Patent ID: 7184989

Claim:
A method for accepting payments from a consumer for a good or service provided by a merchant, the method comprising: the payment service provider receiving transaction requests from the merchant, the transaction requests comprising a set of transaction identifiers, the set of identifiers forming a database comprising existing consumer purchases, the set of identifiers being formatted into a consumer database, the consumer database being operated by the payment service provider; storing the transaction requests in the consumer database; receiving a payment from the consumer, including receiving a transaction identifier from the consumer that corresponds to the transaction request, wherein the consumer is physically present at a payment service provider location when making the payment; using a computer to associate the payment with the transaction request and transaction identifier and to establish a payment account with the payment service provider, wherein the computer is capable of communicating with a storage medium; storing the payment account in the storage medium; sending at least a portion of the payment to the merchant; accepting the payment if receiving the payment occurs within the time limit; and rejecting the payment if receiving the payment does not occur within the time limit.