Patent ID: 7810134

Claim:
A computerized method for authenticating a financial account when making a purchase; the method comprising: receiving at a merchant computer system a purchase request from an account holder, wherein the purchase request includes account holder account data for an account that is to be used to make payment; at the merchant computer system, preparing transaction data that comprises the account holder account data and authentication information, wherein the authentication information prepared by the merchant computer system is kept from the knowledge of the account holder such that the authentication information remains unknown to the account holder until the account holder accesses the authentication information from a financial institution of the account holder; transmitting, by the merchant computer system, the transaction data to the financial institution of the account holder; receiving at the merchant computer system the authentication information obtained by the account holder from the financial institution after the account holder has accessed the authentication information from the account at the financial institution using the account holder account data; analyzing, by the merchant computer system, the authentication information from the account holder to determine whether the authentication information obtained from the account holder when accessing the account holder's account at the financial institution matches the authentication information prepared by the merchant computer system, and flagging the financial account as being authenticated for subsequent transactions if the authentication information matches.