Abstract: A Requestor receives a bill from a Payee requesting payment for goods and/or services. If the Requestor wishes to solicit assistance in making a desired payment to the payee (e.g., if the Requestor has insufficient funds available to make the desired payment), the requestor directly or indirectly solicits assistance from contacts available to the requestor. Assuming that one or more of the Requestor's contacts agrees to assist in making the desired payment to the payee, each Payor sends a payment to the Intermediary to be handled in trust on behalf of the Requestor. The Intermediary sends each payor's contribution to the Payee on behalf of the Requestor.

Abstract: A transaction kiosk collects cash from a user and then electronically negotiates with the user's creditor to settle a balance on an account with the creditor. The bank recognizes the cash deposited in the transaction kiosk by the user as security for the settlement amount. The cash deposited in the transaction kiosk is considered a cash asset owned by the bank and available to satisfy depositor claims. A transaction processor brokers the transaction between the user of the transaction kiosk, the surety bank, and the creditor.