Patent ID: 8190524

Claim:
A method for a plurality of customers and a plurality of vendors of products or services for transactions between a purchasing customer of the plurality of customers and a selling vendor of the plurality of vendors, wherein for a purchase transaction of a product or service between the purchasing customer and the selling vendor, a first amount is charged to the purchasing customer and a second amount is remitted between the selling vendor and a provider, the method by the provider, comprising: establishing by way of communicatively coupling equipment of the provider with equipment of the purchasing customer a billing arrangement with a purchasing customer to permit the provider to charge a billing account associated with the purchasing customer for a purchase transaction between the purchasing customer and the selling vendor; establishing by way of communicatively coupling the equipment of the provider with equipment of the selling vendor a remitting arrangement with the selling vendor to permit the provider to initiate between the provider and the selling vendor a remittance of the second amount by way of an account associated with the selling vendor; establishing communications between the equipment of the provider and the equipment of the purchasing customer, wherein the equipment of the provider enables the equipment of the purchasing customer to communicate over a communications network with the equipment of the selling vendor concerning a purchase transaction; obtaining transactional information relating to a purchase transaction initiated by the purchasing customer, wherein the purchase transaction corresponds to a product or service sold by the selling vendor; charging the first amount to the billing account associated with the purchasing customer in accordance with the billing arrangement; and initiating between the provider and the selling vendor a remittance of the second amount by way of the account associated with the selling vendor in accordance with the remitting arrangement.