Summary of Patent Desciption
According to the invention, an intermediary is interposed between a merchant or payee and a purchaser or payor in a commercial transaction, particularly an electronic commerce transaction. The intermediary retains personal banking or credit information of the purchaser or payor. Upon request of the purchaser or payor, the intermediary acquires information regarding the transaction or payment to be executed, and the intermediary deals with securing the appropriate authorization from a financial institution on the purchaser/payor's behalf without the purchaser needing to disclose personal banking information to the merchant/payee. The authorization received from the financial institution is provided to the merchant/payee.
Universal Online Payment Gateway Description
In one aspect, the invention is a method of effecting payment between a payor and a payee in an electronic commerce transaction over a communication network, comprising the steps of an intermediary acquiring from the payor personal banking information regarding a financial institution through which payment is to be effected, the intermediary providing to the financial institution banking information regarding the payor and requesting and receiving from the financial institution a payment or credit authorization, and the intermediary informing the payee of said payment or credit authorization.
In another aspect, the invention is a method of effecting an electronic commerce transaction between a purchaser and a merchant over a communication network, comprising the steps of an intermediary acquiring from the purchaser personal banking information regarding a 2o financial institution through which payment for the transaction is to be effected, the purchaser selecting a product or service from the merchant, the purchaser instructing the intermediary to complete the transaction according to a method of payment accepted by the selected merchant, the intermediary informing the merchant that a purchaser wishes to purchase the selected product or service. The intermediary confirms the desired transaction with the purchaser, provides the information to the financial institution, requests and obtains authorization of payment or credit for the purchase price by the financial institution. The intermediary then informs the merchant ,of the authorization. The merchant confirms the purchase order with the financial institution and the financial institution sends payment to the merchant.
In yet another aspect, the invention is a method of facilitating payment in a payor-driven electronic commerce transaction on a communication network, comprising the steps of forwarding to a financial institution a request for authorization of payment or credit comprising personal banking information of the payor, payment amount information, a 1o merchant identification number and a transaction number, receiving from said financial institution confirmation that an authorization number has been dispatched to said merchant, and dispatching to a merchant a transaction number and order information without providing said personal banking information.
Registered institutions would be willing to authorize a transaction in response to a client's request through the intermediary, where such request includes identification of the client, details of the goods or services ordered and their price, a unique transaction number, the identification and encrypted merchant number of the selected merchant and the clients relevant banking or credit information encrypted according to the selected financial institution's encryption protocols or as stipulated by the application.
Financial Institutions Registration Universal Online Payment Gateway. Financial institutions would also be registered with the intermediary.
To initiate a transaction, a client must enter an identifier such as a pin number, password, bio-encryption or other authentication. One of the increased security systems is that a protocol will permit only three attempts at entering the correct identifier or identifiers.
In another embodiment of the invention, the business model according to the invention would permit a client to request by cell phone or other transmitting device an authorization through the intermediary.
The intermediary would in turn seek authorization on the client's behalf from the selected financial institution and transmit a transaction identifying number to the client, who would provide it to the merchant at point of sale, for example in a retail outlet or restaurant. The merchant would then enter the transaction number into their credit transaction modem or other such device to generate an authorization record for the merchant.
Another embodiment of the invention would release payment to the merchant once delivery had been encryptically confirmed and would include depositing the funds on hold pending confirmed satisfactory delivery of the order. Order confirmation could be provided by, but not limited to any, none or all of the client, the merchant or the delivery service.
Similarly judgment concerning the satisfactory nature of the goods themselves could be provided by any, all or none of the client, the merchant or the delivery service.
In another embodiment of the invention (illustrated by the flowchart of Fig. 2), the application makes provision for the fact that the financial institution may not wish to forward to an intermediary a transaction authorization and the financial institution's unique transaction number. In this embodiment, the financial institution dispatches such information directly to the merchant in response to the authorization request from the application server. At the same time, the financial institution would return to the application server the application-generated transaction number to along with an indication that an authorization number has been dispatched.
