Patent ID: 8892468

Claim:
A computer-implemented method to provide a refund of merchant funds to a customer credit card by a merchant agent that processes credit card transactions on behalf of a merchant, the merchant agent having a merchant agent processor in communication with the merchant and with a credit card company via a payment processing computer network, the method comprising: receiving, by the merchant agent from a customer, a refund request for a purchase made from the merchant with the customer credit card; generating, by the merchant agent processor, a refund record encoded with refund data associated with the refund request made to the merchant agent by the customer; communicating the refund data by the merchant agent processor over the payment processing computer network as an agent of the merchant so as to cause the credit card company to create the refund to the customer credit card without the direct participation of the merchant and without the credit card company generating a chargeback against the merchant; providing, by the merchant agent processor, the merchant with a dispute process representing an opportunity to dispute the refund request; and upon a successful dispute of the refund request by the merchant, submitting, by the merchant agent processor, a sale transaction to the payment processing computer network to cause the credit card company to charge the customer credit card at least the refunded amount.