Abstract: Techniques for defining and customizing payment rules and automatically paying charges in accordance with the rules is described. A charge is settled and the charge is posted to an account, for example a credit card account, in the form of a settlement record. An automated payments engine compares the settlement record against payment conditions of one or more payment rules. If a payment condition is satisfied, the automated payments engine initiates a payment according to a payment method associated with the satisfied payment condition.

Abstract: There is provided a financial transaction payment method and system for processing a transaction conducted using a financial transaction card. The financial transaction card has associated therewith a financial account in a financial institution and one or more transaction criteria. The financial transaction payment system includes a processing unit and an application program for execution on the processing unit. The method includes the step of determining by the application program whether a transaction accesses an installment loan on the financial account based on the one or more transaction criteria.