According to the invention, a process for transferring credit from a
sender to a number of recipients using a wide-area computer network is
disclosed. In one step, a server computer system receives information
from the sender to transfer credit to the number of recipients. The
information includes a unique identifier for each of the number of
recipients and a credit amount. A first handler chosen by the sender and
a second handler chosen by one of the number of recipients are
determined. A credit transfer from the first handler is requested. The
credit amount from the first handler is received at the server computer
system. The credit amount is sent to the second handler associated with
the one of the number of recipients.