WO2007137336A1

WO2007137336A1 - Sale transaction method

Info

Publication number: WO2007137336A1
Application number: PCT/AU2007/000729
Authority: WO
Inventors: Bernad John Pack
Original assignee: Lrv Group Of Companies Pty Ltd
Priority date: 2006-05-25
Filing date: 2007-05-25
Publication date: 2007-12-06

Abstract

A method of conducting an electronic financial transaction uses a mobile telephone. A database stores details of the trader card account along with his uniquely identifiable mobile telephone number. When a purchaser purchases goods or services from a trader, the trader uses his mobile telephone to call the transaction system and enters the details of the transaction, i.e. cost of purchase. The purchaser then either punches in his mobile number or his card account number into the trader's mobile. The system identifies the trader and the purchaser card account details and approves or declines a transaction based on the validity of the two accounts. The system then calculates any transaction fees that might be applicable to either the trader or the purchaser. It then transfers the sum of money from the purchaser's card account to the trader's account and deposits the associated transaction fee to the administrator's account.

Description

A SALE TRANSACTION METHOD

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to payments methods, primarily, but not necessarily, at point of sale which are implemented using computer networks.

BACKGROUND The primary payments method used in retail and other places is EFTpos. EFTpos provides electronic funds transfer at point of sale. EFTpos Customers are encouraged by financial institutions and Debit/Credit Card issuers to pay by Card in order to eliminate cash from the transaction, and pay a transaction fee to the Card issuer or Financial Institution, and/or a group of organizations involved in processing the transaction, for the service.

The applicant has identified that both consumers and traders are becoming disillusioned with conventional EFTpos systems, due to increased transaction fees, limitations on access to the system, and costs involved. It is an object of the present invention to provide an alternative Sale Transaction Method, at point of sale or otherwise, which is more attractive to consumers and traders. For example Cab-Charge which operates a payment method over EFTpos, charges 10% of the Cab fare, as well as normal transaction fees for facilitating payment of cab fares electronically (or by voucher).

It is an object of the present invention to provide an alternative type of sales transaction method which is cheaper, more accessible, and more attractive to consumers and traders and more appropriately deals with micro transactions, or at least provides an alternative to prior art methods.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a sale transaction method for processing a transaction when a customer purchases goods or services from a trader for a purchase sum of a currency medium, the method involving the steps of: determining that a trader mobile telephone identifier is associated with the trader card account, determining the amount of the purchase sum which is due to the trader, determining that a mobile telephone number or credit/debit card number is associated with a purchaser card account; determining that a verifiable PIN number is the PIN number required to debit the purchaser account, determining whether or not the purchaser card account has sufficient funds to cover the purchase sum and sending a notification to the mobile telephone of the trader, to inform the trader that the purchase sum has been paid by the purchaser and has been credited to the card account of the trader' or sending a notification to the mobile telephone of the trader, to inform the trader that the purchase sum has not been paid by the purchaser and has been not credited to the card account of the trader.

According to a further aspect of the current invention, the currency medium may be money, or the currency medium may be bartered credits.

According to a further aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for calculating a trader transaction fee based on either a percentage of the purchase amount or a pre-determined fixed amount including the steps of determining whether a trader transaction fee is applicable, determining whether the trader transaction fee is a percentage or a fixed amount determining the amount of the trader transaction fee and if applicable, debiting the trader transaction fee from the card account of the trader, and paying it into an administration card account or bank account of the provider.

In another embodiment, the method involves the step of debiting the trader transaction fee from the card account of the trader, and paying it into a plurality of card accounts or bank accounts to pay for marketing or other assistance. According to a further aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for calculating a purchaser transaction fee based on either a percentage of the purchase amount or a pre-determined fixed amount including the steps of determining whether a purchaser transaction fee is applicable, determining whether the purchaser transaction fee is a percentage or a fixed amount, determining the amount of the purchaser transaction fee and if applicable, debiting the purchaser transaction fee from the card account of the purchaser and paying it into an administration card account or bank account of the provider.

In another embodiment, the method involves the step of debiting the purchaser transaction fee from the card account of the purchaser, and paying it into a plurality of card accounts or bank accounts to pay for marketing or other assistance wherein the currency may be money or bartered credit.

According to a further aspect of the present invention, there is provided a media, such as a magnetic or optical disk or solid state memory, containing machine readable instructions for execution by one or more processors to thereby perform any one or more of the preceding methods.

