Method and apparatus for consumer driven protection for payment card transactions

A system for facilitating a first commercial transaction between a merchant and an account holder, comprising:

• one or more servers configured to receive from the account holder at least one criterion for pre-authorizing the commercial transaction, the at least one criterion comprising at least one of (i) at least one authorized merchant, (ii) an authorized monetary amount range per transaction, (iii) an authorized maximum monetary amount per transaction, and (iv) at least one authorized date per transaction, the at least one pre-authorized criterion comprising satisfaction of acceptance criteria of the commercial transaction before the commercial transaction is communicated to the account holder or a third party, the one or more server storing the received at least one criterion for pre-authorizing the commercial transaction;
• the one or more server being also configured to receive from the merchant a transaction approval request, the transaction approval request including information relating to the first commercial transaction;
• the one or more server being further configured to compare the received transaction approval request to the received at least one pre-authorized criterion to determine whether the at least one criterion for pre-authorization is satisfied;
• wherein the one or more server is further configured to deny the transaction approval request when a determination is made that the at least one criterion for pre-authorizing the transaction is not satisfied, without deactivating the account holder's account, in the case of denial, the one or more server preventing (i) further communication from the one or more server to the account holder for verification of the denied transaction approval request and (ii) the further storage of the denied transaction approval request on the one or more server;
• and
• wherein the one or more server is further configured to pre-authorize the transaction approval request when a determination is made that the at least one criterion for pre-authorizing the transaction is satisfied.