Ongoing payments - IOTP Version 2 extension

["Roth, Janet" <[e-mail]>]

Visa is interested in seeing a small extension to IOTP for Version 2 that
will support what we call "incremental" or "ongoing" payments.  A familiar
example of such an ongoing payment from the mundane, pre-internet world is a
pay-telephone call.  Internet based examples of such payments might include
not only payment for connection time, but also payment for ongoing
activities such as game playing.  While this can be implemented under
Version 1, it is somewhat awkward.

Specifically, we would like to see added to the standard IOTP element
definitions the following:

1) an optional data element indicating that this transaction is one of three
possibilities:  a stand-alone single payment (the default), the initial
payment of an ongoing payment transaction set, and an incremental payment.
(in the last case, the initial payment is referenced using the Related To
component). 

2) an data element, used only for the initial payment of an ongoing
transaction set, giving the maximum permitted incremental payment amount in
each offered currency.

The authentication of the customer/cardholder, and the negotiation of the
price and means of payment is performed once only, during the processing of
the initial payment for the transaction set.  This negotiation includes both
the agreement of an initial payment amount, and the maximum amount for the
subsequent incremental payments.  The subsequent incremental payment
transactions would be for any amount not greater than the agreed maximum.

Using game playing as an example:

Before starting the game, the merchant and customer systems negotiate the
payment brand and protocol, and agree that the customer will be charged $3
for an initial 30 minutes of playing time, $.50 for each subsequent 10
minute period, and will be credited $.10 for each game level achieved.  This
can be expressed as agreeing to an immediate payment of $3 and to maximum
incremental payments of $.50.  

In other words, the initial payment of the set indicates $3 in the "amount"
attribute in the currency amount element and $.50 in the new maximum
incremental amount.  The subsequent incremental payments may contain any
value up to $.50 in the "amount" attribute.  In this example, if the game
player had achieved a new game level, then the next payment would be $.40.


Janet Roth
__________________________________________________
[e-mail]
Chief Systems Architect
Emerging Technologies - Application Architecture & Standards
Visa International
Ph. [phone];  FAX [phone]
Mailstop M1-8H, 900 Metro Center Blvd., Foster City CA, 94404-2775, USA