According to a further aspect of the present invention, there is provided a computational device which is loaded with computer readable instructions to perform any one or more of the preceding methods.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of a system for performing a sale transaction method in accordance with the present invention Figure 2 is a flowchart of the sale transaction method of Figure 1 Figure 3 is a continuation of the flowchart of Figure 2

Figure 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of the sale transaction method of Figures 2 and 3. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Referring to Figure 1 , there is provided a system 9 for performing a sale transaction method of processing a transaction when a purchaser 6 purchases goods or services 5 from a trader 1 for the purchase sum. The sale transaction method involves deducting the purchase sum from the card account 11 of the purchaser, and depositing the purchase sum into the card account 13 of the trader 1 , and deducting a transaction fee from either or both the trader 1 and the purchaser 6, and depositing the transaction fee into the card account 15 of the administrator.

The method includes system 9, an electronic card issuer 10, a transaction system administrator 7, a trader 1 having a mobile telephone 2 interfaced to the network 4 via the mobile telephone company 3 and then on to system 9 of the card issuer 10, and a purchaser 6 having a purchaser card (i.e. credit card or debit card) 21 issued by the card issuer 10 and to be used in conjunction with the mobile telephone 2 of the trader 1 to complete a purchase. The system 9 accesses the database 8 to validate information received from mobile telephone 2 and determines appropriate responses to send back to the mobile telephone 2. The card issuer 10 administers a trader card account 13 and a purchaser card account 11, which may also be associated with a separate credit card account (not shown) belonging to the purchaser 6, and issued to the purchaser 6 by another credit card company 20, which the purchaser 6 may have authorized to be electronically called upon to supply funds if the purchaser card account 11 of the purchaser 6 has insufficient funds to complete a transaction. A person skilled in the art will appreciate that the mobile telephone 2, the system 9 of the card issuer 10 and credit card company 20 would typically each include respective networks and servers which are interfaced to communicate with each other.

The trader card account 13 includes a trader card balance 14 and the purchaser card account 11 includes a purchaser card balance 12. The purchaser card balance 12 is debited when the trader 1 requests payment of the purchase sum via his mobile telephone 2 and the purchaser 6 consents to the request by keying the correct PIN number relating to the purchaser card account 11 into the mobile telephone 2 of trader 1.

The purchaser 6 can access their corresponding purchaser account 11 by using their purchaser card 21 in conjunction with an automatic teller machine (ATM) to withdraw or deposit money from the purchaser account 11. Alternatively, the purchaser 6 may access their corresponding purchaser account 11 over the Internet (not shown) to withdraw or deposit money from the purchaser account 11. The purchaser 6 can further access their purchaser account 11 to make a purchase using the traders EFTpos terminal (not shown). The purchaser card 11 has a unique bank identification number (BIN) for security and typically other safeguards such as passwords and usernames would be required to gain authorization to access the purchaser account 11.

Similarly, the trader 1 can access their corresponding trader card account 13 by using a trader card associated with trader card account 13 (not shown) in conjunction with an ATM or an EFTpos terminal (not shown). Alternatively, the trader 1 may access their trader card account 13 over the Internet. The trader card (not shown), is issued by the card issuer 10, and can be accessed in various methods and account the number of which is securely linked to his mobile telephone identifier in database 8.

The sales transaction System Administrator Database 8 includes details of the trader card account 13 and balance 14 which, in turn, includes the specific mobile telephone identifier capable of securely identifying that a request for payment came from a specific trader and is securely linked to his card account 13.

New balances 17, 18 and 19 reflect the new balances of each corresponding account after a successful $50.00 transaction has been completed.

Figures 2 and 3 are a flowchart showing the sale transaction method 30, for transacting a purchase for a sum of money. One or more software products may be required to perform the method 30 using system 9. The software products include machine readable instructions which are readable by computational devices and are stored on suitable media.

At step 32, the purchaser 6 initiates the purchase of goods or services from the trader 1 for the purchase sum. The trader 1 dials a predefined number on his mobile telephone 2.

At step 34, a sale transaction request is received by the system 9 which is administered by the system administrator 7 (which may also be the card issuer 10 and is referred to as such in this example) which hosts the sale transaction method 30 in system 9, and processes the sale transaction request.

At step 36, system 9 of the card provider checks database 8 to see if mobile telephone 2 is identified as belonging to a trader 1 who is subscribed to the system. If the mobile telephone 2 is not identified as belonging to a trader 1 who is subscribed to the system, the transaction terminates at step 37, and no response is sent. If mobile telephone 2 is identified, the method proceeds to step 38.

At step 38, system 9 of the card provider 10 sends a request to the mobile telephone 2 requesting trader 1 to key in the purchase sum on his mobile telephone 2 and press send.

At step 40, trader 1 keys the purchase sum into his mobile telephone 2 and presses the send key on his mobile telephone 2.

At step 42 system 9 of the card issuer 10 receives the purchase sum and sends back to mobile telephone 2 a request for either the mobile telephone number of purchaser 6 or card number of a card issued by the card issuer 10 and belonging to purchaser 6.

