# US 2014/0156520 A1 · Apparatus and method for bill presentment and payment

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- Number: US 2014/0156520 A1
- Document ID: US20140156520A1
- Status: Published application
- Kind: A1
- Application number: 14/089,223
- Filed: 2013-11-25
- Published: 2014-06-05
- Earliest claimed: 2010-02-12
- Assignees: Mastercard International Incorporated
- Applicants: MasterCard International Incorporated
- Inventors: Mary L. Kelly; Susan E. Riskovsky; Theresa Altman; Michael Tolle; Darlene Lohman; Brian W. Mueller
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20140156520A1

## CPC

- G06Q 20/14: specially adapted for billing systems
- G06Q 20/102: {Bill distribution or payments}
- G06Q: INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR

## Abstract

Under control of an operator of a payment processing network, a bill presentment service is provided, wherein bills received from a plurality of billing entities are made available to a plurality of consuming entities. The operator also provides at least a portion of a bill payment service wherein the consuming entities are afforded an option of paying the bills from the plurality of billing entities. The operator stores, in a database, registration and preference data pertaining to each of the plurality of consuming entities. At least portion of the registration and preference data includes payment preference data specifying how a given one of the consuming entities wishes to pay at least two of the billing entities. The given one of the consuming entities is afforded an option to pay the at least two of the billing entities with a single command, in accordance with the payment preference data.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A method comprising the steps of:
providing, under control of an operator of a payment processing network, a bill presentment service wherein bills received from a plurality of billing entities are made available to a plurality of consuming entities;
providing, by said operator of said payment processing network, at least a portion of a bill payment service wherein said consuming entities are afforded an option of paying said bills from said plurality of billing entities
storing in a database, by said operator of said payment processing network, registration and preference data pertaining to each of said plurality of consuming entities, at least portion of said registration and preference data comprising payment preference data specifying how a given one of said consuming entities wishes to pay at least two of said billing entities; and
affording said given one of said consuming entities an option to pay said at least two of said billing entities with a single command, in accordance with said payment preference data.

### Claim 2

A method comprising the steps of:
providing, under control of an operator of a payment processing network, a bill presentment service wherein bills received from a plurality of billing entities are made available to a plurality of consuming entities via a plurality of consuming entity service providers;
obtaining, by said operator of said payment processing network, a given one of said bills from a given one of said billing entities, said given one of said bills having a single biller account number associated therewith; and
routing said given one of said bills having said single biller account number associated therewith from said given one of said billing entities to multiple ones of said consuming entity service providers for presentation to a corresponding one of said consuming entities via said multiple ones of said consuming entity service providers.

### Claim 3

A method comprising the steps of:
providing, under control of an operator of a payment processing network, a bill presentment service wherein bills received from a plurality of billing entities are made available to a plurality of consuming entities via a plurality of consuming entity service providers;
providing, by said operator of said payment processing network, at least a portion of a bill payment service wherein said consuming entities are afforded an option of paying said bills from said plurality of billing entities, wherein said step of providing said bill presentment service is carried out without enrollment of said plurality of consuming entities, further comprising:
receiving from said plurality of billing entities an indication of ability to send said bills in electronic form;
storing data indicative of said ability to send said bills in electronic form;
receiving from said plurality of consuming entity service providers an indication of ability to receive said bills in electronic form;
storing data indicative of said ability to receive said bills in electronic form;
tracking a plurality of transactions to identify those of said plurality of consuming entities for whom said bills in electronic form are intended, said tracking in turn comprising:
storing, in a relationship table, based on historical data, billing entity identifiers, billing entity account numbers, and consuming entity service provider identifiers; and
upon said operator of said payment processing network obtaining a bill from a given one of said billing entities in electronic form, consulting said relationship table to obtain at least one of said consuming entity service provider identifiers corresponding to a given one of said billing entity identifiers and a given one of said billing entity account numbers; and
making said bill from said given one of said billing entities available to at least one of said consuming entities corresponding to said at least one of said consuming entity service provider identifiers.

### Claim 4 (depends on 3)

The method of claim 3, wherein said consulting comprises consulting said relationship table to obtain at least a second consuming entity service provider identifier corresponding to said given one of said billing entity identifiers and said given one of said billing entity account numbers, further comprising making said bill from said given one of said billing entities available to at least a second one of said consuming entities corresponding to said at least second consuming entity service provider identifier.

### Claim 5 (depends on 3)

The method of claim 3, wherein said tracking further comprises:
examining payment files from given ones of said consuming entity service providers to identify billing entity account numbers to be added to said relationship table if not already present therein; and
adding said billing entity account numbers to said relationship table if not already present therein.

### Claim 6 (depends on 5)

The method of claim 5, further comprising automatically electronically presenting future electronic bills associated with said billing entity account numbers added to said relationship table.