Patent ID: 7747536

Claim:
A method for processing at a point-of-sale device a transaction involving a stored-value instrument, the point-of-sale device comprising a processor and machine-readable medium, the method comprising: receiving at a point-of-sale device a first identifier identifying a stored-value instrument, wherein the first identifier is physically stored on the stored-value instrument; receiving at the point-of-sale device a second identifier associated with the stored-value instrument, wherein the second identifier is physically stored on the stored value instrument, and wherein the second identifier comprises at least a portion of the first identifier; transmitting from the point-of-sale device a request to process a transaction involving the stored-value instrument, wherein both the first and the second identifiers are transmitted from the point-of-sale device, and wherein the first and second identifiers are transmitted to an instrument-authority system to process the transaction; and correlating the first identifier with the second identifier by analyzing the second identifier to determine if it comprises at least a portion of the first identifier; the point-of-sale device receiving a confirmation from the instrument authority system that the transaction has been processed, the transaction having been processed in response to the correlation between the first identifier with the second identifier.