Patent ID: 7346577

Claim:
A method of conducting a multiplicity of transactions between a consumer, at least one merchant computer, and a billing computer connected together over a computer network, wherein each transaction is for a product or service that the consumer purchases by using one of the at least one merchant computers, the method comprising: (a) determining at a time of each transaction whether a transaction amount exceeds a pass-through amount and if so, charging the transaction amount directly to the consumer billing account and bypassing steps (b) and (c); (b) aggregating a multiplicity of transactions that involve the consumer; (c) upon the occurrence of an event, charging the aggregated multiplicity of transactions to a consumer billing account; (d) obtaining a first pre-authorization from the consumer billing authority that permits charging a predetermined amount to the consumer billing account; and (e) obtaining a second pre-authorization from the consumer billing authority within a predetermined period of time from said step of obtaining the first pre-authorization; wherein the first pre-authorization expires at the end of the predetermined period of time.