Patent ID: 8577730

Claim:
A cash management optimization method for payment processing, the method comprising: A) receiving a transaction profile for a proposed transaction as payment for a purchase by a purchaser from a merchant at a card processing terminal configured to identify a card number for a card; B) comparing the transaction profile to merchant-specified preferences mapping different transaction profiles to different payment processors; C) selecting a payment processor for the proposed transaction based upon the comparison of the transaction profile to the merchant-specified preferences; and, D) routing the proposed transaction over a computer communications network to the selected payment processor for payment processing, the transaction profile comprises a determination of whether the card is a debit card or a credit card and wherein different payment processors are mapped in the merchant-specified preferences to debit cards and credit cards, respectively, the transaction profile comprises a determination of whether the purchaser is an in-store customer or an online customer and wherein different payment processors are mapped in the merchant-specified preferences to instore customers and online customers, respectively, and the transaction profile further comprises a determination of a merchant identification amongst multiple different merchant identifications for correspondingly different portions of a retail location of the merchant and wherein different payment processors are mapped in the merchant-specified preferences to the different merchant identifications, respectively.