Patent ID: 7676434

Claim:
A method for processing payment requests submitted by a payer through a single user interface of a payment system, wherein the payment requests are for monies owed by the payer to multiple payees, comprising: registering payees with the payment system, wherein registering includes obtaining a merchant identification and an acquirer processor identification associated with each registered payee; providing a user interface that allows a payer to schedule a payment request to pay one or more payees for monies owed by the payer, wherein a payment request designates a registered payee and an amount to charge the payer's credit card on a charge date to pay for a purchase previously made by the payer that has not yet been settled; receiving a plurality of payment requests from the payer, wherein each payment request designates a payee, a credit card, a charge date, and a charge amount; generating payment instructions based on each scheduled payment request, wherein each of the scheduled payment instructions is generated by an application server and designates the payer's credit card, the charge date, the charge amount, and the merchant identification and acquirer processor identification associated with the registered payee in a format that may be processed as a credit card transaction; storing the generated payments instructions in a database, wherein the generated payment instructions are organized in the database by credit card in order of the charge amount; on a charge date, routing the generated payment instructions associated with the same credit card and charge date from the database to the acquirer processor designated in the payment instructions in order of charge amount without any involvement from the payee to be processed as a credit card transaction; receiving an authorization notification from the acquirer processor associated with the routed generated payment instructions; when the authorization notification is an unsuccessful authorization notification associated with a decline value, suspending routing of the remaining generated payment instructions designating the same credit card as the declined payment instructions to the acquirer processor; and, when the authorization notification is an unsuccessful authorization notification associated with a failure value, resubmitting the declined payment instructions to the acquirer processor for authorization when the failure value is associated with a recoverable failure; suspending routing of the remaining generated remaining payment instructions including the same payee as the failed payment instructions to the acquirer processor when the failure value is associated with an unrecoverable failure.