At step 44 trader 1 receives a request for either the mobile telephone number of purchaser 6 or card number of a purchaser card account 11 belonging to purchaser 6 and trader 1 or purchaser 6 then key in the appropriate number and press send on mobile telephone 2.

Λt step 46, system 9 of the card issuer 10 receives the number and determines whether the number is contained in database 8 and is associated with a valid card number of a card issued by card issuer 10, in this example being purchaser card account 11. If the number received is not a valid card number or is a mobile telephone number that is not associated with a valid card number, the transaction can either terminate at step 47, as in this example, or could simply revert back to step 42 and request the number again. If the number is associated with a valid card number, purchaser card account 11 the method proceeds to step 48.

At step 48 system 9 of the card issuer 10 sends a request to mobile telephone 2 for the purchaser to key in his PIN number and press send.

At step 50 trader 1 receives a request for a PIN number, and hands the mobile telephone 2 to purchaser 6 and purchaser 6 then discretely keys in his PIN number and presses send on mobile telephone 2.

At step 52, system 9 of card issuer 10 receives the PIN of purchaser 6 and, using standard key encryption or another process, attempts to verify that the PIN received is the correct PIN authorized to access funds balance 12 on card account 11. If the PIN received is not valid, system 9 terminates the transaction at step 53, and sends a message "incorrect PIN" to mobile telephone 2. Alternatively the transaction could send an error message and recommence the transaction at step 48. If the PIN received is valid the method proceeds to step 54.

At step 54 system 9 of card issuer 10 accesses database 8 to verify that purchaser card account balance 12 of purchaser card account 11 has sufficient funds to cover the purchase sum. If purchaser card account balance 12 does not have sufficient funds to cover the purchase sum, then the method proceeds to step 56 which checks to see if card account 11 has a signed authority to draw funds from a third party credit card provider 20, and if true, then an attempt will be made to immediately electronically draw funds from the third party credit card provider 20 to cover the purchase sum. If this is not successful or no such authority was attached to the purchaser card account 11 , the system proceeds to step 57 and sends a message "declined" to mobile telephone 2 the method then proceeds to step 68 to determine whether the purchaser 6 has incurred any transaction fees for a declined transaction. If the purchaser card account 11 has sufficient funds to cover the purchase sum, or a draw on a third party credit card was successful then the method proceeds to step 60

At step 60 system 9 of card issuer 10 sends message "approved" to mobile telephone 2 of trader 1 to inform him that the purchase sum has been paid into his trader card account balance 14.

At step 62 system 9 of card issuer 10 accesses database 8 and purchaser card account balance 12 of card account 11 is debited and the trader card account balance 14 of trader card account 13 is credited by the purchase sum and the method proceeds to step 64.

At step 64 the system 9 of card issuer 10 accesses database 8 to determine whether trader 1 has incurred transaction fees for the transaction. If no transaction fees are payable by trader 1 , the method proceeds to step 68. If transaction fees are payable by trader 1 the method proceeds to step 66.

At step 66 the system 9 of card issuer 10 debits the transaction fee sum from the trader card account balance 14 and credits the transaction sum fee to the administration card balance 16 of the administration card account 15 of the card issuer 10.

At step 68 the system 9 of card issuer 10 accesses database 8 to determine whether purchaser 6 has incurred transaction fees for the transaction. If no transaction fees are payable by purchaser 6, the method proceeds to step 72. If transaction fees are payable by purchaser 6 the method proceeds to step 70.

At step 70 the system 9 of card issuer 10 debits the transaction fee sum from the purchaser card account balance 12 and credits the transaction sum fee to the administration card balance 16 of the administration card account 15 of the card issuer 10 and the method proceeds to step 72.

At step 72 the system 9 of card issuer 10 accesses database 8 to determine whether there are any rewards or loyalty schemes existing between the card account 11 of the purchaser and the card account 13 of the trader. If there are no loyalty schemes which affect the card accounts, the method proceeds to step 78. If loyalty or rewards schemes are attached, the method proceeds to step 76.

At step 76 the system 8 of card issuer 10 processes any loyalty or rewards provisions in accordance with the loyalty or rewards schemes attached.

At step 78 the sale transaction process is complete and the transaction ends.

Referring to Figure 4 we can demonstrate a sale transaction method from commencement to finality.

The purchaser 6 hails the taxi 5 belonging to trader 1 to hire the taxi for a journey. At completion of the journey purchase sum 22 of $50 is payable by purchaser 6, who has a card issued by the card issuer 10, and elects to pay the purchase sum 22 of $50 by using his card to pay trader 1 , who also has a card account issued by card issuer 10.

