Importance

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Abstract

A system for facilitating customer payments to creditors from a remote site includes computer systems located at respective agent, service provider and creditor sites. The service provider or host computer system is in selective communication with the agent and creditor computer systems and processes transaction information. A customer typically visits an agent site (e.g., a retail establishment) and tenders payment, preferably manually, in response to receiving a billing statement from a creditor. The payment transaction is entered into the agent system wherein information for all payment transactions at that agent site is maintained in a transaction file. The agent system generates a receipt for the customer at the completion of the transaction. Each agent system transfers a respective transaction file to the host system daily at a specified time associated with the respective agent system, preferably at the end of a day, wherein the host system processes the transaction files to generate a closeout report and a creditor report for each creditor indicating the payment activity at the agent sites. The creditor reports are transferred to the creditor systems wherein customer accounts may be updated based on the payment information within the creditor reports. The closeout report includes information related to the payment activity at each agent site and is generated by the host system at another specified time, preferably after the transaction information has been received by the host system from each of the agent systems. The service provider typically pays the creditors via electronic fund transfer or other conventional payment methods. The agents pay the service provider in a similar fashion while remitting to the service provider a portion of a service fee charged to the customer.

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First Claim