Patent ID: 8825548

Claim:
A payment authentication apparatus comprising: a processor on a server; and a memory adapted to store a plurality of machine-readable instructions of a payment authentication application for the server wherein the instructions are executed by the processor to: receive a payment pre-approval request from a pre-approval requester; process the payment pre-approval request to generate a pre-approval key, wherein the pre-approval key uniquely identifies the pre-approval request; transmit the pre-approval key to the pre-approval requester; receive credential information comprising an account name and a password for an account holder from a user device; verify the account holder based on the credential information; request a PIN (Personal Identification Number) from the user device, wherein the PIN is used to authenticate use of the pre-approval key for one or more future payments made from an account of the account holder; receive the pre-approval key and the PIN generated by the user device, wherein the PIN is derived from an access code entered into the user device; associate the PIN with the pre-approval key to pre-approve one or more future payments made from the account of the account holder; receive a payment request including the PIN and the pre-approval key; verify that the PIN is associated with the pre-approval key to authenticate the payment request to approve a payment made from the account of the account holder without requiring the credential information of the account holder from the payment requester; and transfer a payment from the account of the account holder.