Portable handheld device for wireless order entry and real time payment authorization and related methods

A point-of-sale (POS) device comprising:

• a portable housing;
• a touch screen display carried by said portable housing;
• a connector carried by an exterior of said portable housing;
• a transaction card input device removably coupled to said connector for reading a credit card or a debit card;
• at least one wireless transceiver carried by said portable housing;
• and
• a processor and associated memory carried by said portable housing, said processor for
• performing POS sale transaction order entry in cooperation with said touch screen display and said at least one wireless transceiver,
• storing in said memory user sensitive information upon entry from said transaction card input device and generating encrypted user sensitive information based upon the stored user sensitive information,
• wirelessly sending the encrypted user sensitive information via said at least one wireless transceiver directly to an issuing bank of the credit card or debit card through an online real time payment gateway using a real time authorization process so that the at least one POS sale transaction is settled in real time,
• wirelessly receiving POS sale transaction authorization information via said at least one wireless transceiver based upon real time POS authorization related to the user sensitive information,
• generating an output related to the received POS sale transaction authorization information via said touch screen display, and
• erasing the user sensitive information from said memory so that no user sensitive information is stored in said memory between successive POS sale transactions.

A point-of-sale (POS) device comprising:

• a portable housing;
• a touch screen display carried by said portable housing;
• a transaction card input device carried by said portable housing for reading a credit card or a debit card;
• at least one wireless transceiver carried by said portable housing and comprising at least one of a wireless local area network (WLAN) transceiver, cellular telephone transceiver, and Bluetooth transceiver;
• and
• a processor and associated memory carried by said portable housing, said processor for
• performing at least one POS sale transaction in cooperation with said touch screen display and said at least one wireless transceiver,
• storing in said memory user sensitive information upon entry from said transaction card input device and generating encrypted user sensitive information based upon the stored user sensitive information,
• wirelessly sending the encrypted user sensitive information via said at least one wireless transceiver directly to an issuing bank of the credit card or debit card through an online real time payment gateway using a real time authorization process so that the at least one POS sale transaction is settled in real time,
• wirelessly receiving POS sale transaction authorization information via said at least one wireless transceiver based upon real time POS authorization related to the user sensitive information, and
• erasing the user sensitive information from said memory so that no user sensitive information is stored in said memory between successive POS sale transactions.

A method of operating a point-of-sale (POS) device comprising a portable housing, a touch screen display carried by the portable housing, a transaction card input device carried by the portable housing for reading a credit card or a debit card, a memory carried by the portable housing and at least one wireless transceiver carried by the portable housing, the method comprising:

• performing at least one POS sale transaction with the touch screen display and the at least one wireless transceiver;
• storing in the memory user sensitive information upon entry from the transaction card input device and generating encrypted user sensitive information based upon the stored user sensitive information;
• wirelessly sending the encrypted user sensitive information via the at least one wireless transceiver directly to an issuing bank of the credit card or debit card through an online real time payment gateway using a real time authorization process so that the at least one POS sale transaction is settled in real time;
• wirelessly receiving POS sale transaction authorization information via the at least one wireless transceiver based upon real time POS authorization related to the user sensitive information;
• and
• erasing the user sensitive information from the memory so that no user sensitive information is stored in the memory between successive POS sale transactions.