transaction account numbers wherein each of the transaction account numbers is associated with a monetary load value in one embodiment the transaction account numbers are stored in a database which has a plurality of records each record corresponds to one of the transaction account numbers none of the records is configured to store identifying information of a purchaser of one of the transaction numbers a request for an authorization of a purchase transaction having a purchase value is received from a remote computer terminal wherein the request is associated with one of the transaction account numbers the method further includes comparing the purchase value to the monetary load value associated with the transaction account number to determine if the purchase value exceeds the monetary load value the method further includes authorizing the request for an authorization of a purchase transaction the purchase value is then subtracted from the monetary load value associated with the transaction account number to obtain an updated monetary load value the updated monetary load value is then associated with the transaction account number the presently claimed invention may also incorporate features of a digital wallet as set forth in for example u s pat no 7 343.