JPH07220141A - Prepaid cards and prepaid card systems - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Abstract] [Purpose] To provide a prepaid card and a prepaid card system which can save labor and reduce the cost of issuing cards. [Structure] The amount data storage areas P1, P2, ...
A plurality of amount data is recorded for each effective period, and each amount data is specified by the information about the predetermined effective period recorded in the effective period data storage area R and is independent of the amount data corresponding to other effective periods. Will be reduced. As a result, one prepaid card can be shared for each valid period, and there is no need to issue a prepaid card each time the valid period changes.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a prepaid card and a prepaid card system suitable for use in, for example, managing meal tickets in employee cafeterias.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a prepaid card issued by payment in advance and used as a substitute for cash has been widely used. In this prepaid card, amount data corresponding to a fixed amount paid in advance is recorded at the time of issuance, and when used, the amount corresponding to the purchase amount of the product etc. is reduced from the above amount data. Is.

[0003]

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] By the way, a corporation such as a company (hereinafter simply referred to as a company) pays an employee such as an employee (hereinafter simply referred to as an employee) a fixed amount of money per month as a meal. It is legally stipulated that it can assist. In this case, the company side can assist the meal fee by issuing a meal ticket to the employee,
A prepaid card is often used as the meal ticket. Generally, a prepaid card used for such a purpose has a fixed validity period such as one month, and a prepaid card that has expired becomes unusable,
Collected or discarded by the company. For this reason, the company side has to issue a prepaid card to each employee every month when the validity period is, for example, one month, which is a burden in terms of labor and cost.

The present invention has been made under such circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a prepaid card and a prepaid card system which can save the card issuing work and reduce the cost. There is.

[0005]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the invention according to claim 1 relates to a monetary amount data storage area in which a plurality of monetary amount data to be reduced independently are recorded, and the monetary amount data. And an attribute data storage area in which the attribute data for specifying is recorded.

Further, in the invention as claimed in claim 2, the attribute data is information on a valid period, and the amount data is recorded corresponding to a plurality of different valid periods, and the information on the valid period is recorded. It is characterized in that the amount data is specified based on

The invention according to claim 3 is a prepaid card system for reducing the prepaid card according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the prepaid card is an input means for inputting purchase amount data. First reading means for reading the attribute data from the prepaid card, and second reading means for reading the amount data corresponding to the attribute data from the prepaid card based on the read attribute data; and the purchase amount from the read amount data. It is characterized by comprising a reduction means for subtracting data, and a writing means for overwriting the subtraction result by the reduction means in a storage area of the amount data corresponding to the attribute data of the prepaid card.

[0008]

According to the invention described in claim 1, a plurality of amount data is recorded in the amount data storage area for each attribute such as a store and a place, and each amount data is recorded in the attribute data storage region. It is specified by the attribute data and is reduced independently of other amount data. Accordingly, one prepaid card can be shared by, for example, each store and each place, and it becomes unnecessary to prepare a plurality of prepaid cards for each store and each place.

According to the second aspect of the invention, a plurality of amount data is recorded in the amount data storage area for each effective period, and each amount data is a predetermined amount recorded in the attribute data storage region. It is specified by the information about the validity period, and is reduced independently of the amount data corresponding to the other validity period. With this, one prepaid card,
It can be shared for each validity period, eliminating the need to issue a prepaid card each time the validity period changes.

According to the invention of claim 3, the input means inputs the purchase amount data, and the first reading means,
The attribute data is read from the prepaid card, the second reading unit reads the amount data corresponding to the attribute data from the prepaid card based on the read attribute data, and the deduction unit subtracts the purchase amount data from the read amount data. Then, the writing means overwrites this subtraction result in the storage area of the amount data corresponding to the attribute data of the prepaid card. As a result, it is possible to provide a usage system for performing the reduction processing of the prepaid card according to claim 1 or 2.

[0011]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. A: Configuration of Embodiment FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a prepaid card system according to an embodiment of the present invention. In this figure, 1 is a reader / writer for reading and writing a prepaid card (not shown) inserted in the card insertion slot 1a. 2 is a host computer,
By executing a predetermined control program, the reading and writing operations by the reader / writer 1 are controlled, and the prepaid card deduction process is performed.

Here, as shown in FIG. 2, the prepaid card has one validity period data area R in which validity period data representing the current validity period is recorded, and a plurality of amount data in which amount data is written. Area P1, P2 ...
And a data storage area consisting of The respective amount data areas P1, P2, ... Are set corresponding to different validity periods, and based on the validity period data recorded in the area R, the current validity of the areas P1, P2 ,. The area corresponding to the period is selected.

That is, in the memory inside the host computer 2, valid period data such as "January", "February", "March", and the prepaid card used corresponding to each valid period. Each amount data area P1, P
A data table showing the correspondence with the address information of 2, ... As a result, the host computer 2 sequentially collates the validity period data read from the prepaid card with the plurality of validity period data stored in the memory. Then, the address information of the amount data area corresponding to the matching valid period data is selected, and the prepaid card is accessed by the address information.

B: Operation of the Embodiment The operation of this system will be described below with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. However, in the following description, the validity period data representing "March" is recorded in the validity period data area R of the prepaid card, and "5000 yen" is recorded in the amount data area corresponding to the validity period "March".
It is assumed that the monetary amount data representing is recorded.

First, the operator operates the keyboard or the like to input the purchase amount (for example, 500 yen) of the card user to the host computer 2 (step S
1) Insert the prepaid card into the card insertion slot 1a of the reader / writer 1 (step S2).

