Patent ID: 7702578

Claim:
A method for managing a user online financial transaction at a destination ecommerce web site using a reusable, pre-existing, unaltered and permanent credit or debit card account of the user, comprising: a) transmitting an activation command from a web server computer to a financial institution processing financial transactions for activating the reusable, pre-existing, unaltered and permanent credit or debit card account of the user; b) submitting a charge request for the credit or debit card account to the financial institution via a destination e-commerce web site to which the user is logged in while the credit or debit card account is in the activated status; and c) transmitting a de-activation command from the web server computer to said financial institution for de-activating the credit or debit card account, wherein the financial institution only accepts and processes charge requests received from e-commerce web sites while the credit or debit card account is in the activated status and wherein the financial institution declines charge requests while the credit or debit card account is in the de-activated status, and wherein steps a) to c) are repeated at least once, and the method further comprises determining at the financial institution if a merchant identification in the charge request matches a merchant identification in the activation command, wherein the financial institution declines charge requests when the merchant identification in the charge request does not match the merchant identification in the activation command.