Patent ID: 7309003

Claim:
A method for making a payment on a financial account, the method comprising: reading, at a point-of-service (POS) device, financial account information from a payment instrument that identifies a customer financial account that is to receive a payment, wherein the payment instrument is selected from the group consisting of credit cards, charge cards, and debit cards; determining a financial institution associated with the customer financial account; determining a payment account associated with the financial institution where the payment is to be deposited; receiving, from a host computer system, a current amount due in relation to the customer financial account as identified from the payment instrument; displaying on the POS device a query as to whether a payment is to be made on the customer financial account; entering into the POS device an indication that the payment is to be made; collecting a payment amount, wherein the payment amount is at least a portion of the current amount due; and transmitting the payment amount to the payment account of the financial institution; wherein the financial account information is electronically read from the payment instrument using an automatic payment instrument reader of the POS device.