When the prepaid card is inserted into the card insertion slot 1a, the reader / writer 1 operates in the host computer 2
The valid period data area R of the prepaid card is accessed under the control of 1. Then, the reader / writer 1 reads the valid period data “March” recorded in the area R and transfers this data to the host computer 2 (step S3).

Next, the host computer 2 reads the validity period data "March" read from the prepaid card and a plurality of validity period data ("1" stored in the memory).
(Month "," February "," March ", etc.) are sequentially collated, and the address information of the amount data area corresponding to the matching valid period" March "is specified and read from the memory (step S4). .

Then, the host computer 2 transfers the address information to the reader / writer 1 and gives an instruction to read the prepaid card. The reader / writer 1
Based on the address information supplied from the host computer 2, the corresponding amount data area of the prepaid card is accessed and the amount data "5000 yen" is read. Then, this amount data is transferred to the host computer 2 (step S5).

Next, the host computer 2 subtracts the purchase amount "500 yen" of the card user input by the operator from the amount data "5000 yen" supplied from the reader / writer 1. Then, the host computer 2 sets the amount data “4500” obtained as the subtraction result.
The "yen" is transferred to the reader / writer 1 and an instruction is issued to write the data into the amount data area corresponding to the address information (step S6).

As a result, the reader / writer 1 accesses the amount data area corresponding to the validity period "March" of the prepaid card and writes the amount data "4500 yen".
As a result, the monetary amount data for the area is "5000 yen".
Is reduced to "4500 yen" (step S7).

In this manner, when the purchase amount of the card user is again input to the host computer 2 and the prepaid card is inserted into the card insertion slot 1a of the reader / writer 1, the above-described operation is repeated and the validity period data of the area R is converted The corresponding monetary data is reduced.

When the valid period is changed, the area R is rewritten with new valid period data, whereby the amount data corresponding to the rewritten valid period data is specified and the reduction process is performed.

C: Effect of the embodiment As described above, according to this embodiment, one prepaid card can be shared for a plurality of different valid periods, and the prepaid card must be issued every valid period. Disappears. As a result, the labor and cost for issuing the prepaid card are reduced, and the burden is greatly reduced.

D: Modified Example Next, a modified example of the above embodiment will be described. Figure 4
It is a format diagram which shows the modification of the data recording area of a prepaid card. As shown in this figure, the prepaid card has a plurality of valid period data areas R1, R2, ...
It is also possible to provide a data storage area in which a plurality of amount data areas P1, P2, ...

In this case, each storage area of the prepaid card has a fixed length and is accessed sequentially. The host computer 2 stores only the data about the current valid period in the memory, and the data and each valid period data area R1, R2, ... Of the prepaid card.
The data recorded in ... are sequentially compared. As a result, the amount data area corresponding to the matching valid period data is specified and is subjected to the reduction processing. As a result, the same effect as that of the above-described embodiment can be obtained.

Further, the amount data area of the prepaid card may not be set for each valid period, but may be set corresponding to other attributes such as a store and a place.
For example, if an attribute data area for recording a store code is provided and an amount data area is set for each store code, one prepaid card can be shared by a plurality of stores, and a prepaid card can be provided for each store. There is no need to prepare. As a result, the card issuer does not need to issue a prepaid card for each store, while the card user has the advantage that he or she only needs to carry one prepaid card.

Further, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the name of each month such as "January" and "February" is used as the validity period data, but the present invention is not limited to this, and the validity period representing the last term of the period, etc. Data may be used.

[0028]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, one prepaid card, for example, at each store,
Since it can be shared for each place, it is not necessary to prepare multiple prepaid cards for each store and place,
The card issuer can save the card issuing work and can reduce the cost. On the other hand, card users
The advantage is that only one prepaid card needs to be carried. According to the invention of claim 2, one prepaid card can be shared for each valid period, and it is not necessary to issue a prepaid card each time the valid period changes, so the card issuing work can be saved. And cost reduction can be achieved. Further, according to the invention described in claim 3, it is possible to provide a utilization system for performing the reduction processing of the prepaid card according to claim 1 or 2.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a prepaid card according to an embodiment of the present invention.
It is a block diagram which shows the structure of a system.

FIG. 2 is a format diagram showing a data recording area of the prepaid card according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an operation of the prepaid card system according to the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a format diagram showing a modified example of the data recording area of the prepaid card according to the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Reader / Writer 2 Host computer R Prepaid card validity period data storage area P1, P2, ... Prepaid card amount data storage area

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A monetary amount data storage area in which a plurality of monetary amount data each of which is independently reduced is recorded, and an attribute data storage region in which attribute data for specifying the monetary amount data is recorded. And prepaid card. 2. The attribute data is information relating to a validity period, and the amount data is recorded corresponding to a plurality of different validity periods, and the amount data is specified based on the information relating to the validity period. The prepaid card according to claim 1, wherein the prepaid card is provided. 3. A prepaid card system for reducing the prepaid card according to claim 1, wherein the prepaid card system has an input unit for inputting purchase amount data, and a first read out attribute data from the prepaid card. Reading means, second reading means for reading money data corresponding to the attribute data from the prepaid card based on the read attribute data, and deduction means for subtracting the purchase money data from the read money data, A prepaid card system, comprising: writing means for overwriting the subtraction result by the reduction means in a storage area of the amount data corresponding to the attribute data of the prepaid card.