Related party payment system

1. A computer-implemented method for processing payment requests from a first person for one or more persons, where one or more processors are programmed to perform steps comprising:

receiving an electronic third party payment request at the one or more processors from the first person to request that a second person and a third person fund a purchase for the first person;

sending an electronic payment authorization request to the second person from the one or more processors;

sending an electronic payment authorization request to the third person from the one or more processors;

receiving an electronic response to the payment authorization request, the electronic response being initiated by the second person and includes a first authorization to pay a first portion of an amount requested in the third party payment request;

determining, using the one or more processors, whether the response includes an authorization to pay for the item for the first person;

holding the first authorization in a pending status until an authorization to pay a remaining balance of the amount requested is received;

receiving a second authorization from the third person to pay a second portion of the amount requested; and

processing the third party payment request using a first funding source associated with the second person to pay the first portion of the amount requested and a second funding source associated with the third person to pay the second portion of the amount requested when the second authorization is for at least the remaining balance of the amount requested.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein processing the third party payment request to purchase the item if the response is an authorization to pay for the item for the first person further comprises:

processing a payment for an amount identified in the first authorization using a funding source provided by the second person;

receiving the funds in an escrow account;

transferring the funds from the escrow account to an account associated with the purchase; and

notifying the online retailer to process a suspended transaction associated with the third party payment request.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

declining the third party payment request if the payment authorization response from the second person or the third person declines funding.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising:

notifying the first person of the response declining funding.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the third party payment request includes a message from the first person to the second person explaining why the first person would like the second person to fund the purchase of the item.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the third party payment request is received from the merchant, and wherein the merchant is configured to suspend a transaction for purchasing the item until a response to the third party payment request is received.

7. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored thereon one or more sequences of instructions for causing one or more microprocessors to perform the steps for processing third party payments, the steps comprising:

receiving a third party payment request from a child to request a parent and a third person fund a purchase for the child;

determining whether the child has an account;

prompting the child to create a new account if the child does not have an account;

receiving account information from the child, the account information including contact information for the parent and third person;

sending a payment authorization request to the parent and the third person designated in the third party payment request;

receiving a first response to the payment authorization request from the parent and receiving a second response to the payment authorization request from the third party;

holding the first response in a pending status until it is determined that an authorization to fund the entire purchase has been received;

determining whether the first response or the second response include an authorization to fund the entire purchase for the child;

if not, determine whether the first and second response together authorize the entire purchase for the child; and

processing the third party payment request to purchase the item from the online retailer when one of the first response, the second response, or the combination of the first response and second response include an authorization to fund the purchase for the child.

8. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 7 wherein processing the third party payment request to fund the purchase if the first response or the second response is an authorization to fund the purchase further comprises

processing a payment for an amount identified in the third party payment request using a funding source provided by the parent;

receiving the funds in an escrow account;

transferring the funds from the escrow account to an account associated with a merchant; and

notifying the merchant to process a suspended transaction associated with the third party payment request.

9. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium method of claim 7 , further comprising

declining the third party payment request to purchase the item if the first response and the second response both do not include an authorization to fund the purchase.

10. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 9 , further comprising:

notifying the merchant to cancel a suspended transaction associated with the third party payment request.

11. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 7 , wherein receiving a response to the payment authorization request from the parent further comprises

receiving an authorization to pay an entire requested amount from at least one of the parent and the third person; and

processing the third party payment request using a payment source associated with the at least one of the parent or the third person, the payment source being associated with the person who provided an authorization first.

12. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 7 , wherein receiving a response to the payment authorization request further comprises

receiving from the parent a first authorization to pay a first portion of an amount requested in the third party payment request;

holding the first authorization in a pending status until an authorization to pay a remaining balance of the amount requested is received;

receiving a second authorization from the third person to pay a second portion of the amount requested; and

processing the third party payment request to purchase the item from the online retailer using a first funding source associated with the parent to pay the first portion of the amount request and a second funding source associated with the third person to pay the second portion of the amount requested when the second authorization is for at least the remaining balance of the amount requested.

13. A system for processing payment requests from a first person to a second person and a third person requesting that one or more of them pay for an item being offered for sale by merchant for the first person, the second person having the authority to make purchasing decisions for the first person, the system comprising:

a computer readable storage device for storing computer executable programmed modules;

a processor communicatively coupled with a computer readable storage device for executing programmed modules stored therein;

a request processing module configured to

receive third party payment requests from the first person requesting that the second person and the third person fund the purchase of an item for the first person;

send a payment authorization request to the second person and the third person designated in the third party payment request;

receive an authorization response from the second person and the third person; and

holding the response from the second person in a pending status until it is determined that an authorization to fund the entire purchase has been received;

a payment processing module configured to

determine whether the authorization response from the second person includes an authorization to fund the entire purchase for the first person and whether the authorization response from the third person includes an authorization to fund the entire purchase for the first person;

if not, determine whether the response from the second person and the response from the third person together authorize the entire purchase for the first person; and

process the third party payment request to purchase the item when the authorization response includes an authorization that indicates that at least one of the second person, the third person, will fund the purchase or the combination of the second and third person will fund the entire purchase of the first person.

14. The system of claim 13 , further comprising an account manager module configured to

create a user account for the first person, the account having associated therewith a set of permissions that impose limits on the number of third party requests over a specified period of time and an upper limit on an amount of each third party request that the first person may make and to

create a supervisor account for the second person, the supervisor account having the ability to set the permissions associated with the first person's account.

15. The system of claim 13 , further comprising:

an account manager module configured to create a user account for the first person, the account having associated therewith a set of permissions that impose limits on the number of third party requests over a specified period of time and an upper limit on an amount of each third party request that the first person may make and to

create a supervisor account for a second person, the supervisor account having the ability to set the permissions associated with the first person's account.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the second person can use the supervisor account to also limit which people to whom the first person may send third party payment requests.