Patent ID: 8527416

Claim:
A method of conducting commerce using controlled payment numbers (CPNs), comprising the steps of: receiving, by one or more computers of a computer system, a request for issuance of a CPN by a user as an authorized substitute for a customer account number, the CPN issuance request including user-defined controls on the use of the CPN and user-defined payment delay for deferring payments on authorized transactions using the CPN; issuing, by the one or more computers, a CPN in response to said CPN issuance request; linking, in a database, by the one or more computers of the computer system, said user-defined controls and said user-defined payment delay to the CPN and the customer account number to the CPN at the time of the CPN issuance request and issuance; receiving, at the one or more computers, a request for authorization including transaction details on a transaction using the CPN; authorizing, by the one or more computers, the request for authorization to a card issuer through a card processing network when the transaction details comply with the user-defined controls; and deferring payment on the authorized transaction using the CPN according to the user-defined payment delay linked to the CPN in the database of the computer system, wherein the CPN is an authorized substitute for a customer account number in the card processing network that has user-defined controls on the use of the CPN in the card processing network including user-defined payment delay for deferring payments in the card processing network on authorized transactions using the CPN, and wherein the CPN is a number formatted identically to conventional financial transaction card numbers used in the card processing network.