The present application claims priority from Australian provisional application No. 201 1902849 filed on 18 July 2011 the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.

Technical Field

This invention concerns the payment of bills. In particular, the invention concerns a method, computer system and software.

Background Art

Electronic payment using the Internet has become a standard procedure for most people in developed countries. A payer, such as a consumer of goods or services, receives a bill in paper form. The bill informs the payer about the payment amount and details on how to pay the amount to the biller, such as a supplier of goods. The payer then visits the Internet site of their bank and enters the details from the paper bill into a payment form for initiating the payment to the biller. These details usually include the biller's name, account number, bank identifier, bill number, and customer number.

When the consumer enters the numbers into the forms of the banking website, some of the entries may be erroneous. The funds may be transferred to a different recipient, the amount may not be the same as stated on the bill or the payee may not recognise the payment because the bill number or customer number was incorrect.

This wastes time of the consumer for entering all the details into the form of the banking website and to ensure that all the details are correct. There are wasted resources of the biller for checking each received payment and in case of errors contacting the consumer to rectify the situation. Additionally, some consumers decide to pay the bill at a later stage because they are reluctant to spend all the effort needed to enter so many details. As a result, the biller receives the payment late or not at all if the consumer forgets to pay the bill later. This results in costs for capital and administration. Any discussion of documents, acts, materials, devices, articles or the like which has been included in the present specification is not to be taken as an admission that any or all of these matters form part of the prior art base or were common general knowledge in the field relevant to the present invention as it existed before the priority date of each claim of this application. Throughout this specification the word "comprise", or variations such as "comprises" or "comprising", will be understood to imply the inclusion of a stated element, integer or step, or group of elements, integers or steps, but not the exclusion of any other element, integer or step, or group of elements, integers or steps. Summary

In one aspect there is provided a method for notifying a payer of a bill, the method comprising:

receiving information related to a bill, the information including at least payer identification information and biller identification information;

determining a first telephone number that is associated with the payer;

determining a second telephone number that uniquely represents the biller to the payer; and

sending a text message to the first telephone number such that the originating number of the text message is the second telephone number.

It is an advantage of the first aspect that the payer receives a text message from an originating number that is unique to the biller. In this way the payer is notified that a new bill has been issued and the payer can determine from the originating number which biller has issued the new bill. In this way the payer can be conveniently and promptly notified of a new bill on their mobile device, such as a phone.

The text message may include information that is required to pay the bill. For example, the information may include the payment amount and the text message may include at least the payment amount. The text message may include further information such as one or more of:

the name of the biller,

the due date of the bill,

a list of items the bill is for,

a reference number associated with the payer, and

instructions on how to reply to the text message in order to initiate payment of the bill. Alternatively, the text message is empty and the very receipt of the text message is an indication that a bill is needed to be paid. The bill may be associated with one account of a plurality of accounts of the biller and determining a second telephone number that uniquely represents the biller to the payer may comprise determining the second telephone number that uniquely represents the one account of the biller to the payer. It is an advantage of this embodiment that in the cases where the payer receives bills from different accounts of the biller (e.g. the same company may provide separate bills for electricity and gas) the originating number of the text message will uniquely identify which account the bill relates to.

The second telephone number may be one of a set of numbers associated with the biller.

The method may further comprise:

receiving a reply text message sent to the second telephone number from the first telephone number;

based on the first and second telephone numbers identify the bill that the reply text message relates to;

determining from the text message whether the payer wishes the bill to be paid; and

if it is determined that the payer wishes the bill to be paid, initiating payment of the bill.

It is an advantage of this embodiment that a payer can pay the bill by replying to the text message that notified the payer of a new bill. Most mobile devices for receiving text messages provide conveniently placed buttons for replying to a text message. As a result, the payer can initiate the payment for a new bill conveniently. It is a further advantage of this embodiment that no money is handled by the entity performing this method in order for the bill to be paid.

Initiating payment may be by determining the financial institution of the payer and sending instructions to that financial institution to pay the bill. The method may also comprise the step of determining from the received reply text message an amount to be paid to the biller. For example, the amount to be paid may be a full or part of the payment amount. It is an advantage of this embodiment that the need for the payer to copy any details from the bill is obviated.

