Patent ID: 7849013

Claim:
A method of purchasing online comprising: communicating, by a customer device, a purchase selection to a vendor computer system; communicating, by the vendor computer system in response, a cost of the purchase selection, a transaction ID, transaction time information, and a fund confirmation address to the customer device; communicating, by the customer device, a payment authorization for the cost to a billing system, the billing system suspending network access charges during the online purchase; communicating, by the customer device, the transaction ID and the transaction time information to the fund guardian; communicating, by the billing system, the payment authorization to a fund guardian, the fund guardian to confirm the availability of sufficient funds to pay the cost, wherein the fund guardian is one of a banking system and an escrow system; communicating, by the vendor computer system, to the fund guardian that the download completed successfully; and transferring, by the fund guardian, funds to the vendor computer system in response to the download completing successfully; and communicating, by the fund guardian when sufficient funds are available to pay the cost, a fund confirmation to the fund confirmation address without using the customer device as an intermediary, wherein all communications are performed without exchanging credit card or debit card information and, wherein the billing system resumes network access charges upon receipt of the purchase selection by the customer device.