Patent ID: 8682785

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving, by an acquiring financial institution processing device from a point of sale terminal of a vendor, an authorization request initiated in response to a transaction request from a payment device of a consumer, the authorization request comprising a request to authorize a transaction involving a credit account maintained by an issuing financial institution and owned by the consumer, wherein the vendor is not affiliated with the issuing financial institution; and said processing device: sending the authorization request to the issuing financial institution; receiving an authorization code for identifying the transaction and comprising a balance indicator from the issuing financial institution, wherein the balance indicator comprises information about the credit account comprising of a cycle-to-date purchase balance in a specific category, wherein the specific category comprises one of a type of product purchased, a vendor, a type of vendor or a type of transaction; responding to the authorization request from the point of sale terminal with an authorization communication comprising the authorization code and the balance indicator such that the balance indicator can be displayed on a display operatively connected with the point of sale terminal; receiving a sales communication from the point of sale of the vendor, the sales communication comprising a sales draft and the authorization code and indicating that the transaction has been completed; sending an interchange request comprising the authorization code to the issuing financial institution; receiving a payment from the issuing financial institution based on a transaction amount associated with the transaction minus an interchange amount; and depositing the payment into an account maintained by the acquiring financial institution and owned by the vendor.