The biller may be represented by a. different second telephone number to a different payer.

In a second aspect, there is a computer system to notify a payer of a bill, the system comprising:

a first input port to receive information related to a bill, the information including at least payer identification information and biller identification information;

, a processor to determine

a first telephone number that is associated with the payer; and a second telephone number that uniquely represents the biller to the payer; and

an output port to send a text message to the second telephone number such that the originating number of the text message is the first telephone number. In a third aspect, software is provided, that when installed on a computer system causes it to perform the method of the first aspect.

In a fourth aspect, there is provided a method for receiving a notification of a bill, the bill having a biller and a payer, the method comprising:

receiving a text message from an originating number that uniquely represents the biller to the payer; and

automatically determining from the originating number the identity information of the biller and displaying an indicator of the identity of the biller. The method of the fourth aspect may comprise sending a reply text message to the originating number, the reply text message comprising a predefined text that indicates whether the payer wishes the bill to be paid.

In a fifth aspect there is provided a computer system for receiving a notification of a bill, the bill having a biller and a payer, the system comprising: an input port to receive a text message from an originating number that uniquely represents the biller to the payer;

a processor to automatically determine from the originating number the identity information of the biller; and

a display to display the identity information of the biller.

The computer system of the fifth aspect may comprise an output port to send a reply text message to the originating number, the reply text message comprising a predefined text that indicates whether the payer wishes the bill to be paid.

In a sixth aspect, software is provided, that when installed on a computer system, such as a personal digital assistant (PDA), causes it to perform the method of the fourth aspect. Optional features of any aspect of the invention described here are also optional features of the other aspects of the invention described here.

Brief Description of the Drawings

Examples of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

Fig. 1 illustrates a computer network for bill payment via SMS and the initialisation of the network.

Fig. 2 illustrates the computer network and the method for paying a bill.

Fig. 3(a) illustrates an SMS received by a consumer.

Fig. 3(b) illustrates the SMS after the consumer has saved the originating number in an address book.

Fig. 4 illustrates an address book.

Fig. 5 illustrates an SMS inbox.

Fig. 6(a) illustrates a reply SMS.

Fig. 6(b) illustrates an alternative reply SMS

Fig. 7 illustrates a process as performed by the payment service provider.

Fig. 8(a) illustrates a mapping between billers, telephone numbers associated with the billers and consumers.

Fig. 8(b) illustrates an alternative mapping between billers, telephone numbers associated with the billers and consumers.

Fig. 9 illustrates a computer system for bill payment via SMS. Best Modes

Fig. 1 shows a computer network 100 for bill payment via SMS comprising billers 101 (one is shown here for simplicity) connected to a payment service provider 102 via the Internet (not shown). Each biller 101 may be a utility company, any subscribed service provider, council, club, etc. Payers, such as consumers, 103 (one is shown here for simplicity), are connected to the payment service provider 102 via a GSM network 104. Each consumer 103 may use a mobile phone, personal digital assistant (PDA), or any other computer system that allows communication by sending and receiving SMS messages. Financial institutions 105 (one is shown here for simplicity), such as PayPal or a bank, are connected to the biller 101, the payment service provider 102 and the consumer 103.

The initialisation of the computer network 100 will now be described. The payment service provider 102 requests a set of telephone numbers 1 10 from the GSM network 104. The GSM network 104 replies by assigning the set of telephone numbers 111 to the payment service provider 102. This assignment includes the service of routing all SMS messages sent to any of these numbers to the payment service provider 102 in a way that the payment service provider 102 can determine the target number, ie the number to which the message was sent, and the originating number, ie the number from which the message was sent. The telephone numbers are the property of the payment service provider 102.

