Method for customizing payment card transactions at the time of the transactions

Abstract

A user can customize use of a payment card, which can be an electronic card, by selecting a customization variable for any given transaction. The customization variable involves at least one of the following steps: (1) customizing generation of a one-time card number; (2) customizing a user identifier; or (3) inclusion of a customization variable with information transmitted to a verification agency for validation of the given use. Multiple payment card transactions can be processed differently depending upon which customization variable is chosen for a given transaction. Different customization variables can be used for different accounts, different types of transactions, or to classify the transactions. A user can receive one bill, or multiple bills. Different levels of privacy can be accorded to transactions that use different customization variables. A user may pay the issuer for increased security, or the user may be paid by the issuer to allow transaction data to be distributed to third parties.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] The present application is a continuation application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09 / 960,714, filed Sep. 21, 2001, which was a continuation-in-part application of U.S. application Ser. Nos. 09 / 667,081 and 09 / 667,089, filed Sep. 21, 2000, which are continuation-in-part applications of U.S. Ser. No. 09 / 659,434, filed Sep. 8, 2000, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. Ser. No. 09 / 640,044, filed Aug. 15, 2000, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. Ser. No. 09 / 619,859, filed Jul. 20, 2000, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. Pat. No. 6,592,044, all of which disclosures are specifically incorporated herein by reference. The present application is also related to U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 09 / 667,835, 09 / 667,089, and 09 / 667,082, all of which were filed on Sep. 21, 2000, and all of which are specifically incorporated herein by reference. The present application continues the subject matter previously set forth in U.S. Se...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

This approach significantly reduces credit card fraud, enhances user privacy, and simplifies accounting by enabling secure, customizable, and versatile payment processing that integrates with existing payment systems, supporting multiple account handling and transaction classification.

Problems solved by technology

Cash is readily accepted, easy to use and anonymous, but it does not earn interest, it can be lost or stolen, and it is not always readily accessible.

However, despite the enormous need for such money, and efforts by some of the best minds and most successful companies in the world, electronic money has suffered many setbacks and been far slower to materialize than many had hoped or predicted.

As a result, many efforts, including several potentially promising efforts, have met with failure.

Even though new forms of electronic money have been slow to develop or gain widespread acceptance, electronic payments have still moved forward.

Still, there is widespread concern about the safety of such transactions, and recent news stories have uncovered widespread fraudulent activity associated with use of traditional credit card numbers in e-commerce over the Internet.

Although the media has been quick to cover fraud associated with use of credit cards over the Internet, it is often overlooked, at least by the public and the media (but not the credit card companies), that the majority of fraudulent activity concerning credit cards is not associated with e-commerce activity.

Despite many attempts to combat unauthorized or fraudulent use of credit cards, it is estimated that credit card fraud now exceeds hundreds of millions, if not several billion, dollars per year.

The resultant scrambled up credit card number, which is tailored by the algorithm to having the same number of digits as before, is rendered useless on the Internet because the PIN insertion algorithm is changed automatically after every transaction.