The invention relates to multipurpose electronic payment method and system. The inventive method consists in transmitting (A) from a multimedia terminal (TM) a payment order (MP) issued from at least one multimedia application hosted in the (TM) to a local proxy for payment (PP), in discriminating (B) said payment order in (PP) upon a specific local processing criterion respectively remote, in carrying out (C) a local payment upon the retained local payment specific criterion, if not in transmitting (D) the payment order to a remote system (SD) for carrying out a remote payment. Said invention is usable for proximity payment transitions, external payment or for electronically carrying out a telepayment.