Methods and systems for processing a financial transaction

A computer coupled to a database for processing an electronic bill payment, said computer programmed to:

• receive an electronic bill payment submitted on behalf of a consumer in response to a bill associated with a biller;
• determine that the received electronic bill payment is an exception payment, wherein the exception payment includes the electronic bill payment submitted by the consumer having consumer entered information not matching a criterion for accepting electronic payment required by the biller;
• create an exception addenda record for the exception payment using data stored within the database, the addenda record identifying the consumer submitting the exception payment;
• and
• post the exception payment to an appropriate consumer account for the biller based on the addenda record.

A system for processing an electronic bill payment, said system comprising:

• a client system comprising a browser;
• a database for storing information;
• and
• a server system configured to be coupled to said client system and said database, said server further configured to:
• receive from said client system an electronic bill payment submitted on behalf of a consumer in response to a bill associated with a biller;
• determine that the received electronic bill payment is an exception payment, wherein the exception payment includes the electronic bill payment submitted by the consumer having consumer entered information not matching a criterion for accepting electronic payment required by the biller;
• create an exception addenda record for the exception payment using data stored within the database, the addenda record identifying the consumer submitting the exception payment;
• and
• post the exception payment to an appropriate consumer account for the biller based on the addenda record.

A system for processing an electronic bill payment, said system comprising:

• a plurality of client systems comprising an originator computer and a biller computer;
• a database for storing information;
• and
• a server system configured to be coupled to said plurality of client systems and said database, said originator computer configured to:
• receive an electronic bill payment submitted on behalf of a consumer in response to a bill associated with a biller, the bill payment including bill payment information entered by the consumer;
• receive information from the server system including biller directory information provided by the biller, the biller directory information including consumer account information for the consumer, biller information and an exception mask;
• compare the bill payment information entered on behalf of the consumer to the consumer account information;
• determine that the bill payment information does not match the consumer account information for the consumer;
• determine that the bill payment information entered on behalf of the consumer satisfies the corresponding exception mask;
• designate the bill payment submitted on behalf of the consumer as an exception payment, wherein the exception payment includes the electronic bill payment submitted on behalf of the consumer having consumer entered information not matching a criterion for accepting electronic payment required by the biller;
• create an exception payment data file with an addenda record for the exception payment, the data file including at least one of a name of the consumer, an address for the consumer, a telephone number for the consumer, and a consumer identifier;
• and
• transmit the exception payment data file to said server system for further processing.

A computer program embodied on a computer readable medium for processing an electronic bill payment, said program comprising at least one code segment for instructing a computer to:

• receive an electronic bill payment, the bill payment submitted on behalf of a consumer in response to a bill associated with a biller;
• determine that the received electronic bill payment is an exception payment, wherein the exception payment includes the electronic bill payment submitted by the consumer having consumer entered information not matching a criterion for accepting electronic payment required by the biller;
• create an exception addenda record for the exception payment using data stored within a database, the addenda record identifying the consumer submitting the exception payment;
• and
• post the exception payment to an appropriate consumer account for the biller based on the addenda record.