Patent ID: 6837426

Claim:
A method of activating a prepaid account using an existing electronic funds transfer network, including a point-of-sale (POS) terminal, debit/credit card processing infrastructure and an account issuer authorization center, the method comprising the steps of: obtaining identification data concerning the account to be activated at the POS terminal; sending an activation request message, including the obtained identification data, from the POS terminal, through the card processing infrastructure to the account issuer authorization processing center; receiving the activation request message at the account issuer authorization processing center, deciding whether or not to activate the account and, if the decision is to activate the account, generating a response code based upon the decision to activate the account, the response code not resulting in the transfer of any funds and being a code other than an approval code or a denial code; sending the response code from the account issuer authorization processing center through the card processing infrastructure to the POS terminal; and receiving the response code at the POS terminal, decoding the response code and confirming at the POS terminal that the account has been activated.