A merchant initiates a payment process by sending transaction details, merchant information, and a user or customer phone number to a payment service provider. The payment service provider sends a message to the user device, either asking the user to confirm the payment or communicating an authorization code. In the former, the user may be asked to simply confirm or communicate a user code. In the latter, the user communicates the authorization code to the merchant, who then communicates it to the payment servicer provider. In either case, once received and approved, the payment service provider sends a confirmation message to the merchant and the user that the payment has been approved and processed. Communication can be by text or verbal.