Each biller 101 requests registration 112 with the payment service provider 102. The payment service provider 102 associates the biller 101 uniquely with one telephone number out of the set of telephone numbers and confirms registration 1 13 to the biller 101. As a result, this telephone number uniquely represents the biller 101 to the consumer 103. The biller 101 does not need to be notified of the telephone number that was associated with the biller 101. More than one biller 101 may register with the payment service provider 102. As a result, a mapping is created that uniquely associates each biller with one telephone number. The mapping is stored in a datastore of the payment service provider 102. More details about the mapping of billers and telephone numbers are provided further below with reference to Figs. 8(a) and 8(b). By engaging the payment service provider 102 the biller gives the payment service provider 102 the right to tender the biller's bills. The biller 101 may have access to payment information available at the payment service provider 102. Payment information may include information about outstanding bills and any payments made on the tendered bills.

The consumer 103 also requests registration 114 with the payment service provider 102 by visiting a website of the payment service provider 102 and creating a user account. With this step the consumer 103 provides the payment service provider with all the necessary information and gives the payment service provider the right to proxy the consumer's payment. The necessary information may include the consumer's mobile phone number, the consumer's account details with the financial institution 105, a list of billers for which the consumer wishes to use the SMS payment service, and other personal information such as name and address. This information is stored in a datastore of the payment service provider 102. The registration requires that the consumer 103 has an account with a financial institution 105. For each biller the consumer 103 may also supply a customer reference number. Details which are common to all billers are provided only once by the consumer 103.

Once the consumer 103 has entered the details for a new biller 101, the payment service provider 102 sends a confirmation SMS to the consumer and the originating number of this SMS is the telephone number associated with this new biller 101. The consumer 103 may then save the originating number of the confirmation SMS to an address book so that all further SMS messages related to this biller 101 are presented with the biller's name on the consumer's communication device. The payment service provider 102 may also send an address book entry in a standardised format, such as vCard, by email or text messaging to facilitate the saving procedure for the consumer 103.

During the registration process between the payment service provider 102 and the consumer 103, a billing agreement between the financial institution 105, the payment service provider 102 and the consumer 103 is created and accepted 1 15 by the consumer 103. This agreement authorises the payment service provider 102 to directly charge the account of the consumer 103 at the financial institution 105. The payment service provider 102 does not itself receive or send any funds. When the billing agreement and the rest of the registration process is finalised, the payment service provider 102 confirms the registration with the consumer 103. In this example, consumer 103 and payment service provider 102 communicate entirely via GSM network 104. In a different example, the registration process between the consumer 103 and the payment service provider is processed via the Internet. For the registration process via the Internet the consumer may use a different communication device, such as a personal computer, that is not able to communicate with SMS. Fig. 2 illustrates the process for paying a bill. The biller 101 sends 210 a bill to the payment service provider 102. Alternatively, the biller 101 generates a set of consumers to bill and sends this set to the payment service provider 102. The payment service provider 102 iterates over the elements in the set and regards each element like a separate bill. The biller 101 may send the bills using a predefined message format, such as XML, so that elements can be automatically identified by the payment service provider 102. Alternatively, or in addition the biller 101 may log into an account hosted by the payment service provider 102 and upload a bill payment file.

The payment service provider 102 extracts from the bill the consumer name, the customer reference number, the due date, the payment amount and the name of the associated biller. If the biller 101 has multiple accounts with the payment service provider 102, the associated account is also extracted from the bill. Further information such as interest amount and penalties incurred may also be extracted. The biller may also provide a schedule when the biller requires a SMS to be generated and sent to the consumer.

The payment service provider 102 determines from the data store the mobile phone number of the consumer 101. The payment service provider 102 further determines from the stored mapping between telephone numbers and billers which telephone number is associated with biller 101. From now on, the telephone number serves as an identifier for the most recent bill from the biller 101. The payment service provider 102 stores the details of the bill associated with the telephone number associated with the biller 101. In this way, when consumer 103 sends an SMS to this telephone number, the payment service provider 102 can relate this message to the bill stored associated with this telephone number.

