Patent ID: 7315843

Claim:
A method for prepaying for a stored value account maintained by a payment service provider in order for an unbanked consumer to purchase goods or services from a consumer provider using the stored value account rather than a bank account of the consumer, the method comprising: receiving at a host computer of a payment service provider a set of identifiers from a consumer provider that are associated with stored value accounts of the consumer provider, wherein the identifiers comprise routing numbers recognized by an Automated Clearing House (ACH) transfer system; at a terminal system, calculating a payment amount that comprises a stored value amount, a service fee and a tax; entering into the terminal system payment information that includes the payment amount and transmitting the payment information to the host computer; at the host computer, associating the payment information with one of the identifiers; transmitting from the host computer to the terminal system the identifier; printing a receipt having at least some of the payment information and the identifier; electronically transmitting from the host computer to the consumer provider the payment information; performing an ACH transfer request from the host computer to electronically deposit at least some of the payment amount in a bank account of the consumer provider; and debiting the stored value account using an ACH transfer based on presentment of the identifier to the consumer provider.