FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates generally to a system and method for facilitating person to business (P2B) payment transactions, and more particularly to a system and method for enabling a business to receive a payment from a person in real time or near real time.

BACKGROUND

Banks, credit unions, and other financial institutions regularly encounter situations in which their customers are delinquent on their payment obligations, such as their monthly mortgage, credit card, student loan, or automobile loan payments. Personnel in the collections department are then called upon to contact the customer to make arrangements for payment of some or all of the past due amount. In these circumstances, the collections agent typically does not accept debit cards or credit cards as a form of payment, but rather asks the customer for his or her checking account or other demand deposit account (DDA) information in order to initiate an automated clearing house (ACH) payment. This approach for collecting past due amounts, however, has some drawbacks. For example, obtaining the correct account number from the customer over the phone is prone to errors because the length and location of these numbers on a check is not standardized. Furthermore, the collections agent typically has no way to verify in real time (e.g., while on the phone with the customer) the accuracy of the information given by the customer, such as the correct account number or the sufficiency of funds in the customer's DDA account. Hence, the collections agent may find out the next day after the ACH payment fails that the account number was incorrect or the customer's account had insufficient funds. And even if the customer had sufficient funds in the account at the time of the phone call, those funds are not reserved for payment to the collections agent. Hence, the customer may withdraw funds before the ACH payment to the collections agent is initiated. Another disadvantage of known collection methods is the processing cost. For example, if the customer chooses to mail a check, the financial institution loses the float time in the mail and incurs additional costs for processing the paper check. Hence, there are a number of disadvantages in known collection methods, including surety of payment and processing costs.

SUMMARY

According to one embodiment, the invention relates to a computer-implemented system and method for receiving a person to business (P2B) payment from an individual. The method may be conducted on a computer system comprising one or more computer processors, mobile devices, electronic storage devices, and networks. The method may comprise the steps of: contacting an individual having a demand deposit account (DDA) to request the P2B payment in an amount that is due to the business; providing a designated electronic address for the business for receiving the P2B payment; identifying a reference number that is associated with the P2B payment; requesting the individual to use a P2B payment server to make the P2B payment to the designated electronic address for the business from the individual's DDA account in the amount that is due, wherein the P2B payment is associated with the reference number; electronically receiving the P2B payment with the reference number; electronically monitoring the P2B payment server in real time to confirm receipt of the P2B payment; and using the reference number to apply the received P2B payment to the amount that is due to the business.

The invention also relates to a computer implemented system for receiving a person to business (P2B) payment from an individual, and software stored on a computer storage device for receiving a person to business (P2B) payment from an individual.

The computer implemented system and method described herein can provide the advantage of enabling a business to receive a payment from an individual in real time including a reference number that allows the business to apply the payment to the correct account, according to various embodiments of the invention. The system and method can also reduce processing costs over known collection methods because it does not involve processing a paper check or using another transaction method (e.g., debit card transaction) that has relatively high transaction costs. These and other advantages will be described more fully in the following detailed description.

