User positive approval and authentication services (upaas)

A method of enabling issuers of retail payment and identification instruments to request and receive approval from users of these instruments in transaction real time to authenticate the users, comprising:

• sending a request, from an issuer host, to a user comprising a request for the user to provide information of one or more data connected devices during a registration process wherein this information is associated with a user ID and used for processing a user approval request and response;
• sending download instructions for a user application to the user for the user to download the user application to one or more of the data connected devices over a wired or wireless communication protocol;
• providing the user with an ability to activate the user application using a one-time authentication key or a method selected by an issuer;
• receiving, at the issuer host, a transaction authorization request from at least one of a network or an acquirer, the transaction authorization request comprising information describing a presently-unapproved transaction;
• sending the user approval request in transaction real time requesting the user to approve or decline the transaction and prompting the user to enter a user verification method key, wherein the issuer host is further programmed to create and send the user approval request to the user before the transaction authorization request is processed for approval by the issuer host;
• capturing the user verification method key for approved transactions, wherein subject to the issuer host discretion the user verification method contains information known only to the user, or by a method selected by the issuer;
• and
• sending a user approval response to the issuer host for approval by the issuer.