An Information Interface Provider (IIP) acting as the interface between a biller and its customers for both the presentment of electronic bills to the customers and for the processing of payments from the biller's customers. The IIP creates and electronically publishes bills to the biller's customers in response to data provided by the biller and processes the payments in response to instructions provided by the customers. Bill publication is accomplished by any and/or all channels of distribution which are effective in reaching the customers of the biller including Internet web sites, Email and personal digital assistants, for example. Once billing data has been received by the IIP, the IIP formats the billing data for storage in its own internal database and then performs the task of reformatting the bill for the particular channel(s) of distribution selected by the customer. Several types of customer payments are processed by the IIP including Automated Clearing House (ACH) payments, credit or debit card payments, paper checks, smart card payments, and digital currency payments. Once the IIP has debited the consumer's account for the payment, it credits the account of the biller. The IIP consolidates all of the Accounts Receivable (A/R) information and presents the biller with a single file which can then be used by the biller to update its own internal A/R systems.
A credit card system and method for configuring a vehicle specific to a user and for transacting financial transactions, the system comprising a User Preference and Information Database containing information specific to said user for configuring a specific vehicle, a credit card capable of storing financial transaction information and information to access said User Preference Database, a credit card data receptacle located in said vehicle, a global communication network, a User Transaction History Database containing information about said user's prior transactions, a display monitor located in said vehicle, and a point of sale where said credit card is used for a financial transaction.
A system and method of providing long distance service products to users. Post-paid debit calling cards are purchased on-line by a customer or user and the user is billed monthly, along with other service charges. The calling card account, however, is debited as it is used. Since the fee for the account is charged against an existing customer account, fraudulent purchases are reduced. In an embodiment, the purchaser is provided access to a restricted web page on the Internet using a user name and password, where the user name and password are associated with the customer's account. Once accessed, the user is able to purchase "post-paid debit calling cards." Upon sending a request to purchase such a calling card, the user is provided a toll free number and PIN. Subsequently, the purchase is logged and the fee is added to the customer's monthly bill.
The present invention is a method for operating a computer-based accounts payable system. The user inputs a bill that includes a billing code. The system then determines whether the billing code is present in the budget database. If the billing code is present in the budget database, the system approves payment of an amount associated with the billing code in the budget database. If the billing code is not present in the budget database, the system approves payment of a budget amount associated with the billing code in a default budget database. In the preferred embodiment, the system also checks whether a particular task has been completed before approving payment of said bill, and checks to insure that a previous bill covering the same task has not been paid previously.
A method for protecting consumer personal data by giving the consumer a choice of privacy preferences linked to their financial payment instruments such as credit cards, checks and the like. The privacy preference data is stored electronically in a database and on the payment instrument.
A system and method for automating an unbillable study are disclosed. Account information relating to an unbillable call is received from an unbillable study database. At least one database is searched to retrieve records corresponding to the account information. A single report comprising records retrieved from all of the searched databases is generated. The report may be stored in a query-able database.
