Patent ID: 7788185

Claim:
An apparatus used in an electronic payment system in which a buyer of a commodity pays money for the commodity to a seller of the commodity via a relay agency, the apparatus including a computer of the relay agency comprising: a holding device holding the money for the commodity that the buyer has paid in a relay account to be established every time a transaction is conducted; a card issue device issuing a payment transfer card to the buyer recording a relay account number into which the buyer pays money, a payment account number of the seller, and a notification card certification data, and a notification card to the seller recording comparison data for comparing with the notification card certification data of the payment transfer card; a receiving device receiving data, transmitted from a teller machine, recorded on the payment transfer card and the notification card; and a payment device paying the money for the commodity from the relay account to the seller's account when receiving a comparison results that the notification card certification data of the payment transfer card matches the comparison data of the notification card; wherein when the payment transfer card and the notification card are inserted into the teller machine to pay the money for the commodity, the teller machine determines whether or not the notification card certification data of the payment transfer card matches the comparison data of the notification card, and transmits the determination result to the computer of the relay agency.