Presentation and payment of bills over a wide area communications network

Abstract

A bill is presented and payment of the presented bill is requested over a communications network having a first network site associated with a bill payment entity, a second network site, which is different than the first network site, associated with a user, and a third network site, which is different than the first and the second network sites, associated with a bill presentment entity, which is different than the bill payment entity. A first signal, representing a request of the user for billing information, is transmitted from the second network site to the first network site. Responsive to the transmitted first signal, a second signal representing a bill availability identifier for a bill of a biller for the user, is transmitted from the first network site to the second network site. The bill availability identifier represented by the transmitted second signal is displayed and a first user input representing a selection of the displayed bill availability identifier is received, at the second network site. A third signal, representing a request of the user for the identified bill, is transmitted from the second network site to a third network site responsive to the first user input. Responsive to the transmitted third signal, a fourth signal representing the requested bill and an associated pay bill indicator, is transmitted from the third network site to the second network site. The bill and associated pay bill indicator represented by the transmitted fourth signal are displayed and a second user input representing a selection of the displayed pay bill indicator is received at the second network site. Responsive to the second user input, a fifth signal representing a request of the user that the bill payment entity pay the displayed bill on behalf of the user, is transmitted from the second network site to the first network site.

Description

RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application is a continuation of pending U.S. application Ser. No. 09 / 301,068, filed Apr. 28, 1999, which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 09 / 017,169, filed Feb. 2, 1998 (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,055,567), which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. This application is also related to U.S. application Ser. No. 10 / 645,521, filed Aug. 22, 2003.FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present invention relates generally to distributed data networks and, more particularly, to a distributed data accessing technique. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] There are two prevalent models for electronic bill presentment that are currently used in industry. The first is an aggregation model 10, which is shown in FIG. 1. In its simplest form, the aggregation model 10 includes a customer 12, an aggregator 14, and a plurality of billers 16. The customer 12 can be, for example, an individual person, a family, or a business. The aggregator 14 can be...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0009] One object of the present invention is to provide a distributed data accessing technique that allows a customer to interact directly with individual billers while retaining the benefits of interacting with a single aggregator.

[0010] Another object of the present invention is to provide a distributed data accessing technique that allows a customer to retain the benefits of interacting with a single aggregator while allowing the aggregator, billers, and sponsor to retain control of customer-related data and a communication channel with each customer.

[0011] Another object of the present invention is to provide a distributed data accessing technique that allows complete flexibility as to who is offering bill presentment: billers only, aggregator only (possibly on behalf of one or more sponsors), or some combination of the above.

[0012] Another object of the present invention is to provide a distributed data accessing technique that supports an end-toend audit trail from the initial stages of bill presentment to the final stages of bill payment, which can serve a variety of purposes, including improved customer care.

Problems solved by technology

Also, neither of the above-described models adopt a truly customer-centric view.

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