After receiving and storing the bill, the payment service provider 102 creates an SMS such that the originating number of the SMS is the telephone number which is associated with the biller 101. The SMS also includes information about the new bill, such as the payments amount, the name of the biller, the due date of the bill, a list of items of the bill, the customer reference number and instructions on how to reply to the text message so that the bill is paid. At the scheduled time the payment service provider 102 sends 21 1 the SMS to the mobile phone number of the consumer 103.

If the consumer 103 wishes to pay the bill, the consumer 103 replies 212 to the SMS with a predefined text such as "approved", "yes" or "pay". The user is not required to input any details of the bill and as a result, the process is simple, quick and has reduced chance for error. The consumer 103 may further include in the SMS 212 an amount into the reply SMS to pay a different amount than stated by the bill. When the consumer 103 replies to the SMS, the reply SMS is sent to the telephone number that is associated with the biller 101. The GSM network 104 routes the SMS to the payment service provider 102 because the payment service provider 102 has acquired this number as described with reference to Fig. 1.

The payment service provider 102 determines from which number the message was sent, ie which consumer has sent the message, and also to which number the message was sent, ie the bill of which biller this message refers to. In this example, each SMS 211 refers to the most recent bill from that particular biller 101 that the consumer 103 has been notified of. If more than one bill has issued from a biller 101 , the consumer 103 may be notified of the old bill before the message for the new bill is sent. Alternatively, the consumer 103 may pay any older pending bills through a separate channel such as the Internet.

If the consumer 103 does not pay the bill within a certain period of time, such as before the due date, the payment service provider 102 sends a reminder SMS (not shown) to the consumer 103 and as above, the consumer can pay the bill by replying to the reminder SMS.

The payment service provider 102 receives the reply SMS 212 and searches the SMS 212 for predefined words to determines from the text of the reply SMS whether the consumer 103 wishes to pay the new bill. The payment service provider 102 also determines whether the consumer 103 has included an alternative amount. If the payment service provider 102 receives an empty SMS, the payment service provider 102 may interpret this as an instruction to initiate payment. Alternatively, the payment service provider 102 may discard an empty SMS or send the consumer 103 another notification SMS. The payment service provider 102 may receive an SMS that originates form a number which cannot be matched with the records of the payment service provider 102. Therefore, this SMS is not in response to an SMS informing the consumer 103 of a new bill. The payment service provider 102 will simply discard this SMS and reply with an error notification by SMS. If it is determined that the consumer 103 wishes to pay the bill, the payment service provider 102 initiates payment 213. The payment service provider 102 determines the financial institution 105 of the consumer 103 and sends 215 instructions to the financial institution 105 for transferring funds to the biller. The financial institution 105 checks whether a billing agreement has been set up, which authorises the payment service provider 102 to initiate the payment. If this is the case, the financial institution 105 transfers funds 214 to the biller 101. Upon completion of the fund transfer, the financial institution sends 215 a payment confirmation to the payment service provider 102. The payment service provider 102 in turn sends 216 an SMS to the consumer 103 informing the consumer 103 that the bill has been paid.

Fig. 3(a) illustrates an SMS 300 received by a consumer. The SMS 300 includes an originating telephone number 301, which is the number associated with a particular biller, and a text body 302. The text body 302 includes a name 303 of the biller, a > billing amount 304, and instructions 305 on how the consumer may initiate the payment of the bill.

Fig. 3(b) illustrates the SMS after the consumer has saved the originating number in an address book under the name of the biller. In this case, the consumer has appended the word "Bill" to the name of the biller so that it is clear that this SMS relates to a bill received from this biller. The originating telephone number 301 in Fig. 3(a) is now replaced by the name of the biller 310. This way, the user may save the number associated with a biller in an address book once, and from then on every time the user receives a bill from this biller, the SMS shows the name of the biller instead of the telephone number which is associated to this biller.

For initiating payment of the bill, the consumer does not need to enter any information. The only thing left to do is to reply to the SMS with "pay" saving the consumer time to pay the bill and significantly reducing opportunity for errors. The advantage to the biller is that bills will be paid earlier and reduced cost associated with correcting errors that result from incorrect data received from the consumers. If the consumer forgets to pay a bill within a certain period of time, such as one week, the payment service provider may send another SMS as a reminder to pay the bill.

