Title:
SMART PAYMENT INSTRUMENT SELECTION
Document Type and Number:
WIPO Patent Application WO2004012036
Kind Code:
B1
Abstract:
A method and apparatus is provided for constructing and using a smart wallet, i.e. a repository of payment instruments, such as, for example, credit cards, with automatic selection when making a purchase in an online environment. In one embodiment of the invention, the wallet service first finds the intersection of acceptable instruments between a merchant and a user. For example, the invention matches a list of user held credit cards against a list of acceptable credit cards at a merchant. The wallet service then intelligently selects, or at least ranks in order, the payment instruments based on value to the customer. The ranking can take into account: a) cash back rates; b) mileage rates for the specific potential purchase; and c) temporal discounts such as shipping or coupon discounts for the specific product type; etc. The act of automatically making a selection of a payment instrument, such as a credit card, in an online environment is analogous to what a human does when buying things at a store. The advantage is that an automatic system can integrate all the discount notices and coupons that are typically mailed to a cardholder. The system preferably presumes that a smart wallet is given information about a transaction, and has collected information about the payment instruments.
Inventors:
ROSKIND JAMES
Application Number:
PCT/US2003/022144
Publication Date:
December 29, 2004
Filing Date:
July 15, 2003
Export Citation:
Assignee:
AMERICAN ONLINE INC (US)
International Classes:
G06Q20/02; G06Q20/04; G06Q20/10; G06Q20/12; G06Q20/22; G06Q20/24; G06Q20/34; G06Q30/06; G07F7/10; (IPC1-7): G06F17/60
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