Patent ID: 8239222

Claim:
A method allowing members of a group to coordinate direct sharing transactions to help share the cost of household expenditures among said members of said group, said method comprising the steps of: establishing, by a processor based system, a direct sharing system comprising a share account for each member of a group from which share funds may be withdrawn and transferred to a share account of a needing member who has posted a need; calculating, by said processor based system, a share rating for each of said members of said group, wherein said share rating for each of said members is expressed as a percentage value calculated by dividing the total of said one or more needs posted by each respective said member of said group by the total of said share funds provided by each respective said member of said group; receiving, by said processor based system, a posting from said needing member for one or more specific needs that pertain to said household expenditures of said needing member; matching, by said processor based system, a sharing member to said one or more specific needs that pertain to said household expenditures of said needing member; prioritizing, by said processor based system, said matching of said one or more needs of said needing members having higher said share ratings over said one or more needs of said needing members having lower said share ratings; sending, by said processor based system, a request for said sharing member to assist in repayment of said one or more specific needs that pertain to said household expenditures of said needing member; receiving prioritizing said matching of said one or more needs of said needing members having higher said share ratings over said one or more needs of said needing members having lower said share ratings an acceptance to said request for said sharing member to assist in said repayment of said one or more specific needs that pertain to said household expenditures of said needing member; withdrawing, by said processor based system, share funds for said repayment of at least a portion of said one or more specific needs that pertain to said household expenditures of said needing member from a share account of said sharing member; and crediting, by said processor based system, said share funds withdrawn from said share account of said sharing member to a needs account of said needing member; wherein each of said members of said group maintain a cooperative relationship and each of said members can assume the role of said needing member or said sharing member for different said direct sharing transactions.