Patent ID: 8061596

Claim:
A method comprising: distributing a transaction card to a customer, while said customer is in said store, wherein said distributed transaction card is one of a plurality of transaction cards, wherein said distributed transaction card includes a storage medium encoding a card number identifying said transaction card to a merchant store for distribution within said merchant store; obtaining credit application information from said customer; communicating, by a computer-based system for managing said plurality of transaction cards and while said customer remains in said merchant store, said credit application information to a remote computer system for evaluation to determine whether said customer should be approved for a line of credit that is extended through said distributed transaction card; and receiving, by said computer-based system, a response to said communication indicating that said customer is approved and that said distributed transaction card has been activated to create an activated transaction card, while said customer remains in said store, wherein said activated transaction card is used to transact a purchase, while said customer is in said store, and wherein said activated transaction card bears no visible marking indicating information concerning said customer.