DUAL MACRO- AND MICRO-PAYMENT CARD SYSTEM

摘要

An electronic transactions system suitable for payment services wherein certain merchants needing to accept online micro-payments from holders of mainstream payment cards are equipped with an online Point Of Service system capable of communicating directly with an operator acting on behalf of the issuer of the cards of the payers via a dedicated data communication protocol to obtain an authorization for micro-payments without transiting through a separate acquirer and interchange network, whereas the card-holder payer needs only to fund a single account for both micro-payments with those certain merchants and regular payments with all other merchants where their card is accepted.