Patent ID: 7739197

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for authorizing a guest to use an electronic financial transaction (EFT) card, the method comprising: receiving, by a computer system having one or more processors, information about a desired guest transaction from a customer associated with an EFT card; generating a guest personal identification number (PIN) number and artifact information for the guest transaction to be printed on a physical artifact separate from the EFT card associated with the customer, wherein the artifact information comprises one or more limits on the guest transaction; providing the guest PIN number to the customer; transmitting instructions to print a physical artifact separate from the EFT card, the physical artifact having a printed machine-readable bar code embodying the artifact information; receiving from a financial terminal both of a PIN number of an inserted EFT card associated with the customer and artifact information that the financial terminal has read from a printed machine-readable bar code of a supplied physical artifact, both the received PIN number and the artifact information being associated with a proposed transaction utilizing the inserted EFT card; comparing the received PIN number to the generated guest PIN number and comparing the artifact information to the proposed transaction; in response to comparing both the received PIN number to the generated guest PIN number and the artifact information to the proposed transaction, determining that the proposed transaction is authorized; and in response to authorization of the proposed transaction, transmitting approval of the proposed transaction to the financial terminal.