Payment service provision with reduced transaction costs

Abstract

A method for providing on-line payment services is provided where a payment service provider pays for a plurality of purchases that are made by a user during a plurality of on-line shopping sessions. An authorization is received for the payment service provider to collect a reimbursement amount from a financial institution of the user. The reimbursement amount is at least equal to a cumulative amount of the payments for the plurality of purchases made by the user during the plurality of on-line shopping sessions. The payment service provider collects the reimbursement amount in a single transaction from the financial institution of the user and pays a fee to the financial institution of the user. The fee is based on the single transaction carried out to collect the reimbursement amount rather than being applied to each of the plurality of purchases or assessed as a percentage of the reimbursement amount, which allows the payment service provider to reduce the costs associated with providing payment services.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A reclassified multi-payment reimbursement amount payment system, comprising:
 a non-transitory memory storing a user account of a user, a user payment history for the user account, a balance for the user account, first financial institution information for a first financial instruction of the user, and second financial institution information for a second financial instruction of the user that is a credit financial institution; and   one or more hardware processors coupled to the non-transitory memory and configured to read instructions from the non-transitory memory to cause a system to perform operations comprising:
 analyzing the user payment history stored in the non-transitory memory to determine a maximum reimbursement amount for the user account; 
 receiving a plurality of payment requests over the network at different times to make payments using the user account stored in the non-transitory memory and, in response, transmitting a payment over the network from the user account to at least one merchant account for each of the plurality of payment requests, wherein a last payment of the plurality of payments causes the balance of the user account stored in the non-transitory memory to increase to within a predetermined amount of the maximum reimbursement amount; 
 using, in direct response to the balance of the user account increasing to within the predetermined amount of the maximum reimbursement amount, the first financial institution information stored in the non-transitory memory to attempt to collect a reimbursement amount for at least a portion for the balance of the user account over the network in a single transaction from the first financial institution; 
 receiving, through the network in response to attempting to collect the reimbursement amount from the first financial institution, a collection denial from the first financial institution over the network; 
 reclassifying the reimbursement amount in response to the collection denial to create a reclassified reimbursement amount that is associated with insufficient funds at the first financial institution; and 
 using the second financial institution information stored in the non-transitory memory to attempt to collect, over the network from the second financial institution, the reclassified reimbursement amount in a single transaction, wherein a second financial institution fee that is based on the single transaction to collect the reclassified reimbursement amount is transmitted over the network to the second financial institution in response to the second financial institution allowing the collection of the reclassified reimbursement amount. 
   
     
     
         2 . The payment system of  claim 1 , wherein the non-transitory memory stores a reimbursement history for the user, and wherein the one or more hardware processors are configured to read instructions from the non-transitory memory to cause the system to perform operations further comprising:
 analyzing the reimbursement history and the user payment history in the non-transitory memory to determine the maximum reimbursement amount for the user.   
     
     
         3 . The payment system of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more hardware processors are configured to read instructions from the non-transitory memory to cause the system to perform operations further comprising:
 receiving, from the user prior to the transmitting the payment over the network from the user account to the at least one merchant account for each of the plurality of payment requests, authorization to collect the reclassified reimbursement amount from the second financial institution in response to the user not having sufficient funds at the first financial institution.   
     
     
         4 . The payment system of  claim 3 , wherein the prior authorization to collect the reclassified reimbursement amount from the second financial institution in response to the user not having sufficient funds at the first financial institution further comprises a prior authorization to collect the reclassified reimbursement amount and the second financial institution fee from the second financial institution in response to the user not having sufficient funds at the first financial institution. 
     
     
         5 . The payment system of  claim 1 , wherein the first financial institution comprises a banking financial institution. 
     
     
         6 . The payment system of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more hardware processors are configured to read instructions from the non-transitory memory to cause the system to perform operations further comprising:
 receiving, through the network in response to attempting to collect the reclassified reimbursement account from the second financial institution, a collection denial from the second financial institution and, in response, disqualifying the user account from having subsequent multiple payments transmitted prior to collecting a subsequent reimbursement amount for at least a subsequent portion of the balance of the user account.   
     
     
         7 . The payment system of  claim 1 , wherein the attempting to collect the reimbursement amount is performed in response to the expiration of a predetermined amount of time. 
     
     
         8 . A non-transitory machine-readable medium having stored thereon machine-readable instructions executable to cause a machine to perform operations comprising:
 analyzing a user payment history for a user account that is stored in a database to determine a maximum reimbursement amount for the user account;   receiving a plurality of payment requests over the network at different times to make payments using the user account and, in response, transmitting a payment over the network from the user account to at least one merchant account for each of the plurality of payment requests, wherein a last payment of the plurality of payments causes a balance of the user account that is stored in the database to increase to within a predetermined amount of the maximum reimbursement amount;   using, in direct response to the balance of the user account increasing to within the predetermined amount of the maximum reimbursement amount, first financial institution information that is stored in the database in association with the user account to attempt to collect a reimbursement amount for at least a portion for the balance of the user account over the network in a single transaction from a first financial institution;   receiving, through the network in response to attempting to collect the reimbursement amount from the first financial institution, a collection denial from the first financial institution over the network;   reclassifying the reimbursement amount in response to the collection denial to create a reclassified reimbursement amount that is associated with insufficient funds at the first financial institution; and   using second financial institution information that is stored in the database in association with the user account to attempt to collect, over the network from a second financial institution, the reclassified reimbursement amount in a single transaction, wherein a second financial institution fee that is based on the single transaction to collect the reclassified reimbursement amount is transmitted over the network to the second financial institution in response to the second financial institution allowing the collection of the reclassified reimbursement amount.   
     
