Coupon payment system
AssigneeJP Morgan Chase Bank
InventorsJennifer Stanley, Alan S. Koenigsberg, Hector E. Sandoval
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
As an alternative to bill payments made with paper checks, customers are provided with “Sign-to-Pay” payment coupons along with their bills. A customer elects to pay the bill either by check or by returning the “Sign-to-Pay” payment coupon. The coupon will not contain the customer's checking account information. However, the payment amount indicated on the coupon will subsequently be deducted from the customer's checking account. Preferably, bill payments will be made through the Automated Clearing House (ACH) network which is an efficient and less expensive alternative to the traditional check clearing process.
Claims17
A computer-implemented method for providing coupon payments as an alternative to payments made with checks, comprising the steps of:
- determining whether a bill is eligible for coupon payment;
- generating a coupon for the bill, if it is determined that the bill is eligible for coupon payment;
- receiving the coupon from a customer, the coupon including the customer's election to make the coupon payment for the bill;
- and
- paying the bill using a check-less payment network, in accordance with information from the coupon.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.