Method and apparatus for smart payment instrument selection

Abstract

A method and apparatus is provided for constructing and using a smart wallet, i.e. a repository of payment instruments, such as, for example, credit cards, with automatic selection when making a purchase in an online environment. In one embodiment of the invention, the wallet service first finds the intersection of acceptable instruments between a merchant and a user. For example, the invention matches a list of user held credit cards against a list of acceptable credit cards at a merchant. The wallet service then intelligently selects, or at least ranks in order, the payment instruments based on value to the customer. The ranking can take into account: a) cash back rates; b) mileage rates for the specific potential purchase; and c) temporal discounts such as shipping or coupon discounts for the specific product type; etc. The act of automatically making a selection of a payment instrument, such as a credit card, in an online environment is analogous to what a human does when buying things at a store. The advantage is that an automatic system can integrate all the discount notices and coupons that are typically mailed to a cardholder. The system preferably presumes that a smart wallet is given information about a transaction, and has collected information about the payment instruments.

1 - 34 . (canceled) 
     
     
         35 . A method for automatically selecting a payment instrument in an online environment including a user with a smart wallet application storing information about one or more payment instruments held by the user, the stored information comprising a number of and types of payment instruments, discount and incentive information from manufacturers, discount and incentive information from financial instrument companies and a predetermined priority with which to rank possible suggested payment instruments, the method comprising the following operations performed by one or more processors:
 notifying, using a web browser of the user, a merchant application to make a purchase transaction for an offered product or service;   responsive to the notifying of the merchant application, receiving from the merchant application information of the purchase transaction and a listing of payment Instruments accepted by the merchant;   responsive to receiving the purchase transaction information from the merchant application, the smart wallet application of the user automatically processing the purchase transaction information to:
 determine a rank based on the predetermined priority, 
 determine which of the user's stored payment instruments are accepted by the merchant application, and 
 automatically select at least one payment instrument from the payment instruments accepted by the merchant; and 
   responsive to a determination that no other discounts by any other available payment Instruments are offered, automatically selecting a single payment instrument and suggesting charging a set of bundled multiple purchases to the selected single payment instrument.   
     
     
         36 . The method of  claim 35 , further comprising:
 sending, using the smart wallet application, the selected payment instrument information to the merchant application for further processing.   
     
     
         37 . The method of  claim 35 , further comprising:
 contacting, using the smart wallet application, a bank with the selected payment instrument.   
     
     
         38 . The method of  claim 35 , wherein the merchant application contacts a bank with the selected payment instrument. 
     
     
         39 . The method of  claim 35 , further comprising:
 providing discount information to the smart wallet application on an on-going basis for storing and tracking.   
     
     
         40 . The method of  claim 39 , wherein the providing of discount information comprises at least one of electronically sending the discount information or automatically inputting the discount information. 
     
     
         41 . The method of  claim 35 , further comprising:
 using the smart wallet application as a discount tracker to review available discounts.   
     
     
         42 . The method of  claim 35 , further comprising:
 providing for multiple financial instrument selections for a single purchase to obtain multiple discounts.   
     
     
         43 . The method of  claim 35 , wherein the discount information comprises at least one of temporal discounts, cash back rates, and mileage rates. 
     
     
         44 . The method of  claim 35 , wherein the payment instrument is at least one of a credit card and a debit card. 
     
     
         45 . An apparatus for automatically selecting a payment instrument in an environment including a smart wallet application of a user storing information about one or more payment instruments held by the user, the stored information comprising a number of and types of payment instruments, discount and incentive information from manufacturers, discount and incentive information from financial instrument companies and a predetermined priority with which to rank possible suggested payment instruments, the apparatus comprising a one or more hardware processors configured with a set of instructions to:
 notify, using a web browser of the user, a merchant application to make a purchase transaction for an offered product or service;   responsive to the notifying of the merchant application, receive from the merchant application information of the purchase transaction and a listing of payment instruments accepted by the merchant;   responsive to receiving the purchase transaction information from the merchant application, the smart wallet application of the user automatically processing the purchase transaction Information to:
 determine a rank based on the predetermined priority, 
 determine which of the user's stored payment instruments are accepted by the merchant application, and 
 automatically select at least one payment instrument from the payment instruments accepted by the merchant; and 
   responsive to a determination that no other discounts by any other available payment instruments are offered, automatically select a single payment instrument and suggest charging a set of bundled multiple purchases to the selected single payment instrument.   
     
     
         46 . The apparatus of  claim 45 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:
 send, using the smart wallet application, the selected payment instrument information to the merchant application for further processing.   
     
     
         47 . The apparatus of  claim 45 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:
 contact, using the smart wallet application, a bank with the selected payment instrument.   
     
     
         48 . The apparatus of  claim 45 , wherein the merchant application contacts a bank with the selected payment instrument. 
     
     
         49 . The apparatus of  claim 45 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:
 provide discount information to the smart wallet application on an on-going basis for storing and tracking.   
     
     
         50 . The apparatus of  claim 49 , wherein providing discount information comprises at least one of electronically sending the discount information or automatically inputting the discount information. 
     
     
         51 . The apparatus of  claim 45 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:
 use the smart wallet application as a discount tracker to review available discounts.   
     
     
         52 . The apparatus of  claim 45 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:
 provide for multiple financial instrument selections for a single purchase to obtain multiple discounts.   
     
     
         53 . The apparatus of  claim 45 , wherein the discount information comprises at least one of temporal discounts, cash back rates, and mileage rates. 
     
     
         54 . The apparatus of  claim 45 , wherein the payment instrument is at least one of a credit card and a debit card.