Fig. 4 illustrates an address book 400 on a consumer's communication device. The address book 400 contains three entries 401, 402, and 403, one for each biller. Each entry 401, 402, and 402 contains a biller name 411, 412, and 413 and a telephone number that is associated with that biller 421, 422, and 423, respectively.

Fig. 5 illustrates an SMS inbox 500 on a consumer's communication device. In this example, the consumer has received three SMS messages 502, 503, and 504 from three different billers. In this example, the user has previously saved the telephone numbers of the three billers into the address book as described with reference to Fig. 4. The consumer can easily determine from which biller the consumer has received a new bill and also, based on the order in the inbox 500 which bills were received recently. The inbox 500 indicates the massages as read and or whether a reply has already been sent. The consumer may then direct the communication device to open the unread message 502 which results in a display as illustrated in Fig. 3(b).

Fig. 6(a) illustrates an example reply SMS 600 comprising a reply-to name 601 and a message text 602. The consumer wishes to pay the bill and therefore writes "Pay" into the message text. The consumer then sends the reply message 600 to the payment service provider 102 in Figs. 1 and 2.

Fig. 6(b) illustrates an alternative reply SMS 610 comprising a reply-to name 61 1 and a message text 612. In this example, the message text 612 includes an alternative amount 613. This indicates to the payment service provider 102 that the consumer 103 wishes to pay $100 instead of the amount stated on the bill.

Fig. 7(a) illustrates a process 700 as performed by the payment service provider 102 in Figs. 1 and 2. The payment service provider starts by waiting for a bill 701 from one of the billers. When one of the billers sends a bill to the payment service provider, the bill is then received 702 by the payment service provider. The bill includes identification information of the payer and the payment service provider determined 702 a mobile phone number of the payer. From the name of the biller associated with the bill, the payment service provider determines an originating number 704associated with this biller. The payment service provider then creates an SMS 705 including information from the bill such as the name of the biller, the payment amount, etc. The SMS is then sent 706 to the consumer.

Fig. 7(b) illustrates a process 750 as performed by at the consumer side. The consumer receives 751 an SMS form an originating number. From this originating number, the name of the biller can be determined 752. This determination may be based on numbers stored in the address book of the consumer's device. The consumer's device then displays 753 the new SMS with the name of the biller. The consumer then sends 754 a reply SMS including predefined text that indicates whether the consumer wishes the bill to be paid.

Going back to Fig. 7(a), the reply SMS is received 707 by the payment service provider. It is determined whether the user wishes the bill to be paid 708 by analysing the message text. If the message text gives a clear indication that the consumer wishes to pay the bill, such as "pay" or "yes", a payment is initiated from the financial institution to the biller 709. If the consumer specifies an alternative amount, a payment is initiated for this amount from the financial institution to the biller. If the message indicates that the user does not wish to pay the bill, the process returns to waiting for a ^' bill 701 and reminder SMS is sent. When the payments was successful the process also returns to waiting for a bill 701. If payment was not successful, the consumer may be notified by a status SMS.

Fig. 8(a) illustrates a mapping 800 between billers 801, telephone numbers 802 ^¾ associated with the billers 801 and consumers 803. In this example, there are six billers I- VI, six telephone numbers 1-6 and three consumers A-C. A unique telephone number 802 is associated to each biller 801 and as a result, the number of required telephone numbers 802 is the same as the number of billers. However, consumer A is only registered with billers I, II, and III, consumer B only with billers II, III, and IV, and consumer C only with billers IV, V, and VI. It is possible to reduce the number of required telephone numbers if none of the consumers are registered with all billers.

Fig. 8(b) shows an alternative mapping 800 between billers 851, telephone numbers 852 associated with the billers 851 and consumers 853. With this mapping the telephone number 852 associated to a biller is different for different consumers 853. For example, biller II is associated with telephone number 2 for consumer A but with telephone number 1 for consumer B. As a result, the number of telephone numbers is reduced to the maximum number of billers per consumer.

