Card Including Account Number With Value Amount

Abstract

Embodiments of the invention disclosed herein provide a method of participating in prepaid programs through retail systems without the need to first upgrade their POS capabilities to participate, and allow for a merchant (retailer) to participate in proof of concept programs to determine if prepaid is a viable solution for their retail business model.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]The application claims priority from U.S. Provisional Application No. 61 / 240,171, filed Sep. 4, 2009, and is herein incorporated in its entirety for all purposes.BACKGROUND[0002]Prepaid cards, gift cards, and other similar financial products (generally referred to herein as “portable consumer devices”) are increasingly common in the retail and service industries. However, certain impediments and inconveniences of prepaid card systems present themselves. For example, the LOAD and ACTIVATE transactions conventionally used to fund and issue a prepaid card to the user and the point of sale (POS) terminals for issuing such prepaid cards are relatively new. Many merchant networks lack the ability to easily integrate these new transactions at the point of sale terminal without upgrading terminals or completely replacing these terminals. The additional investment in the network to allow loading and activation of prepaid cards at the POS can be a...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The invention allows a merchant to use standard transaction sets to activate and load prepaid cards at a POS terminal, without needing to upgrade its infrastructure or change POS terminals. The invention also provides a portable consumer device with a primary account number (PAN) that includes a bank identification number (BIN) and a numeric value that indicates a monetary value associated with the device. Additionally, the invention allows for the distribution of stored-value cards, such as prepaid gift cards, and the funding of these cards by scanning them using a financial transaction device and initiating a merchandise return transaction.

Problems solved by technology

However, certain impediments and inconveniences of prepaid card systems present themselves.

Many merchant networks lack the ability to easily integrate these new transactions at the point of sale terminal without upgrading terminals or completely replacing these terminals.

An immediate upgrade to the POS system is not a practical solution given the cost and time constraints to bring the pilot program to market.

Another example is the inconvenience of having to manage a potentially large inventory of prepaid cards.

Card issuers therefore are restricted, in practice, to limited numbers of denominations of prepaid cards.

This becomes a very expensive undertaking, and so the merchant or retailer is likely to order card stock in card denominations of only $25, $50, $100, for example, in order to keep his prepaid card inventory manageable.

The lack of flexibility in specifying dollar value denominations in current conventional prepaid cards may be viewed as a limitation of the usefulness of prepaid cards.

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