Abstract: An electronic method of making a merchant payment comprising: receiving user payment request data transmitted from a mobile device, the user payment request data comprising a payment amount and a merchant identifier; checking a user record corresponding to the mobile device to determine based on at least one payment rule whether to generate merchant payment data corresponding to the payment amount of the user payment request data; and upon generating merchant payment data, transmitting the merchant payment data to a point of sale (POS) terminal corresponding to the merchant identifier.

Abstract: A payment system, including: a host server; a digital wallet for storing credit of a user; a user mobile communications device for data communication with the host server; and a point-of-sale terminal operable by a vendor. The point-of-sale terminal is configured to receive purchase data indicative of a desired purchase by the user and to transmit the purchase data to the host server, the purchase data including price data, the mobile communications device is configured to receive the purchase data from the host server or from the point-of-sale terminal and to prompt the user to input user authorization, the mobile communications device is configured to receive the user authorization and in response thereto to transmit authorization data to the host server, and the host server is configured to respond to receiving the authorization data by initiating transfer of funds according to the price data from the digital wallet to a vendor account.

Abstract: An interactive voice response system, comprising: a processor configured to control the output of voice prompts for transmission to a user; an alphanumeric string generator controllable by the processor to generate a random or pseudo-random alphanumeric string for outputting by the processor to a user in natural language form; an input module for receiving a user response and configured to recognize alphanumeric characters in the user response and to output a recognized string of one or more alphanumeric characters recognized in the user response; and a validation module.

Abstract: A method and system for providing a service associated with sale of a product from a merchant to a customer at a point of sale terminal connected to a network. The method comprising the steps of offering to provide the service associated with sale of the product to said customer during purchase of said product at the point of sale terminal, providing one of a plurality of identification numbers held in a database connected to the network at the point of sale terminal in association with the offered service and providing said provided identification number to said customer, and subsequently providing customer access over the network to permit said customer to enter purchase related details into the database to be associated with the provided identification number, thereby minimising time required at the point of sale terminal.