Systems and methods for mobile payments

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided for mobile payments. A financial institution may offer an electronic prepaid card of a merchant for sale to holders of Demand Deposit Accounts (DDA) and / or Line of Credit Account and / or Loan Account. If the DDA account holder and / or Line of Credit Account holder and / or Loan Account holder purchases the prepaid card through the financial institution, the account holder may be able to redeem the prepaid card at the merchant. The prepaid card may be provided in electronic form that may be scanned off the account holder's mobile device or by the account holder's mobile device. When the account holder purchases the prepaid card, the financial institution may perform a real-time check whether the account holder has sufficient funds for the purchase. If funds are sufficient, a transfer may be performed from the account holder's DDA account and / or Line of Credit Account and / or Loan Account to a holding account of another party at the same financial institution via ON-US transfer. The other party may settle the account with the merchant with ACH or ON-US transfer with or without a clearing account in a settlement (clearing) bank. The time to purchase the prepaid card prior to redemption can be shorten to seconds as if the purchase happened in the same time as the redemption (e.g., Instant Prepaid Card) at a physical point of sale. The time duration between prepaid card purchase and its redemption can be so short that the purchaser does not feel the prepay process behind the scene. This Instant Prepaid Card may be referred to as an AnyWhereMobile Debit Card if Demand Deposit Accounts are used as founding source and may be referred to as an AnyWhereMobile Credit Card if a Line of Credit Account or Loan Account is used as founding source.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE[0001]This application is a continuation application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13 / 718,552, filed on Dec. 18, 2012, which claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61 / 578,166, filed on Dec. 20, 2011; U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61 / 656,978, filed Jun. 7, 2012; and U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61 / 664,506, filed Jun. 26, 2012, which are entirely incorporated herein by reference.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]Typically, when a consumer purchases prepaid cards such as gift cards with a credit card, the existing credit card based payment networks (existing payment networks) takes a significant percentage of the prepaid card value. For example, a consumer may purchase a prepaid card with their credit card, and the credit card processor may take several dollars, leaving behind the rest for the merchant and any intermediary. Such costs typically arise due to risk that is born by the existing payment networks, as...

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