The application then sends to the merchant the application-generated transaction number along with the other information needed by the merchant to complete the purchase. This preferably includes details of the product order, price and delivery information.
In stipulating various keys, merchant numbers, authentication and identification protocols, the present invention does not preclude the inclusion of such keys, codes, merchant numbers and other such identifiers as may be mandated by financial institutions, government 2o agencies or any other such regulatory bodies regarding protocols for E-commerce transactions in differing jurisdictions worldwide.
For example, the preferred and alternative embodiments relate to obtain credit from a financial institution. However the principles of the invention also apply with suitable modification to other types of transactions involving the transfer of payment from a financial institution to a merchant at the request of a payor. Examples include arranging for the debit from a . bank account or the transfer of funds from one financial institution to another (the second financial institution being substituted for the merchant).
It will be appreciated that the invention has been described in relation to the preferred embodiment but that certain variations thereto may be practised without departing from the spirit and principles of the invention.
Applications
In the preferred embodiment of the invention, a consumer conducts to an online transaction by choosing a product or service from a selected merchant and instructing an intermediary to complete the transaction according to a method of payment accepted by the selected merchant. More click here...
Financial Institutions Registration
Registered institutions would be willing to authorize a transaction in response to a client's request through the intermediary, where such request includes identification of the client, details of the goods or services ordered and their price, a unique transaction number, the identification and encrypted merchant number of the selected merchant and the clients relevant banking or credit information encrypted according to the selected financial institution's encryption protocols or as stipulated by the application. More click here...
Creation of CreditAssure Financial as the affiliate for the Milinx Payment Gateway
Heartland Payment Systems announced an agreement to enable online credit card payments for e-commerce clients hosted by Milinx Business Group, Inc., a leading Application Service Provider. Through this alliance with Milinx subsidiary CreditAssure Financial, Inc., customers of Milinx will be able to apply online for their Internet Merchant account and receive swift service plus competitive rates.
Accepting credit card payments online is critical for companies seeking e-commerce solutions. By choosing Heartland Payment Systems, Milinx will be able to provide all the necessary tools for its clients to set up a merchant account and accept secure transactions online. Heartland will provide Milinx a secure online process that is expected to allow the ASP’s customers to be approved in as little as two hours from the time of application without providing a ‘wet’ signature for the account. Heartland expects to authorize more than 90 per cent of the online applications it receives from Milinx clients through CreditAssure.
Milinx will provide its customers with great value by offering a Heartland program that will save them the time and money usually associated with opening a merchant account. The two companies will also share the revenue from their agreement.
“This alliance allows Milinx to move closer to offering a one stop solution for their customers,” said John Waldron, Vice President of Internet Marketing and Sales with Heartland Payment Systems. “It is a real pleasure to have been selected by Milinx to provide their customers with such a critical piece of the e-commerce puzzle.”
“Milinx built its Application Data Center to handle hundreds of thousands of clients including e-commerce customers,” said Milinx President and CEO Maynard L. Dokken. “We chose Heartland Payment Systems because they can provide high levels of service, security and flexibility as our e-commerce clientele grows.”
About Heartland Payment Systems
Heartland Payment Systems provides businesses of all sizes with professional, one-stop solutions for payroll processing, traditional and Internet card processing and fraud prevention and protection programs. Heartland Payment Systems began in May 1997 as Heartland Card Services, LLC and has rapidly grown to become the 15th largest merchant acquirer in the US, as well as the largest, privately held merchant acquirer.
About Milinx
Milinx Business Group, Inc. (OTCBB: MIXBA) is an Application Service Provider (ASP) which hosts and delivers software to businesses over the Internet on a subscription basis. This minimizes spending on software and hardware while speeding the implementation of new solutions. Milinx is a Delaware corporation with headquarters in Seattle, Washington and operations in Vancouver, BC.