Abstract: A computerized universal payment method to allow merchants with differing risk tolerance, transaction fee tolerance, and payment time tolerance to optimize customer payment transactions that have different risks, transaction fees, and transaction times. Here customer payments are converted to a synthetic financial account (a universal payment account) that acts somewhat like a financial marketplace between a plurality of merchants and customers. The method adjusts for the risks, transaction fee, and payment times associated with a customer's particular mode of payment, as well as adjusting for the merchant's tolerance for risks, transaction fees, and payment times, as well as optionally the merchant's knowledge about the customer. Thus, given permission, a customer paying by a high commission credit card, may upon merchant election have this payment converted to a low commission electronic check, and vice versa.