Patent attributes
A method is provided for processing debit transactions at the lowest cost available. The method is comprised of the following steps: providing a merchant identification number and an account number BIN file to a debit processing center; matching the merchant identification number against at least one merchant database at the debit processing center; providing a merchant network list from the at least one merchant database based upon the match of the merchant identification number; providing a customer network list from the at least one merchant database based upon the match of customer identification number; creating a merchant-customer network list by matching at least one common element from the merchant network list and the customer network list. Next the system determines the validity for each common element of the merchant-customer network list and eliminates each invalid common element from the merchant-customer network list. Subsequently, the system sorts the elements of the merchant-customer network list based on network fee and communicates with a routing and processing database to determine the routing and processing method for each merchant customer element. Finally, the system applies the lowest cost element for routing and processing a debit transaction.
