Patent ID: 7686210

Claim:
A payment system for a closed purchasing community where stored value accounts are funded over the Internet, the payment system comprising: a plurality of point of sale terminals associated with the closed purchasing community; a database comprising a unique identifier for each of a plurality of participants in the closed purchasing community; a plurality of indicators for presentment at the plurality of point of sale terminals that allow determining the unique identifier, wherein: each unique indicator has a credit amount associated therewith, each of the plurality of indicators corresponds to a stored value account, debits are applied to the credit using the point of sale terminals, and the unique indicator is usable exclusively within the closed purchasing community to access the database; and an online money transfer system that obtains the credit amount from at least one of a plurality of handlers, wherein: the online money transfer system is separate from the closed purchasing community, the online money transfer system is accessible from the Internet, the online money transfer system passes credits from open systems to stored value accounts of the closed purchasing community, and each of the plurality of handlers operate in an open system to transfer the credit into a stored value account.