Patent ID: 8468101

Claim:
An electronic money system comprising: a money input terminal through which amount of money data as electronic money are inputted into an information card; an electronic money terminal that captures amount of money data from the information card as a first use amount or a second use amount to complete transactions, and stores usage history of the information card based on data associated with the transactions; and an electronic money manager that collects and summarizes the usage history of the information card from the electronic money terminal at a first predetermined interval, and settles merchant accounts associated with the transactions at a second predetermined interval, wherein when the amount of money data is captured as the second use amount merchant accounts are settled in conjunction with a usage fee that corresponds to plural instances of the second use amount in the summarized usage history for the second predetermined interval, wherein the plural instances of the second use amount occurring for transactions during the second predetermined interval are accumulated and collectively settled in one communication operation that is initiated by the electronic money terminal at the second predetermined interval, and one corresponding instance of the usage fee, wherein the first use amount is a cash amount and the second use amount is a credit amount, and wherein when the captured first use amount fails to satisfy a transaction such that a balance remains, the electronic money manager captures the second use amount to satisfy the remaining balance provided that a credit use flag for the information card is set.