Apparatus and method for a payment card system

Abstract

A payment card that facilitates use of a plurality of bankcards of a customer, at a point of sale terminal has a payment card with a front side and a backside with a substrate, the substrate encodes a customer identifier as a payment card data that is without a bankcard data, and maps the customer to a plurality of bankcards data in a third party system database. The payment card is enabled to be used at a merchant point-of-sale (POS) terminal with a customer entered PIN, enabling the POS terminal to transfer a payment authorization request record incident to a sales transaction, from the POS to a merchant gateway for routing to a card-issuing banks, thereby enabling use of the payment card in lieu of the customer bankcards at the merchant POS terminal.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A payment card system comprising:
 a. a server system, that facilitates bankcard payment transactions to merchants, the system has a database server that stores pre-existing bankcard data of customers with at least one or more pre-stored bankcard data of the customer and the customer bankcard data in the database server is referenced by a unique customer identifier that does not identify a card-issuing bank;   b. a payment card that is not a card-issuing bank issued bankcard and has an identification that references the unique customer identifier in the database server;   c. the server is capable of receiving and receives merchant originated payment transaction request records identifying the unique customer identifier from the payment card;   d. the server maps the unique customer identifier in the payment transaction record to the card-issuing bank's bankcard data from the database server and sends the payment transaction record for routing to a card-issuing bank for payment processing, thereby for merchants be able to process bankcard payment transactions without receiving bankcard data and thus avoid security risk inherent in safeguarding others' bankcard data.   
     
     
         2 . The system as in  claim 1  wherein:
 the system owned and managed by third parties that are not merchants and card-issuing banks. 
 
     
     
         3 . The system as in  claim 1  wherein:
 a. the server system receives the payment card originated records from a pre-existing router after the pre-existing router had received the payment transaction record from merchants; and 
 b. the pre-existing router had separated the payment card originated records from card-issuing-bank issued bankcards payment request records and forwards to the server system. 
 
     
     
         4 . The system as in  claim 1  wherein:
 each customer has pre-stored in the database server at least one or more bankcard data. 
 
     
     
         5 . The system as in  claim 1  further comprising:
 a. the database server associates a PIN with the unique customer identifier in the database server and thus the payment card; 
 b. the server system uses the PIN to verify a customer before mapping the unique customer identifier to the pre-existing bankcard data of the customer. 
 
     
     
         6 . The system as in  claim 5  further comprising:
 the server system facilitates creation of the PIN and delivers the PIN to the customer. 
 
     
     
         7 . The system as in  claim 5  further comprising:
 the PIN is required at the time of payment card use by the customer at the merchant sales transaction terminal and is used to verify the payment card owner to the server system, thus the system provides a PIN verification for bankcards that do not require a PIN. 
 
     
     
         8 . The system as in  claim 5  further comprising:
 the server associates a different PIN for each bankcard and thus identifies which bankcard of the customer from a plurality of the bankcards including debit cards that is intended to be used for a specific sales transaction at the merchant by the customer. 
 
     
     
         9 . The system as in  claim 1  further comprising:
 a. the server system aliases each bankcard data stored in the database server; 
 b. the server un-aliases each bankcard data retrieved from the database server when a payment card payment transaction record is received and deletes the un-aliased bankcard data when the payment transaction record with the bankcard data is sent to the card-issuing bank, thus providing added security for the protection of the bankcard data stored in the database server. 
 
     
     
         10 . The system as in  claim 9  further comprising:
 the server system aliases each bankcard data when the bankcard data is received and before being stored in the database server. 
 
     
     
         11 . A method for payment card system comprising the steps of:
 a. facilitating by a server system, bankcard payment transactions to merchants, having by the system a database server that stores pre-existing bankcard data of customers with at least one or more pre-stored bankcard data of the customer and referencing the customer bankcard data in the database server by a unique customer identifier that does not identify a card-issuing bank;   b. having a payment card that is not a card-issuing bank issued bankcard and having by the card an identification that references the unique customer identifier in the database server;   c. receiving by the server merchant originated payment transaction request records identifying the unique customer identifier from the payment card;   d. mapping by the server the unique customer identifier in the payment transaction record to the card-issuing bank's bankcard data from the database server and sending the payment transaction record for routing to a card-issuing bank for payment processing, thereby for merchants be able to process bankcard payment transactions without receiving bankcard data and thus avoid security risk inherent in safeguarding others' bankcard data.   
     
     
         12 . The method as in  claim 11  the steps of:
 owning and managing the system owned by third parties that are not merchants and card-issuing banks. 
 
     
     
         13 . The method as in  claim 11  the steps of:
 a. receiving by the server system the payment card originated records from a pre-existing router after the pre-existing router had received the payment transaction record from merchants; and 
 b. separating by the pre-existing router the payment card originated records from card-issuing-bank issued bankcards payment request records and forwards to the server system. 
 
     
     
         14 . The method as in  claim 11  the steps of:
 pre-storing by each customer in the database server at least one or more bankcard data. 
 
     
     
         15 . The method as in  claim 11  further comprising the steps of:
 a. associating by the database server a PIN with the unique customer identifier in the database server and thus the payment card; 
 b. using by the server system the PIN to verify a customer before mapping the unique customer identifier to the pre-existing bankcard data of the customer. 
 
     
     
         16 . The method as in  claim 15  further comprising the steps of:
 facilitating by the server system creation of the PIN and delivers the PIN to the customer. 
 
     
     
         17 . The method as in  claim 15  further comprising the steps of:
 requiring the PIN at the time of payment card use by the customer at the merchant sales transaction terminal and using to verify the payment card owner to the server system, thus the system provides a PIN verification for bankcards that do not require a PIN. 
 
     
     
         18 . The method as in  claim 15  further comprising the steps of:
 associating by the server a different PIN for each bankcard and thus identifies which bankcard of the customer from a plurality of the bankcards including debit cards that is intended to be used for a specific sales transaction at the merchant by the customer. 
 
     
     
         19 . The method as in  claim 11  further comprising the steps of:
 a. aliasing by the server system each bankcard data stored in the database server; 
 b. un-aliasing by the server each bankcard data retrieved from the database server when a payment card payment transaction record is received and deletes the un-aliased bankcard data when the payment transaction record with the bankcard data is sent to the card-issuing bank, thus providing added security for the protection of the bankcard data stored in the database server. 
 
     
     
         20 . The method as in  claim 17  further comprising the steps of:
 aliasing by the server system each bankcard data when the bankcard data is received and before being stored in the database server.