Patent ID: 8706640

Claim:
A method for displaying information to a consumer making payment to a consumer provider, the method comprising: providing a point-of-sale device at a payment provider location; associating the point-of-sale device with a host computer maintained by the payment provider, wherein the point-of-sale device includes an entry device, a display device and a memory; receiving, at the payment provider location, by the point-of-sale device, identifying information regarding a consumer, wherein the identifying information relates to a prior indebtedness of the consumer to a first consumer provider for a good or service provided by the first consumer provider; sending, by the point-of-sale device, the identifying information from the point-of-sale device to the host computer; using, by the host computer, the received identifying information to locate a transaction record relating to the consumer and the first consumer provider; returning, by the host computer, at least a portion of the transaction record to the point-of-sale device; facilitating payment for the first consumer provider from the consumer relating to the prior indebtedness by using the point-of-sale device and transaction record at the payment provider location; identifying, by the host computer, a non-competing good or service that is from a second consumer provider different than the first consumer provider and that does not compete with the good or service provided by the first consumer provider, based on at least a portion of the transaction record and using a programmed rule set at the host computer; using the host computer to retrieve, from a payment provider database, information on the non-competing good or service and to download the information on the non-competing good or service to the memory of the point-of-sale device; displaying, by the display device of the point-of-sale device, the information on the non-competing good or service; determining, by the host computer, that payment for the first consumer provider is received at the payment provider location; based on a determination that the payment for the first consumer provider is received at the payment provider location, associating the received payment with a payment identifier at the host computer; sending, by the host computer, the payment identifier from the host computer to both the point-of-sale device and to the first consumer provider; and providing the payment identifier to the consumer at the point-of-sale device; receiving, by the first consumer provider from the consumer, the received payment identifier at the point-of-sale device; receiving, by the host computer, the payment identifier received by the first consumer provider; validating the received payment identifier by comparing the received payment identifier from the first consumer provider against the received payment identifier from the host computer.