Abstract:
The present invention relates generally to payment systems and a method of selecting a specific payment method from a plurality of available payment methods. More specifically, the present invention is a system and method of selecting the payment method from a plurality of payment methods that provides the most benefits and/or fewest fees to the purchasing party with respect to the specific purchase. The system and method may take into account location, user-inputted data, data supplied from a merchant, consumer behavior, and may be additionally connected to location data services, electronically stored payment methods and their attributes including rewards and fees. The system may further effect a transaction via communications between a merchant and a consumer via a personal computing device, a programmable magnetic strip, or virtually via the Internet or over telephony.