity code information along with purchases settlement request information through the communicator; d) displaying purchases settlement completion information; and e) printing the purchases settlement completion information .

25. The apparatus as set forth in claim 24, wherein the simple account book sub-routine program data further includes program data, said program data including the steps of: a) requesting the user to enter his or her desired commodity information upon receiving a settlement request of other expenses; b) requesting the user to insert his or her MS-type financial card into a prescribed place; c) reading financial card information from the MS-type financial card; d) transmitting the read financial card information, a user-entered settlement amount of money, and settlement commodity information along with the settlement request of other expenses through the communicator; e) displaying settlement completion information received from the communicator; and f) printing the settlement completion information.