Patent ID: 7707105

Claim:
A computer implemented method for authorizing or rejecting a financial transaction using a card, said card associated with an account maintained by an account holder, said financial transaction between a merchant and a card holder holding said card and authorized by the account holder, said method comprising: retrieving a budget associated with the card when the card holder attempts to conduct a financial transaction using a processor of a computing device; characterizing the financial transaction into one of a plurality of budget categories of the budget that is retrieved using the processor of the computing device; rejecting said financial transaction when funds available for the one of the plurality of budget categories are insufficient to cover said financial transaction using the processor of the computing device; transmitting override query data to the merchant to query the card holder as to whether to override the rejection using the processor of the computing device; receiving override data associated with the card holder's personal identification number (PIN) in response to the override query data using the processor of the computing device; and authorizing the financial transaction based upon the override data using the processor of the computing device, wherein the account holder comprises a financial institution associated with the card, and the account holder performs the retrieving, the characterizing, the rejecting, the transmitting, the receiving, and the authorizing, and the plurality of budget categories are associated with budgetary items and at least one of said budgetary items comprises a lock value indicating whether a restriction imposed by said at least one budgetary item can be overridden.