Patent ID: 7941375

Claim:
An Internet billing method for a plurality of customers and a plurality of vendors of products or services for transactions over the Internet between a purchasing customer of the plurality of customers and a selling vendor of the plurality of vendors, wherein for each purchase transaction of a product or service between the purchasing customer and the selling vendor, a first amount is charged to the purchasing customer and a second amount is remitted to the selling vendor, the method by a third party, comprising: establishing by way of communicatively coupling equipment of the third party with equipment of the purchasing customer a billing arrangement with the purchasing customer to permit the third party to charge a billing account associated with the purchasing customer for a purchase transaction between the purchasing customer and the selling vendor; establishing by way of communicatively coupling the equipment of the third party with equipment of the selling vendor a remitting arrangement with the selling vendor to permit the third party to remit to an account associated with the selling vendor a portion of the purchase transaction; establishing communications between the equipment of the third party and the equipment of the purchasing customer, wherein the equipment of the third party enables the equipment of the purchasing customer to communicate over the Internet with the equipment of the selling vendor concerning the purchase transaction; obtaining transactional information relating to the purchase transaction; receiving authorization over the Internet to charge the purchasing customer the first amount; charging the first amount to the billing account associated with the purchasing customer in accordance with the billing arrangement; and remitting the second amount to the account associated with the selling vendor in accordance with the remitting arrangement.