Method and system for facilitating online payments based on an established payment agreement

A method comprising:

• receiving, at a payment service provider server, a payment request from a merchant, the payment request including a unique identifier to identify a previously established payment agreement between a merchant and a user established with a payment service provider prior to any transactions between the merchant and the user,
• the previously established payment agreement defining terms including an authority granted by the user to the payment service provider to make payments to the merchant on behalf of the user,
• the previously established payment agreement established in response to receiving, at the payment service provider server via a programmatic interface from a merchant server specially configured to communicate using API calls with the specially configured payment service provider server, an API call, via a selection by the user of a link to establish the payment agreement on an interface presented to a device of the user, that includes a request to establish the payment agreement between the merchant and the user prior to any transactions between the merchant and the user,
• the request being verified by the payment service provider server to determine whether the request includes properly formatted data items that are used in establishing the payment agreement between the merchant and the user;
• using one or more processors of the payment service provider server, accessing a database to retrieve the terms of the previously established payment agreement between the merchant and the user stored at the payment service provider, based on the unique identifier;
• verifying, by the payment service provider server, that processing the payment does not violate the terms of the previously established payment agreement;
• and
• based on the verifying that processing the payment request does not violate the terms of the previously established payment agreement, automatically and without user intervention, processing the payment request by the payment service provider server,
• the receiving of the payment request, verifying that the payment request does not violate the terms, and automatically processing being triggered in response to a single action performed at a device of the user.

A machine-readable storage medium having no transitory signals and storing instructions which, when executed by at least one processor of a machine, causes the machine to perform operations comprising:

• receiving, at payment service provider server via a programmatic interface from a merchant server specially configured to communicate using API calls with the specially configured payment service provider server, an API call that includes a relationship request to establish, at the payment service provider server, a payment agreement between a merchant and a user prior to any transactions between the merchant and the user, the API call triggered in response to a selection by the user of a link to establish the payment agreement on an interface presented to a device of the user;
• verifying, by the payment service provider server, that the relationship request includes properly formatted data items that are used in establishing the payment agreement between the merchant and the user;
• based on the verifying, establishing the payment agreement at a payment service provider that defines terms of a payment relationship between the merchant and the user prior to any transactions between the merchant and the user, the payment agreement between the merchant and the user being established in response to receiving, from the user, the relationship request to establish the payment agreement, the establishing of the payment agreement including linking the payment agreement with a payment account of the merchant or user maintained at the payment service provider server, the payment service provider being a separate entity from the merchant;
• after establishing the payment agreement, receiving, at the payment service provider server, a payment request associated with a transaction from the merchant, the payment request including a unique identifier to identify the payment agreement established between the merchant and the user and stored in data storage at the payment service provider server prior to any transactions between the merchant and the user;
• verifying, by the payment service provider server, that the payment request complies with the terms of the payment relationship between the merchant and the user established prior to any transactions between the merchant and the user, the verifying including accessing the terms of the payment relationship stored in the data storage at the payment service provider server;
• and
• based on the verifying that the payment request complies with the terms of the payment relationship between the merchant and the user established prior to any transactions between the merchant and the user, automatically and without user intervention, processing the payment request by the payment service provider server,
• the receiving of the payment request, verifying that the payment request complies with the terms, and automatically processing being triggered in response to a single action performed at a device of the user.

A system comprising:

• a communications module of a specially configured payment service provider server to receive, via a programmatic interface from a merchant server specially configured to communicate using API calls with the specially configured payment service provider server, an API call triggered in response to a selection of a link to establish a payment agreement on an interface presented to a device of a user, the API call including a relationship request to establish the payment agreement between a merchant and the user with a payment service provider prior to any transactions between the merchant and the user, the relationship request being verified as including properly formatted data items that are used in establishing the payment agreement between the merchant and the user, the payment agreement defining terms of a payment relationship between the merchant and the user, the payment service provider being a separate entity from the merchant;
• at least one hardware processor configured by a management module to establish, at the payment service provider server, the payment agreement in response to the relationship request to establish the payment agreement;
• and
• a payment processing module of the specially configured payment service provider server to:
• process a payment in response to the communications module receiving a payment request from the merchant, the payment request including the unique identifier to identify the payment agreement established and stored at the payment service provider server prior to any transactions between the merchant and the user,
• verify that the payment request complies with the terms of the payment relationship between the merchant and the user established prior to any transactions between the merchant and the user, a verification that the payment request complies includes accessing the terms of the payment relationship stored at the payment service provider server;
• automatically, without user intervention, processing the payment request based on a verification of the payment request complying with the terms of the payment relationship between the merchant and the user established prior to any transactions between the merchant and the user,
• the payment processing module to verify that the payment request complies with the terms and automatically process in response to a single action performed at a device of the user.