Payment service that applies user-specified rules to divide payment amounts among multiple payment instruments
AssigneeAmazon.com, Inc.
InventorsVikas Gupta, Jeyandran Venugopal, Xiaosi Li
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A network-based transaction processing system allows users to flexibly and efficiently make payments using a combination of different payment instruments. The system includes a user interface through which a user can define one or more payment plans, each of which may specify a plurality of payment instruments and associated rules for dividing payment amounts among these payment instruments. These rules may be non-transaction-specific, such that a user can re-use a payment plan over time to complete multiple transactions. When placing an order or otherwise initiating a payment transaction, the user can select a payment plan for use in completing the transaction.
Claims24
A method performed by an electronic transaction processing system to execute a purchase transaction, the method comprising:
- recording a selection by a user of one or more items from an electronic catalog of items;
- providing a payment interface that enables the user to place an order for the one or more selected items via a user computing device, said payment interface providing an option for the user to select a pre-generated, re-usable payment plan to use to pay for the one or more items, said payment plan specifying at least (1) a plurality of payment instruments associated with the user, and (2) non-transaction-specific rules that specify how the plurality of payment instruments are to be used in combination to process payment transactions;
- accepting a selection made by the user via the payment interface of the payment plan in connection with said order;
- and
- determining, based on the non-transaction-specific rules of the payment plan, how to divide a payment amount of said order among the plurality of payment instruments;
- said method performed in its entirety by a computer system that comprises one or more physical servers.
An electronic order generation and processing system, comprising:
- a computer data repository that stores, in association with a user, a definition of a re-usable payment plan created by the user, said payment plan specifying at least (1) a plurality of payment instruments associated with the user, and (2) a set of non-transaction-specific rules specifying how the plurality of payment instruments are to be used in combination to process payment transactions;
- a server that provides an order generation user interface that includes functionality for the user, via a user computing device, to generate an order for one or more items selected from an electronic catalog, and to select the payment plan for use in paying for the order;
- and
- an order processing system that is responsive to user selection of the payment plan for said order by using the set of non-transaction-specific rules to determine how to divide a monetary amount of the order among the plurality of payment instruments.
Physical computer storage that stores executable software that directs a computing system to implement a process that comprises:
- recording a selection by a user of one or more items from an electronic catalog of items;
- providing an order generation interface that enables the user to place an order for the one or more selected items via a user computing device, said order generation interface providing an option for the user to select a pre-generated, re-usable payment plan to use to pay for the one or more items, said payment plan specifying at least (1) a plurality of payment instruments associated with the user, and (2) non-transaction-specific rules that specify how the plurality of payment instruments are to be used in combination to process payment transactions;
- accepting a selection by the user via the payment interface of the payment plan in connection with said order;
- and
- determining, based on the non-transaction-specific rules of the payment plan, how to divide a payment amount of said order among the plurality of payment instruments.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.