In another example, the biller may have several accounts for each consumer. In this case, one telephone number is associated with each account. Therefore, the originating telephone number uniquely represents one account of the biller to the consumer. With more consumers having several accounts with different billers, the mapping as shown in Fig. 8(b) will be more advantageous than the mapping according to Fig. 8(a). Fig. 9 illustrates a computer system 900 comprising a bill input port 901 for receiving a bill. The bill input port 901 may be implemented as a file transfer receiver port. The bill input port 901 is connected to a processor 902. Processor 902 is also connected to a datastore 903, an SMS output port 904, an SMS input port 905, and a payment output port. The datastore 903 stores a mobile phone number for each consumer. The datastore 903 also stores a set of originating numbers, a set of billers, and a mapping from the set of billers to the set of originating numbers such that each biller is associated with an originating number as described above. The system may be implemented on a Java platform and may incorporate security services and other applications for distribution resource planning or service level agreements.

When in use, the system 900 receives a bill through bill input port 901. Processor 902 analyses the bill, extracts information, such as the biller's name, payment amount, due date, and a consumer's name, from the bill. Processor 902 stores the information into data store 903. From the data stored in datastore 903 the processor 902 determines the mobile phone number of the consumer and the number with which the biller is associated. The processor 902 also creates an SMS including some or all of the information extracted from the received bill. The system 900 then sends the bill via SMS output port 904 to the consumer such that the originating number is the telephone number determined from the mapping stored in the datastore 903.

After the consumer has received the SMS and has decided to pay the bill, the consumer replies with a reply SMS including an affirmative statement such as "pay" and optionally an alternative amount. This reply SMS is received by the SMS input port 905. Because the consumer replied to the originating number, the target number of the reply SMS is the telephone number associated with the biller and the originating number is the telephone number of the consumer. The processor 902 uses the target number of the reply SMS to identify the biller and the originating number of the SMS to identify the consumer. The processor then relates the reply SMS to the last bill that was issued by the identified biller for the identified consumer. The processor 902 determines whether the reply SMS includes an affirmative statement. If the reply SMS , does include an affirmative statement, the processor 902 sends an instruction via payment output port 906 to a financial institution for initiating a payment of the bill. The amount in this instruction is determined by the information on the bill or by an alternative amount supplied by the consumer in the reply SMS. The payment output port 906 may also be implemented as an payment input/output interface for sending the instruction as well as receiving a confirmation that a payment has been successful. After receiving the confirmation, processor 902 creates a confirmation SMS and sends the confirmation SMS via SMS output port 904 to the consumer. The consumer then receives the confirmation SMS and is informed that the payment was successful.

One application for the method described above is the payment of a taxi fare. In that example, each taxi is assigned a unique number that is displayed inside the taxi to the passenger. When the taxi arrives at the destination, the passenger sends a payment request SMS to that number. The payment request SMS includes information such as the payment amount. Since the SMS is sent from the passenger's phone, the originating number of the payment request SMS identifies the payer. The destination number of the payment request SMS identifies both the biller, that is the taxi company, and the vehicle.

In a different example, all vehicles of one taxi company share the same telephone number and the passenger is required to also provide a vehicle identification number in the payment request SMS. In this example, the destination number of the payment request SMS identifies only the biller and the vehicle is identified by the vehicle identification number in the payment request SMS.

The payment request is received by the payment service provider and processed like a bill in the previous examples. From the payment request SMS the provider determines the telephone number that is associated with the payer and the telephone number that uniquely represents the biller to the payer. The payment service provider then sends an SMS to the passenger such that the originating number is the same number as displayed inside the taxi. The passenger confirms payment by replying to that SMS.

After payment, such as a PayPal transaction, has been completed, the payment service provider retrieves a telephone number of the driver from a database and sends an SMS to the driver to inform the driver that the taxi fare has been paid. Alternatively, the payment service provider notifies the taxi company that the payment was successful and the taxi company notifies the driver via a taxi communication system. It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that numerous variations and/or modifications may be made to the above-described embodiments, without departing from the broad general scope of the present disclosure. The present embodiments are, therefore, to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive.