Patent ID: 7702585

Claim:
A method comprising: identifying, by a service provider, a payee associated with a payor, wherein the payee is capable of receiving both a paper payment type and an electronic payment type, and wherein a payment type for a payment to the payee on behalf of the payor is not determined until after a payment request associated with the payment is received: determining, by the service provider prior to receiving the payment request, an expected payment delivery time for the payment based on a plurality of payment attributes comprising at least one payment attribute associated with the payee and at least one payment attribute associated with the payor, wherein the at least one payment attribute associated with the payor comprises at least one of an attribute associated with past payments of the payor or a special status associated with the payor, and transmitting, by the service provider for presentation to the payor, an indicator associated with the determined expected payment delivery time, wherein the above steps are performed by one or more computers associated with the service provider.