Electronic payment system
An electronic payment system and method facilitates electronic commerce through controlled transfer of identification and value representations to wireless devices. The system includes a payment collection apparatus and a transaction apparatus, and provides for representation of user and transaction information via machine-readable indicia. In one embodiment, the machine-readable indicia is a barcode. The present invention is useful in such example applications as credit transactions, lottery system operations, and mobile top up applications.
1. A method for facilitating credit transactions, comprising the steps of:
receiving a request for a credit voucher from a user via said user's wireless device;
delivering a transaction code to said user's wireless device;
upon payment by said user and reading of said transaction code, delivering a second code to said user's wireless device; and
upon scanning the second code and identifying an account in connection with said second code, crediting said account.
2. A method for facilitating credit transactions, comprising the steps of:
receiving a request for a credit voucher from a user via wireless device;
delivering a credit voucher for display on said user's wireless device;
receiving a deposit payment from said user and information pertaining to said voucher; and
crediting an account of said user according to said payment.
3. The method of claim 2 wherein said credit voucher is in the form of a 1-D barcode.
4. The method of claim 2 wherein said credit voucher is in the form of a 2-D barcode.
5. The method of claim 2 wherein said voucher includes account identification information.
6. The method of claim 5 wherein said account identification information is a telephone number.
7. The method of claim 5 wherein said account identification information is in the form of a barcode presented on the display of a wireless device.
8. The method of claim 2 including the steps of, prior to delivering said credit voucher, determining an account associated with said user based on said received request, and incorporating account identification information into said credit voucher.
9. A system for facilitating credit transactions, comprising:
an optical scanning component capable of optically scanning code information, said code information being representative of at least one of: deposit payment information, account identification information and transaction type information;
a transaction apparatus capable of receiving a deposit payment; and
a transaction processor for processing said code information, delivering a transaction code to a wireless communications device, and crediting an account corresponding to said account identification information and said deposit payment.
10. The system of claim 9 wherein said transaction processor is adapted to deliver a first transaction code representing account identification information and a second transaction code representing transaction type and amount to said wireless device.
11. The system of claim 9 wherein said transaction code represents account identification information and a credit voucher in the amount of the deposit payment.
12. The system of claim 9 wherein said transaction code represents account identification information and a deposit request in the amount of the deposit payment.
13. The system of claim 9 wherein said transaction code represents a credit voucher in the amount of the deposit payment.
14. The system of claim 9 wherein said code information includes account identification information in the form of a barcode capable of being displayed on a display of said wireless device.
15. The system of claim 9 wherein said transaction apparatus can identify previously scanned codes.
16. The system of claim 9 wherein said transaction processor can invalidate codes prior to their being scanned.
17. The system of claim 9 wherein the transaction apparatus is capable of decoding the code information scanned by said optical scanning component.