Patent ID: 8280777

Claim:
A system for facilitating financial transactions over a network, the system comprising: a communication component of a payment provider communicating with a user via a client device over the network and a merchant via a merchant device over a network; and a hardware processing component of the payment provider comprising a computer processor receiving an invoice image corresponding to an invoice bill from the user via the client device over the network, receiving a payment method selected by the user for the invoice bill, and notifying the merchant that the financial transaction is complete, wherein the payment provider is a separate entity from the merchant and the user and provides online payment services for the user, wherein the hardware processing component provides a service application to the user on the user device as a payment mechanism, verifies the user information including accessing the user account based on the user information passed with the purchase request to verify the availability of funds or credit in the user account for the at least one item selected for purchase, and verifies the merchant information; wherein the service application generates an invoice image after the merchant generates the invoice bill for the selected list of the at least one item and processes the financial transaction when the user drags-and-drops the invoice image to a service icon installed on or in the user device through the service application, and wherein the payment mechanism automatically transmits an invoice identifier identifying the invoice bill along with a user identifier identifying the user and a merchant identifier identifying the merchant to the processing component for automatic processing of the financial transaction without the user having to provide user account information with the payment provider directly to the merchant.