Method and system to process credit card payment transactions initiated by a merchant

Abstract

A system, to process credit card payment transactions initiated by a merchant, includes an interface to receive a merchant-initiated request for a transfer of funds from a buyer credit card account. A credit card processing application initiates the transfer of funds from the buyer credit card account to a third-party merchant bank account, held by a third-party payment service. The third-party merchant bank account receives funds from the buyer credit card account on behalf of the merchant. A funds allocation application allocates the received funds to a receiving account of the merchant, the receiving account being maintained by the third-party payment service. The credit card processing application may be virtual point of sale (POS) terminal application, hosted at a server computer system operated by the third-party payment service, and accordingly may be accessible by the merchant via a network.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A system to process credit card payment transactions initiated by a merchant, the system including:
 an interface to receive a merchant-initiated request for a transfer of funds from a buyer credit card account;   a credit card processing application to initiate the transfer of funds from the buyer credit card account to a third-party merchant bank account, held by a third-party payment service, the third-party merchant bank account to receive funds from the buyer credit card account on behalf of the merchant; and   a funds allocation application to allocate the received funds to a receiving account of the merchant, the receiving account being maintained by the third-party payment service.