Storing and forwarding payment transactions

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10496977-B2
Application number	US-201313797390-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 12, 2013
Priority date	Jul 16, 2012
Publication date	Dec 3, 2019
Grant date	Dec 3, 2019

Abstract

Method, systems, and apparatus for a method of processing a payment transaction using a mobile device of a merchant. In one aspect, determining the mobile device does not have a connection to an external network; receiving data indicating a payment transaction between a customer and the merchant; determining whether the payment transaction should be stored, where the determining is based on a risk heuristic model that considers one or more of the following: a number of already stored transactions, a value of the payment transaction, a total value, where the total value is a sum of the value of the payment transaction and values of one or more already stored transactions, and risk factors associated with the customer; and based at least on the determination, storing the payment transaction on the mobile device for future processing.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of processing a payment transaction, comprising:
receiving, at a merchant-facing device associated with a merchant, data from a customer-facing device indicating a payment transaction between the merchant and a customer at a point of sale, wherein the payment transaction is an electronic transaction, wherein at least the merchant-facing device is configured to communicate with a payment service system via an external network;
determining that the merchant-facing device is unable to access, via the external network that connects to the payment service system, the payment service system that is remote from the merchant-facing device and the customer-facing device;
in response to determining that the merchant-facing device is unable to access, via the external network that connects to the payment service system, the payment service system, executing, by at least one processor in the merchant-facing device, a risk heuristic model, wherein the risk heuristic model is dynamically modified in the background by the payment service system when the merchant-facing device is able to access the payment service system via the external network;
determining that the payment transaction is not pre-approved for payment by the payment service system based at least on executing the risk heuristic model, the executing of the risk heuristic model based on one or more of a number of transactions stored on the merchant-facing device, a value of the payment transaction, or a total value of payment transactions comprising a sum of the value of the payment transaction and values of one or more payment transactions stored on the merchant-facing device;
receiving an indication to store the payment transaction on the merchant-facing device despite the payment transaction not being pre-approved;
storing the payment transaction on the merchant-facing device;
determining, after storing the payment transaction on the merchant-facing device, that the merchant-facing device is able to access the payment service system via the external network; and
at least partly in response to determining that the merchant-facing device is able to access the payment service system via the external network, transmitting transaction information including the stored payment transaction via the external network to the payment service system for processing, wherein the transaction information causes the payment service system to process the stored payment transaction.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: receiving a response for the stored payment transaction from the payment service system.

3. The method of claim 2 , where the response comprises an acceptance or a rejection of the stored payment transaction.

4. The method of claim 1 , where executing the risk heuristic model comprises:
determining whether the value of the payment transaction or the total value of payment transactions surpasses a maximum value; and
determining whether the number of transactions stored on the merchant-facing device surpasses a maximum number.

5. The method of claim 4 , further comprising determining that the payment transaction is not pre-approved for payment by the payment service system based at least in part on determining that the number of transactions stored on the merchant-facing device surpasses the maximum number.

6. The method of claim 4 , further comprising determining that the payment transaction is not pre-approved for payment by the payment service system is based at least in part on determining that the number of transactions stored on the merchant-facing device does not surpass the maximum number, and the value of the payment transaction or the total value of payment transactions surpass the maximum value.

7. The method of claim 1 , where the payment transaction is encrypted using a key before the storing, where the key is obtained from the payment service system.

8. The method of claim 1 , where storing the payment transaction includes storing a time or user session data of the payment transaction.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining whether the merchant-facing device is able to access the payment service system after an interval of time.

10. The method of claim 1 , where the merchant-facing device is unable to access the payment service system due to a connectivity issue with the external network.

11. The method of claim 1 , where the transactions stored on the merchant-facing device are obtained from an internal database.

12. The method of claim 1 , where the executing the risk heuristic model is further based on prior transactions or analysis of the prior transactions.

13. The method as claim 1 recites, further comprising, prior to receiving the indication to store the payment transaction, presenting, via a display of the merchant-facing device, a merchant-facing user interface at least partly in response to determining that the payment transaction is not pre-approved for payment by the payment service system.

14. The method as claim 13 recites, further comprising, receiving, via the merchant-facing user interface, input that indicates at least in part an approval by the merchant to proceed with the payment transaction, wherein the indication is received based at least in part on the input.

15. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable medium, comprising instructions for causing a processor to perform operations comprising:
receiving, at a merchant facing portion of a payment system associated with a merchant, data from a customer facing portion of the payment system indicating a payment transaction between the merchant and a customer, where the customer facing customer-facing portion is configured by a connection to the merchant-facing portion, where the payment system is configured to communicate with a remote payment service system via an external network;
determining that the payment system is unable to access, via the external network that connects to the remote payment service system, the remote payment service system;
at least partly in response to determining that the payment system is unable to access the remote payment service system via the external network, executing, by at least one processor in the merchant-facing portion of the payment system, a risk heuristic model, wherein the risk heuristic model is dynamically modified in the background, by the remote payment service system, when the payment system is able to access the remote payment service system via the external network;
determining that the payment transaction is not pre-approved for payment by the remote payment service system based at least on executing the risk heuristic model, wherein executing the risk heuristic model comprises one or more of:
determining whether a value of the payment transaction surpasses a first value;
determining whether a total value of payment transactions surpasses a second value, where the total value of payment transactions comprises a sum of the value of the payment transaction and values of one or more transactions stored on the payment system; or
determining whether a number of transactions stored on the payment system surpasses a maximum number;

at least partly in response to receiving a first input to proceed with the payment transaction despite the payment transaction not being pre-approved, storing the payment transaction on the merchant-facing portion of the payment system;
determining, after storing the payment transaction on the merchant-facing portion of the payment system, that the payment system is able to access the remote payment service system vi

Assignees

• Square Inc

Inventors

• Ruder Edward
• Puls James
• Mulani Mehdi
• Morel Shawn
• Chen Grace
• Clark Christopher R
• Scott J Bryan
• Monti Eric

Classifications

• G06Q20/3223

  Realising banking transactions through M-devices · CPC title

• G06Q20/12 Primary

  specially adapted for electronic shopping systems · CPC title

• G06Q20/4016

  involving fraud or risk level assessment in transaction processing · CPC title

• G06Q20/322 Primary

  Aspects of commerce using mobile devices [M-devices] · CPC title