System and method for electronic prepaid account replenishment
A method for crediting a customer account maintained by a vendor of services in response to payment received from a customer is disclosed herein. The method includes issuing, to the customer, a membership account number associated with at least the customer account. A membership account number and a payment corresponding to a requested amount of a service offered by the vendor are received from the customer at a point-of-sale. The method further includes generating, at the point-of-sale, an authorization message including at least the membership account number and embedded transaction information identifying the service offered by the vendor and the requested amount. The embedded transaction information is then communicated from the point-of-sale to a database server. The customer account is credited, in response to the embedded transaction information, based upon an amount of the payment. The method also includes electronically transferring funds based upon the amount of the payment from a first account associated with the point-of-sale to a second account associated with the vendor.
1. A computer implemented method for crediting a customer account maintained by a vendor of prepaid services in response to payment received from a customer, the method facilitated by a transaction processor executing software to perform the method comprising:
receiving, at the transaction processor, a transaction request with embedded transaction information, including identifying information associated with a customer account, a payment amount corresponding to a requested amount of a prepaid service offered by the vendor, and a product number corresponding to the provider of prepaid service;
maintaining, within a database of the transaction processor, an association between product numbers and prepaid services offered by a plurality of vendors, the embedded transaction information including at least a first product number;
determining, by the transaction processor, wherein the transaction processor is configured for such determination, from the embedded transaction information, the vendor of the requested prepaid product; wherein, subsequent to a determination that the embedded transaction information defines a valid transaction, facilitating, by the transaction processor, the electronic crediting of the customer account with an amount corresponding to the requested amount of prepaid service; and
sending, by the transaction processor, a message confirming the success of the transaction to the customer's wireless communication device.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein payment transfer from a first account associated with the customer to a second account associated with the vendor is initiated by the transaction processor.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the transaction request is received from a kiosk.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the transaction request is received from a POS terminal.
5. The method of claim 1 further including verifying that the embedded transaction information defines a valid transaction and determining the vendor of the requested services based upon the product number.
6. The method of claim 1 , further retrieving account identifying information from a database that is specific to the customer account and verifying the account identifying information with transaction information received from the customer.
7. A computer implemented method for crediting a customer account maintained by a vendor of prepaid services in response to payment received from a customer, the method facilitated by a transaction processor executing software to perform the method comprising:
receiving, at a terminal, identification information associated with a customer account;
sending, from the terminal to the transaction processor, a transaction request with embedded transaction information, including identifying information associated with a customer account, a payment amount corresponding to a requested amount of a prepaid service offered by the vendor, and a product number corresponding to the provider of prepaid service and the amount of prepaid service, wherein the transaction processor identifies the vendor based on the payment amount;
receiving, by the terminal from the transaction processor, a message confirming the success of the transaction.
8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the terminal is a kiosk.
9. The method of claim 8 , wherein identification information associated with the customer is sent from the kiosk.
10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the identification information is a phone number.
11. The method of claim 7 , wherein the terminal is a POS device.
12. The method of claim 7 , wherein the identification information is a phone number and is entered through a keypad.
13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the keypad is touch-screen.