Importance

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Abstract

A card-based system electronically transfers funds in real time. A customer card stores digital data representing a unique customer account number associated with a unique, remotely located customer account having at least one vendor-associated subaccount. A merchant terminal having a merchant IP address designating a unique merchant is affiliated with at least one unique vendor for transmitting to a system control center customer transaction data including the merchant IP address, the customer account number read from the customer card and account adjustment data designating either the value of a credit to be added to the vendor-associated subaccount reflecting a customer pre-payment or the value to be subtracted from the vendor-associated customer subaccount reflecting a customer purchase. The system control center maintains a vendor account database and a customer account database. The customer account database associates each customer account number with the unique customer account number, stores the subaccount credit balance corresponding to the specified vendor, receives the customer transaction data transmitted by the merchant terminal, adjusts the customer subaccount value up or down in response to the customer transaction data, transmits to the merchant terminal customer account status information and adjusts the vendor account database to reflect credits resulting from vendor-associated customer transactions.

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First Claim