Patent ID: 7958052

Claim:
A method of processing a cardholder-initiated financial transaction with a merchant using a cardholder controlled input device in communication with a payment card network and a database, the cardholder using a payment card issued to the cardholder by an issuer bank, said method comprising the steps of: storing merchant data within the database including data identifying the merchants registered to utilize the payment card network; receiving transaction data and an authorization request at the payment card network from the cardholder controlled input device, the transaction data relating to the financial transaction, the transaction data including merchant identifying data that identifies the merchant involved in the transaction, the authorization request generated by the cardholder controlled input device based at least in part on the transaction data and requests requesting an authorization message from the issuer bank indicating whether the cardholder has sufficient funds to complete the transaction, the cardholder controlled input device configured to transmit the transaction data and the authorization request to the payment card network without input from a merchant point-of- sale (POS) device in said transmission; determining that the merchant identified by the merchant identifying data is registered to utilize the payment card network by comparing the transaction data with the merchant data stored in the database; forwarding the authorization request to the issuer bank; receiving, at the payment card network, the authorization message from the issuer bank, the authorization message including one of an approval and a denial of the authorization request; and automatically forwarding the authorization message to at least the same cardholder controlled input device.