Patent ID: 7634448

Claim:
A method comprising: (a) operating a phone of a customer during a customer purchase of an item located in a merchant store, to capture an image of an identifier of the item, wherein the phone includes a camera, a display screen, and programmable memory, wherein the memory includes an account number corresponding to a financial account of the customer; (b) operating the phone responsive to phone number input to cause communication between the phone and a transaction host of a transaction payment system to be established, wherein the host is remotely located from the merchant store; (c) operating the phone to cause data corresponding to the image captured in (a) to be transmitted to the host; (d) operating the phone to receive a purchase price sent from the host responsive to the data transmitted in (c), wherein the purchase price corresponds to the item; (e) operating the phone to cause the purchase price to be displayed on the display screen; (f) subsequent to (e), operating the phone to cause the account number to be transmitted to the host during customer authorization of the financial account being used in payment of the purchase price; wherein during steps (a)-(f) the phone is in the merchant store, wherein steps (a)-(f) occur during a self-service customer checkout during purchase of the item, wherein the purchase is carried out without communication between the phone and a device in the merchant store.