Patent ID: 8682730

Claim:
A system for facilitating electronic transactions, the system comprising: a transaction card containing information readable at a point-of-sale, the transaction card being issued by an issuer to a qualified consumer, wherein the qualified consumer becomes a cardholder having a privilege to execute purchase transactions with the transaction card at a plurality of merchants by submitting information of a valid demand deposit account, the transaction card linked to the valid demand deposit account, the link between the transaction card and the valid demand deposit account enabling an authorization server to draw funds from the valid demand deposit account; and an authorization server including a computer processor adapted for communication, through a payment network, with point-of-sale transaction terminals; the computer processor programmed to perform steps including: receiving transaction information, through the payment network, from one of the point-of-sale transaction terminals in response to an attempted transaction by the cardholder using the transaction card; processing the attempted transaction by accessing a daily stored spending line rather than verifying a current balance of the demand deposit account, wherein the value of the daily stored spending line is set at a time prior to the attempted transaction, and the near real-time value of said stored spending line at said time prior to the transaction is set independently of said demand deposit account balance and can be an amount greater than the demand deposit account balance; authorizing the transaction in near real-time upon determining that a transaction amount of the attempted transaction results in a daily spending total below a daily spending line; denying the transaction in near real-time upon determining that the transaction amount of the attempted transaction results in a daily spending total above the daily spending line; and settling the attempted transaction at a time subsequent to the execution of the authorized transaction by sweeping funds from the demand deposit account of the cardholder, wherein upon determining that the sweeping of funds results in the demand deposit account below a certain threshold, the authorization server processes business rules established by the issuer to determine whether to suspend the qualified customer's privilege to execute purchase transactions, or charge a fee.