Patent ID: 7835994

Claim:
A computer implemented method performed with regard to a customer having a deposit account at a financial institution, the method for performing a flow-through transaction for the customer with regard to the account as an intermediary between the customer and financial institution, and comprising: receiving the customer at a site of the intermediary; determining from the received customer that the flow-through transaction is to be a withdrawal of funds from the account; receiving from the customer an identification thereof, an identification of the financial institution, an identification of the account of the customer at the financial institution, and an identification of an amount of funds to be withdrawn from the account; initiating, via a computing device, a request to a clearinghouse for the withdrawal in the identified amount from the identified account of the identified customer at the identified financial institution, the clearinghouse upon receiving the request from the intermediary establishing that the request is satisfactory and returning approval of same to guarantee that the identified amount of funds is to be debited by the clearinghouse from the identified account at the identified financial institution and credited by the clearinghouse to an account of the intermediary; and providing the identified amount of funds to the customer upon receiving the approval from the clearinghouse, the provided funds being in a form requested by the customer and available from the intermediary, wherein the customer need not visit a site of the financial institution to perform thereat a transaction equivalent to the flow-through transaction.