Smart wallet

Abstract

A user's smart phone is used for payments and holding information, similar to what is contained in a physical wallet. Depending on transaction details, user preferences, and location, one or more “best” funding instruments for the transaction are selected for the user, who may then revise if desired. Access to different functions or information within the phone may vary and require different authentication/security levels depending on type of use (e.g., payment or non-payment) and details of use (e.g., high payment amount vs. low payment amount, use of sensitive information vs. non-sensitive information).

1 . A method for performing a payment transaction using a user device, comprising:
 receiving an indication of a desire by a user to make a payment;   accessing, by a processor a payment provider, an account of the user with the payment provider;   determining, by the processor, which one or more of a plurality of funding instruments associated with the account to use for the payment based on at least one of user preferences, transaction information, and location of the user; and   processing the payment using the one or more funding instruments.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising receiving the user preferences from the user, wherein the determining is based in part on the user preferences. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the plurality of funding instruments comprises one or more of credit cards, debit cards, gift cards, and coupons. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the determining comprises selecting at least two funding instruments for the payment. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the transaction information comprises information about a merchant and an amount. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the determining is based, in part, on the location of a user. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the determining is based, in part, on a purchase history of a user. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising receiving different security settings, from the user, for different uses of the user device. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein a higher security setting is required for a higher payment amount. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein a higher security setting is required for use of a higher sensitive information. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the higher sensitive information comprises at least one of a social security number, a credit card number, a bank account number, and a gift card number. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising receiving a revised one or more funding instruments from the user and processing the payment using the revised one or more funding instruments. 
     
     
         13 . A non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising a plurality of machine-readable instructions which when executed by one or more processors of a server are adapted to cause the server to perform a method comprising:
 receiving an indication of a desire by a user to make a payment;   accessing an account of the user with a payment provider;   determining which one or more of a plurality of funding instruments associated with the account to use for the payment based on at least one of user preferences, transaction information, and location of the user; and   processing the payment using the one or more funding instruments.   
     
     
         14 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of  claim 13 , wherein the plurality of funding instruments comprises one or more of credit cards, debit cards, gift cards, and coupons. 
     
     
         15 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of  claim 13 , wherein the determining comprises selecting at least two funding instruments for the payment. 
     
     
         16 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of  claim 13 , wherein the transaction information comprises information about a merchant and an amount. 
     
     
         17 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of  claim 13 , wherein the determining is based, in part, on a purchase history of a user. 
     
     
         18 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of  claim 13 , wherein the method further comprises receiving different security settings, from the user, for different uses of the user device. 
     
     
         19 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of  claim 18 , wherein a higher security setting is required for a higher payment amount. 
     
     
         20 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of  claim 18 , wherein a higher security setting is required for use of a higher sensitive information. 
     
     
         21 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of  claim 20 , wherein the higher sensitive information comprises at least one of a social security number, a credit card number, a bank account number, and a gift card number. 
     
     
         22 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of  claim 13 , wherein the method further comprises receiving a revised one or more funding instruments from the user and processing the payment using the revised one or more funding instruments.