     
         9 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of  claim 8 , wherein the operations further comprise:
 analyzing a reimbursement history and the user payment history for the user account that is stored in the database to determine the maximum reimbursement amount for the user.   
     
     
         10 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of  claim 8 , wherein the operations further comprise:
 receiving, from the user prior to the transmitting the payment over the network from the user account to the at least one merchant account for each of the plurality of payment requests, authorization to collect the reclassified reimbursement amount from the second financial institution in response to the user not having sufficient funds at the first financial institution.   
     
     
         11 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of  claim 10 , wherein the prior authorization to collect the reclassified reimbursement amount from the second financial institution in response to the user not having sufficient funds at the first financial institution further comprises a prior authorization to collect the reclassified reimbursement amount and the second financial institution fee from the second financial institution in response to the user not having sufficient funds at the first financial institution. 
     
     
         12 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of  claim 8 , wherein the first financial institution comprises a banking financial institution. 
     
     
         13 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of  claim 8 , wherein the operations further comprise:
 receiving, through the network in response to attempting to collect the reclassified reimbursement account from the second financial institution, a collection denial from the second financial institution and, in response, disqualifying the user account from having subsequent multiple payments transmitted prior to collecting a subsequent reimbursement amount for at least a subsequent portion of the balance of the user account.   
     
     
         14 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of  claim 8 , wherein the attempting to collect the reimbursement amount is performed in response to the expiration of a predetermined amount of time. 
     
     
         15 . A method for use by a payment service provider in collecting a reimbursement for payments made for a plurality of a different purchases of a user by reclassifying a reimbursement amount in response to a collection denial from a first financial institution to subject the collection of the reimbursement amount to a fee that is based on a single transaction with a second financial institution, comprising:
 analyzing, by a payment service provider device, a user payment history for a user account that is stored in a database to determine a maximum reimbursement amount for the user account;   receiving, by the payment service provider device from a user device over a network, a plurality of payment requests at different times to make payments using the user account and, in response, transmitting a payment over the network from the user account to at least one merchant account for each of the plurality of payment requests, wherein a last payment of the plurality of payments causes a balance of the user account that is stored in the database to increase to within a predetermined amount of the maximum reimbursement amount;   using, by the payment service provider in direct response to the balance of the user account increasing to within the predetermined amount of the maximum reimbursement amount, first financial institution information that is stored in the database in association with the user account to attempt to collect a reimbursement amount for at least a portion for the balance of the user account over the network in a single transaction from a first financial institution;   receiving, by the payment service provider from a first financial institution device through the network in response to attempting to collect the reimbursement amount from the first financial institution, a collection denial from the first financial institution over the network;   reclassifying, by the payment service provider, the reimbursement amount in response to the collection denial to create a reclassified reimbursement amount that is associated with insufficient funds at the first financial institution; and   using, by the payment service provider, second financial institution information that is stored in the database in association with the user account to attempt to collect, over the network from a second financial institution, the reclassified reimbursement amount in a single transaction, wherein a second financial institution fee that is based on the single transaction to collect the reclassified reimbursement amount is transmitted over the network to the second financial institution in response to the second financial institution allowing the collection of the reclassified reimbursement amount.   
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , further comprising:
 analyzing, by the payment service provider, a reimbursement history and the user payment history for the user account that is stored in the database to determine the maximum reimbursement amount for the user.   
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 15 , further comprising:
 receiving, by the payment service provider from the user device prior to the transmitting the payment over the network from the user account to the at least one merchant account for each of the plurality of payment requests, authorization to collect the reclassified reimbursement amount from the second financial institution in response to the user not having sufficient funds at the first financial institution.   
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 17 , wherein the prior authorization to collect the reclassified reimbursement amount from the second financial institution in response to the user not having sufficient funds at the first financial institution further comprises a prior authorization to collect the reclassified reimbursement amount and the second financial institution fee from the second financial institution in response to the user not having sufficient funds at the first financial institution. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein the first financial institution comprises a banking financial institution. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 15 , further comprising:
 receiving, by the payment service provider through the network in response to attempting to collect the reclassified reimbursement account from the second financial institution, a collection denial from a second financial institution device and, in response, disqualifying the user account from having subsequent multiple payments transmitted prior to collecting a subsequent reimbursement amount for at least a subsequent portion of the balance of the user account.