Patent ID: 8239330

Claim:
A method for allowing a customer to pay for goods or services without sending any personal or financial information to a merchant except a shipping address; said method comprising the steps of: a. sending checkout information from a customer computer to an e-commerce server in a checkout process, said e-commerce server being controlled by the merchant; b. receiving the checkout information at the e-commerce server; c. generating payment information at the e-commerce server in response to the checkout information; d. sending the payment information to a clearing house server; wherein said payment information includes a cost of the goods or services; e. generating a transaction ID at the clearing house server and sending the transaction ID to the e-commerce server; f. transferring the transaction ID from the e-commerce server to the customer computer; g. accessing a customer's bank server with a customer computer; h. using the customer computer to send an authorization request to the bank server to transfer funds from a customer account to a clearing house account; i. sending a first verification to the clearing house server; said first verification indicating that the customer has authorized his or her bank to transfer funds from the customer account to the clearing house account; j. withdrawing a first amount of funds from the customer account and depositing the first amount of funds into the clearing house account; k. sending a second verification to the e-commerce server that the customer has transferred the funds to the clearing house server; l. upon successfully matching the transaction ID with a transaction in the merchant's database; shipping the goods or performing the services; m. notifying the clearing house server that the goods have been shipped or the services performed; and n. withdrawing a second amount of funds from the clearing house account and depositing the second amount of funds into an account controlled by the merchant.