Trader 1 uses his mobile telephone 2 to dial a predefined number which gives him a secure connection via USSD (or a similar secure protocol) to system 9 of the card issuer, which checks the database 8 of the card issuer to verify that trader 1 is subscribed to the sales transaction method. Upon verification that trader 1 is subscribed to the sale transaction method, the system 9 of card issuer 10 communicates with mobile telephone 2 of trader 1 and requests the purchase amount and the card number of purchaser card account 11.

On verification that purchaser 1 has a valid card account number (which may also be linked to a mobile telephone identifier but is not essential for the purchaser) the system 9 of card issuer 10 requests the PIN associated with the purchaser card account 11.

The trader 1 would then hand the mobile telephone 2 to purchaser 6 for him to key in his PIN number and press send on mobile telephone 2. Upon verifying that the correct PIN has been received, the system 9 of card issuer 10 would access the database 8 and debit the purchase sum 22 of $50 from the card account balance 12, leaving it with a new balance of ($100 - $50) $50 in second balance 15 which is the new balance of purchaser card account 11 , and credit the trader card account balance with the purchase sum 22, creating the new balance 18 of trader card account 13.

Between the steps of verifying the PIN of purchaser 6 and debiting and crediting the respective balances, the system 9 of card issuer 10 would respond to the mobile telephone 2 with a message "approved" to notify the trader 1 that the transaction has been settled.

A person skilled in the art will appreciate that many embodiments and variations can be made without departing from the ambit of the present invention.

In the preferred embodiment described, the sale transaction method 30 involved the allocation of monetary funds. In another embodiment, an alternative currency medium such as bartered credits may be used instead, but may also simply be on a debit and/or credit basis as spent or otherwise advised. The preferred embodiment was described with reference to a single trader 1 and purchaser 6. A person skilled in the art will appreciate that the sale transaction method 30 is available to a plurality of both traders 1 and purchasers 6 which each have respective trader card accounts 13 and purchaser card accounts 11 respectively.

In compliance with the statute, the invention has been described in language more or less specific to structural or methodical features. It is to be understood that the invention is not limited to specific features shown or described since the means herein described comprises preferred forms of putting the invention into effect.

Claims

1. A sales transaction method using a mobile telephone when a purchaser purchases goods or services from a trader including the steps of: uniquely identifying a mobile telephone identifier or mobile telephone number with a debit or credit card number in a database, determining that a mobile telephone identifier is associated with a trader subscribed to the sales transaction method, determining that responses from the identified mobile telephone are valid and responding to the identified mobile telephone to approve or decline the transaction.

2. A sale transaction method for processing a transaction when a customer purchases goods or services from a trader for a purchase sum of currency including the steps of: determining that a trader mobile telephone identifier is associated with the trader card account, determining the amount of the purchase sum which is due to the trader, determining that a mobile telephone number or credit/debit card number is associated with a purchaser card account; determining that a verifiable PIN number is the PIN number required to debit the purchaser account, determining whether or not the purchaser card account has sufficient funds to cover the purchase sum and sending a notification to the mobile telephone of the trader, to inform the trader that the purchase sum has been paid by the purchaser and has been credited to the card account of the trader' or sending a notification to the mobile telephone of the trader, to inform the trader that the purchase sum has not been paid by the purchaser and has been not credited to the card account of the trader.

3. The method of claim 2 in which the currency is money or bartered credits.

4. A method for calculating a trader transaction fee based on either a percentage of the purchase amount or a pre-determined fixed amount including the steps of determining whether a trader transaction fee is applicable, determining whether the trader transaction fee is a percentage or a fixed amount determining the amount of the trader transaction fee and if applicable, debiting the trader transaction fee from the card account of the trader, and paying it into an administration card account or bank account of the provider.

5. The method of claim 4 including the step of debiting the trader transaction fee from the card account of the trader and paying it into a plurality of card accounts or bank accounts to pay for marketing or other assistance.

6. A method for calculating a purchaser transaction fee based on either a percentage of the purchase amount or a pre-determined fixed amount including the steps of determining whether a purchaser transaction fee is applicable, determining whether the purchaser transaction fee is a percentage or a fixed amount, determining the amount of the purchaser transaction fee and if applicable, debiting the purchaser transaction fee from the card account of the purchaser and paying it into an administration card account or bank account of the provider.

7. The method of claim 6 including the step of debiting the purchaser transaction fee from the card account of the purchaser and paying it into a plurality of card accounts or bank accounts to pay for marketing or other assistance wherein the currency may be money or bartered credit.

8. The methods of claims 1 to 7 wherein there is provided a media, such as a magnetic or optical disk or solid state memory, containing machine readable instructions for execution by one or more processors to thereby perform any of the specified functions.

9. The methods of claims 1 to 7 wherein there is provided a computational device which is loaded with computer readable instructions to perform any of the specified functions.