Technical fallback infrastructure

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10949858-B2
Application number	US-201816214031-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 7, 2018
Priority date	Mar 31, 2016
Publication date	Mar 16, 2021
Grant date	Mar 16, 2021

Abstract

Examples, methods and systems described herein may include determining, by a payment processing system, whether a second payment mechanism may be used to perform a payment transaction when a first payment mechanism is preferred and/or when the first payment mechanism has failed. Determining to use the second payment mechanism can be based on (i) an analysis of a communication status indicator received from a point-of-sale (POS) terminal that indicates which payment mechanisms are capable of communicating with the POS terminal, (ii) data received from the POS terminal that is associated with a read of a payment object, and/or (iii) an allowance criterion.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
determining, by an application executing on a device, a plurality of payment mechanisms with which the device is capable of communicating for performing a payment transaction;
receiving, at the application, data associated with at least one payment object used in the payment transaction;
determining, by the application and based at least in part on the data, that the at least one payment object was read by a first payment mechanism of the plurality of payment mechanisms and that the first payment mechanism failed to perform the payment transaction;
determining whether use of an alternate payment mechanism of the plurality of payment mechanisms to perform the payment transaction is allowed; and
upon determining that the use of the alternate payment mechanism is allowed, causing the payment transaction to be performed using the alternate payment mechanism.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the data is encrypted data, the method further comprising decrypting, by the application, the encrypted data before determining that the at least one payment object was read by the first payment mechanism and that the first payment mechanism failed to perform the payment transaction.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining the plurality of payment mechanisms is based at least in part on a communication status indicator received by the application.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining whether use of the alternate payment mechanism is allowed is based at least in part on applying an allowance criterion to the plurality of payment mechanisms.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the allowance criterion is received from an issuer of the at least one payment object.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein a type of the first payment mechanism comprises at least one of a magnetic stripe card reader, an optical scanner, an Europay-MasterCard-Visa (EMV)-compliant card reader, a near-field communication (NFC) enabled reader, or a radio frequency identification (RFID) reader.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein a type of the alternate payment mechanism comprises at least one of a magnetic stripe card reader, an optical scanner, an EMV-compliant card reader, a NFC-enabled reader, a RFID reader, and wherein the type of the alternate payment mechanism is exclusive of the type of the first payment mechanism.

8. A payment processing system for facilitating a payment transaction, the payment processing system comprising:
a memory;
a processor to execute instructions stored in the memory to:
determine a plurality of payment mechanisms with which a point-of-sale (POS) terminal is capable of communicating for performing the payment transaction;
receive data associated with at least one payment object used in the payment transaction;
determine, based at least in part on the data, that the at least one payment object was read by a first payment mechanism communicatively coupled to the POS terminal and that the first payment mechanism failed to perform the payment transaction;
determine, at least in part by applying an allowance criterion to the plurality of payment mechanisms, whether to allow an alternate payment mechanism of the plurality of payment mechanisms to perform the payment transaction; and
upon determining to allow the alternate payment mechanism to perform the payment transaction, cause the payment transaction to be performed using the alternate payment mechanism.

9. The payment processing system of claim 8 , wherein the allowance criterion is based at least in part on a number of failed attempts to use the first payment mechanism in the payment transaction.

10. The payment processing system of claim 8 , wherein a type of the first payment mechanism comprises at least one of a magnetic stripe card reader, an optical scanner, an Europay-MasterCard-Visa (EMV)-compliant card reader, a near-field communication (NFC) enabled reader, or a radio frequency identification (RFID) reader.

11. The payment processing system of claim 10 , wherein a type of the alternate payment mechanism comprises at least one of a magnetic stripe card reader, an optical scanner, an EMV-compliant card reader, a NFC-enabled reader, a RFID reader, and wherein the type of the alternate payment mechanism is exclusive of the type of the first payment mechanism.

12. The payment processing system of claim 8 , wherein the determining the plurality of payment mechanisms is based at least in part on a communication status indicator received by the application.

13. The payment processing system of claim 8 , wherein the allowance criterion comprises a technical fallback rule.

14. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
determining, by an application executing on a device, a plurality of payment mechanisms with which the device is capable of communicating for performing a payment transaction;
receiving, at the application, data associated with at least one payment object used in the payment transaction;
determining, by the application and based at least in part on the data, that the at least one payment object was read by a first payment mechanism of the plurality of payment mechanisms and that the first payment mechanism failed to perform the payment transaction;
determining whether use of an alternate payment mechanism of the plurality of payment mechanisms to perform the payment transaction is allowed; and
upon determining that the use of the alternate payment mechanism is allowed, causing the payment transaction to be performed using the alternate payment mechanism.

15. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 14 , wherein determining whether use of an alternate payment mechanism is allowed comprises:
extracting, from a database, an allowance criterion indicating whether the application is allowed to use the alternate payment mechanism to perform the payment transaction.

16. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 14 , further comprising:
receiving, at the application, second data associated with the at least one payment object.

17. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 14 , wherein the one or more processors comprise one or more processors local to the device.

18. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 14 , wherein the one or more processors comprise one or more processors remote from the device.

19. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 14 , wherein the type of the first payment mechanism is associated with a first level of a hierarchy of preferred payment mechanisms and the type of the alternate payment mechanism is associated with a second level of the hierarchy, and
wherein the first level is preferred over the second level to perform the payment transaction.

20. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 14 , wherein the application comprises a point-of-sale (POS) application and the device comprises a POS terminal.

Assignees

• Square Inc

Inventors

• White Michael Wells
• Nicholson Charles
• Terra David
• Holmes Jason
• Mroz Martin

Classifications

• G06Q20/405

  Establishing or using transaction specific rules · CPC title

• G06Q20/409 Primary

  Device specific authentication in transaction processing · CPC title

• G06Q20/341

  Active cards, i.e. cards including their own processing means, e.g. including an IC or chip · CPC title

• G07F7/1083

  Counting of PIN attempts · CPC title

• G06Q20/3674

  involving authentication · CPC title