Patent ID: 7413117

Claim:
A system for assessing the risk associated with a proffered promissory payment wherein the system is linked to at least one prepaid goods or service provider, the system comprising: a plurality of point of sale devices located within a plurality of distributed locations, wherein the plurality of point of sale devices acquire information about proffered promissory payments and also acquire information about requests for prepaid goods or services and wherein the plurality of point of sale devices include a communications interface for communicating information to individuals within the plurality of distributed locations and for communicating information about the proffered promissory payments and the requests for prepaid goods and services; and an authorizing host having at least one risk database component that is communicatively linked to the plurality of point of sale devices wherein the authorizing host receives transaction information and determines whether the transaction relates to a proffered promissory payment, in which case the authorizing host assesses the risk of accepting the proffered promissory payment by performing a risk assessment calculation using at least one of the risk database component and communicates acceptance or decline information to the point of sale device corresponding to a particular proffered promissory payment, or whether the transaction relates to a request for a prepaid good or service, in which case the authorizing host is adapted to route the request for a prepaid good or service to a corresponding external goods or services provider without performing risk assessment and then receive acceptance or decline information from the external goods or services provider and transmit acceptance or decline information to the point of sale device originating the request for prepaid good or service.