Patent ID: 7437328

Claim:
A method of utilizing a merchant's point of sale (POS) location to insert value into a preexisting customer account with a provider of goods or services other than the merchant, wherein the process of inserting value into the pre-existing customer account is facilitated by a central processor, a POS terminal and the provider of goods or services, the central processor being in selective communication with the provider of goods or services and the POS terminal, comprising: distributing to a customer having a pre-existing account with a specific provider of goods or services a payment information card, the pre-existing account having an identifying account number, the payment information card associated with the provider of goods or services and having an associated identifier, the identifier associated with the account number at a central processor; presenting the payment information card at the POS location; reading or otherwise obtaining from the payment information card the information thereon; receiving value from the customer; receiving at the central processor a request to add value to the pre-existing account, the request comprising the identifier of the payment information card; determining at the central processor, based on information received from the POS location, whether the POS terminal is authorized to make a payment using the payment information card by: accessing a database record of identifiers of trusted sources for payment information card processing requests, and determining whether the POS terminal has a terminal identifier stored in the database record of identifiers of trusted sources; determining at the central processor the account number of the pre-existing account by determining the account number associated with the identifier of the payment card, wherein the determining of the account number associated with the identifier of the payment card comprises: accessing the database record at the central processor to identify a matching identifier; and retrieving the account number associated with the identifier at the central processor upon identifying the matching identifier; sending a confirmation to the payment card user confirming that the value transfer has been initiated; and passing from the central processor to the provider of goods and services the request to add value to the pre-existing account.