System and method for electronic bill presentment using a third party
View Patent ↗A method and system for electronic bill presentment and payment using a third party intermediary is described. A third party provides an electronic post office that uses a virtual address directory to provide a level of abstraction in an EBPP data stream using the ACH network so that EBPP participants do not require the information that is typically required to process such transactions. By using the virtual address directory, neither the biller, nor the bank, nor the intermediary have all the consumer data used in the transaction. Accordingly, privacy is enhanced and any risk that privacy will be compromised is reduced.
1. A computer implemented method for electronic bill presentment and payment comprising:
sending a biller identifier and an associated anonymous virtual address identifier associated with a customer to a biller;
receiving, using a computer, summary bill data for a bill associated with the customer from the biller with the anonymous virtual address identifier associated with the customer;
storing said summary bill data in a memory store of the computer;
using the anonymous virtual address identifier to determine ACH routing information for a bank that is currently associated with the anonymous virtual address identifier;
obtaining the summary bill data from the memory store and routing, using the computer, the summary bill data and the anonymous virtual address identifier along an ACH network to the bank using the determined ACH routing information.
2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
then receiving incoming payment data associated with the summary bill data from the bank using the ACH network.
3. The method of claim 2 further comprising:
then sending outgoing payment data using the ACH network.
4. The method of claim 3 wherein:
the outgoing payment data is sent to the biller associated with the bill data.
5. The method of claim 3 further comprising:
the outgoing payment data is sent to a biller bank associated with the bill data.
6. The method of claim 1 wherein the summary bill data consists of an indication of an amount due and an indication of a due date.
7. A computer implemented method for electronic bill presentment and payment comprising:
receiving at a computer an anonymous virtual address identifier and a customer identifier from a billing intermediary;
associating, using the computer and the customer identifier, the anonymous virtual address identifier with a customer;
determining if a bill associated with the customer is available to send; and
sending summary bill data for the available bill associated with the customer with the anonymous virtual address identifier from the computer to the billing intermediary along an ACH network.
8. The method of claim 7 further comprising:
then receiving bill payment data associated with a payment and the virtual address identifier.
9. The method of claim 8 further comprising:
associating the bill payment data with the customer using the virtual address identifier.
10. The method of claim 9 further comprising:
receiving bill payment data from a biller bank along the ACH network.
11. The method of claim 10 wherein:
the bill payment data comprises a payment acknowledgement message.
12. The method of claim 7 wherein the summary bill data consists of an indication of an amount due and an indication of a due date.
13. A system for electronic bill presentment and payment comprising:
an intermediary bill payment processing server including,
a virtual address directory database for storing a plurality of virtual address numbers and associated records,
a virtual address number generator for generating each of the plurality of virtual address numbers, wherein each virtual address number is assigned to a respective one of a plurality of customers, each of the plurality of customers associated with a respective bank and a respective biller;
a virtual address number data processing subsystem including,
an incoming bill data association subsystem for associating incoming summary bill data with the respective customer using the respective virtual address number, and
a customer association subsystem for associating the customer with the respective bank using the respective virtual address number; and
a data directory update subsystem that changes association of the respective virtual address identifier from the respective bank to another bank.
14. The system of claim 13 further comprising:
an outgoing bill data subsystem for obtaining routing data for the respective bank and;
sending summary bill data and the respective virtual address number to the bank.
15. The system of claim 14 , wherein the outgoing bill data subsystem interfaces with an electronic funds transfer network.
16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the electronic funds transfer network comprises an ACH network.
17. The system of claim 16 , wherein the outgoing bill data subsystem sends the summary bill data and the respective virtual address number along the ACH network.
18. The system of claim 13 wherein the summary bill data consists of an indication of an amount due and an indication of a due date.