System and method for electronic bill pay and presentment

摘要

A system and method is disclosed enabling a customer payor to make payment to a payee in a networked environment using a credit card, revolving credit, or other credit account. The payment system may provide for online receipt and review of bills, and may allow a customer payor to optionally select one or more alternative secondary accounts for payment in the event that payment cannot be made from a primary credit account. The secondary account may be another credit account, a checking account, a brokerage account, or another type of account. Actual payment may be accomplished by electronic settlement of a credit transaction, electronic funds transfer, or by printing and physically delivering a paper check. A customer payor using the system and method may receive notification concerning the success or failure of the transaction.

主权项

1. A method for a payor to make one or more online payments to one or more payees using a payment system which enables a payor to make bill payments using a credit card account to payees who do not accept credit cards, the method comprising:
providing the payor with access to an online payment system operated by a payment administrator, the online payment system operative to receive and process online payment instructions for both bills received online and bills received off-line, and further operative to process payment instructions for a payee regardless of whether the payee has agreed to use said online payment system, wherein the online payment system is operative to pay a payee without an electronic interface to the payee; displaying to the payor, by way of a user terminal, an online bill owed to a payee, providing to the payor, for a payee who will not accept a credit card account for bill payment, a first payment mode of operation for payment of bills owed to payees, the first payment mode enabling a payor to make a bill payment using the payor's credit card account to a payee who does not accept credit cards, the first payment mode of operation comprising:
receiving a first bill payment instruction from the terminal, the first bill payment instruction comprising information to identify a credit card account of the payor,charging the credit card account of the payor an amount corresponding to the online bill owed to the payee,causing a first payment to be made from the payment administrator to the first payee by a payment mechanism not using the credit card account of the payor;thereby allowing a payor to pay a bill to a payee who does not accept credit card payments where the payee receives a non-credit card payment for the bill while the payor is charged against the payor's credit card account; receiving offline bill data from the terminal, the offline bill data comprising information to identify a bill received offline; receiving a second bill payment instruction from the terminal, the second payment instruction comprising information to identify a financial account of said payor; and causing a second payment by the payment administrator for the at least one offline bill to be made from the financial account of the payor to an offline payee of the offline bill regardless of whether the offline payee has agreed to use said online payment system.