Patent ID: 7797229

Claim:
A credit authorization system for authorizing a credit request of a customer, the credit authorization system comprising: a processor; and a memory storing instructions that cause the processor to perform a method comprising: storing a global credit limit of the customer for a plurality of online shops, wherein the global credit limit of the customer specifies a maximum amount of cumulative credit that can be provided by the plurality of online shops to the customer; storing a global payment obligation of the customer for the plurality of online shops, wherein the global payment obligation for the customer is defined as a cumulative credit exposure that the customer has with respect to the plurality of online shops; storing shop-specific credit limits for the plurality of online shops; storing rules for updating the global credit limit and the shop-specific credit limits for the plurality of online shops; receiving the credit request of the customer when the customer requests credit from one of the plurality of online shops; determining if the credit request can be accepted in view of the shop-specific credit limit, shop-specific payment obligation, global credit limit, and the global payment obligation of the customer requesting the credit, wherein the determining if the credit request can be accepted is based on whether the total of the global payment obligation and a credit amount of the credit request exceeds the global credit limit and whether the total of the shop-specific payment obligation and the credit amount of the credit request exceeds the shop-specific credit limit; and sending a response to the one of the plurality of online shops indicating an acceptance or a declination of the credit request.