A method of completing a purchase utilizing a first electronic network and
a second electronic network, the method being applicable for example to a
case in which the second network (which may be the public telephone
system) is considered by knowledgeable people to be more secure than the
first network (which may be the Internet). The method comprises the steps
of (a) registering over the second network a customer's financial
information in a central processing center; (b) ordering over the first
network a good or service that the customer desires to purchase from a
merchant; (c) supplying identifying information to the merchant
pertaining to the customer; (d) supplying information from the merchant
to the processing center pertaining to the purchase; (e) establishing a
contact between the customer and the processing center in which the
customer is identified to the processing center and the customer
expresses intent to complete the purchase; and (f) debiting an account of
the customer and crediting an account of the merchant in order to
complete the purchase.