Patent ID: 7240031

Claim:
A method, comprising: receiving a list identifying one or more merchants from a consumer; searching a master merchant file database, including information associated with merchants that has been received from other consumers, to determine if information associated with at least one of the identified one or more merchants is included in the master merchant file database; adding information associated with at least one of the identified one or more merchants to the master merchant file database if information associated with the at least one of the identified one or more-merchants is determined not to be included in the master merchant file database, wherein a merchant credit limit is associated with each of the at least one of the identified one or more merchants; receiving a request to pay a bill associated with one of the at least one of the identified one or more merchants on behalf of the consumer; and processing the request to generate an instruction to pay the bill, wherein the merchant credit limit associated with the one of the at least one of the identified one or more merchants is utilized in the processing of the payment request.