Patent ID: 7979356

Claim:
A method performed by a point of sale (POS) system at a retail store to enable payment of a utility invoice, the POS system comprising a POS controller coupled to a cashier terminal and to a communication device, the method comprising: receiving at the POS controller a product look-up code (PLU) supplied by the cashier terminal; recognizing the PLU as being associated with a utility service provider; accepting at the POS controller a customer code identifier supplied by the cashier terminal in response to recognizing the PLU as being associated with a utility service provider; accepting at the POS controller a utility payment amount supplied by the cashier terminal, at least a portion of the utility payment amount being at least a portion of the cost of a utility service provided to a customer; and determining an identity of the associated utility service provider using the PLU; using the communication device to supply the customer code identifier, the identity of the utility service provider, and the utility payment amount to a central station coupled to the POS system for causing a quantity of money to be sent to the utility service provider on behalf of the customer.