Related party payment system

Abstract

Systems and methods are disclosed herein which that enable a first party, such as a child, to selected one or more items offered by an online retailer and to send a request to a second party, such as a parent or guardian, to request that the second party purchase the item or items for the first party. The systems and methods provide the second party with the ability to view requests received from the first party, to set limits on the number of requests and the amounts of the requests that the first party may make. The second party may also designate the parties to whom the first party may submit purchase requests. The child may also submit request to one or more non-parental contributors who may contribute money toward the purchase the one or more items for the child.

We claim: 
     
         1 . A computer-implemented method for processing a payment request with a related party payment, where one or more processors are programmed to perform steps comprising:
 holding a balance of funds in an escrow account for a user, the balance of funds being supplied by a first funding source and a subsequent funding source;   receiving an electronic payment request at the one or more processors from a vendor for the purchase of an item selected by the user;   sending the payment request at the one or more processors for the purchase of the item selected by the user;   funding a payment to the vendor from the escrow account; and   maintaining a transaction history accessible to the user through a user account and to a supervisor of the user through a supervisory account.   
     
     
         2 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein the first funding source is associated with the supervisory account. 
     
     
         3 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 2 , wherein the subsequent funding source is associated with a contributor account and the contributor account is authorized by the supervisor to supply funds to the escrow account. 
     
     
         4 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 2 , wherein the subsequent funding source is associated with the supervisory account. 
     
     
         5 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein the supervisor is a parent of the user. 
     
     
         6 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 sending a payment authorization request to the supervisor and receiving an authorization approval from the supervisor prior to funding the payment to the vendor from the escrow account.   
     
     
         7 . A system for processing payment requests for a supervised user, the system comprising:
 a computer readable storage device for storing computer executable programming modules;   a processor communicatively coupled with a computer readable storage device for executing programmed modules stored therein;   a payment processing module configured to process payment transactions from an escrow account including funds supplied by a first funding source and a subsequent funding source using third party payment processors including processing networks for credit cards; and   an account manager module configured to   create a user account for a first person, the user account having associated therewith a set of permissions,   create a supervisory account for a supervisory contributor, the supervisory account having the ability to set the permissions associated with the user account and the ability to view a transaction history of the user account, wherein the first funding source is associated with the supervisory account, and   create a contributor account for a second contributor, the second contributor account being associated with the second funding source.   
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 7 , wherein the supervisory account imposes limitations on the second contributor. 
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 7 , wherein the supervisory contributor is a guardian of the user. 
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 7 , wherein the account manager module is configured to create a second user account for a second person, the second user account having associated therewith a second set of permissions, and wherein the supervisory account has the ability to set the second permissions associated with the second user account and the ability to view a second transaction history of the second user account. 
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 7 , wherein the supervisory account is configured to approve transaction payments. 
     
     
         12 . A computer-implemented method for processing a payment request with a related party payment service, where one or more processors are programmed to perform steps comprising:
 holding a balance of funds in an escrow account for a user, the balance of funds being supplied by a supervisory contributor and a second contributor, wherein the second contributor is authorized by the supervisory contributor to supply funds to the escrow account;   receiving an electronic payment request at the one or more processors from a vendor for a purchase of an item selected by the user;   processing the payment request at the one or more processors for the purchase of the item selected by the user;   funding a payment to the vendor from the escrow account for the user; and   maintaining a transaction history accessible to the user and to the supervisory contributor.   
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 12 , wherein the supervisory contributor imposes limitations on the second contributor. 
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 12 , wherein the supervisory contributor provides funds from a first funding source. 
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 14 , wherein the second contributor provides funds from a second funding source. 
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 14 , wherein the supervisory contributor provides funds from a second funding source. 
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 12 , further comprising:
 sending a payment authorization request to the supervisory contributor and receiving an authorization approval from the supervisory contributor prior to funding the payment to the vendor from the escrow account.   
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 12 , wherein the supervisory contributor is a guardian of the user. 
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 17 , wherein the second contributor is a second guardian of the user.