Patent ID: 7850073

Claim:
A method of carrying out financial transfers responsive to data read from data bearing records, through operation of a system including, a purchasable item located in a merchant store, wherein the item has an anti-theft device associated therewith, wherein the item is associated with a bar code, a transaction payment system, wherein the transaction payment system includes a system host and a checkout terminal, wherein the terminal is associated with an anti-theft device neutralizer, wherein the host is remote from the merchant store, wherein the terminal is located in the merchant store, wherein the host is operative to communicate with the terminal, wherein the host is in operative connection with a data store, wherein the data store includes data usable to correlate bar code data with price amount data, a phone, wherein the phone includes a camera and programmable memory, wherein the camera is operative to capture at least one image, wherein the memory includes account data corresponding to a customer account; comprising: (a) operating the transaction payment system to establish operative communication between the phone and the host, wherein the communication enables the item to be purchased via self-service purchase at the merchant store; (b) operating the transaction payment system to receive bar code data corresponding to the bar code, wherein the bar code data corresponds to an image of the bar code captured with the camera; (c) responsive to (b), determining through operation of the transaction payment system a price amount corresponding to the bar code via the data store; (d) operating the transaction payment system to receive account data sent from the phone via wireless communication to the terminal; (e) operating the transaction payment system to cause the account data to be communicated from the terminal to the host; (f) determining through operation of the transaction payment system that the transmitted account data corresponds to an account that is acceptable for payment of the item; (g) operating the transaction payment system to cause association of at least the price amount and the customer account and cause the customer account to be assessed a charge amount corresponding to the price amount; and (h) operating the transaction payment system to cause the host to generate at least one instruction, wherein the at least one instruction is usable to enable the neutralizer to neutralize the anti-theft device.