Patent ID: 7599887

Claim:
A method for prepaying roaming minutes, comprising: employing a processor to execute the prepaying of roaming minutes, comprising: crediting a user's account with prepaid roaming minutes purchased by a user, the prepaid roaming minutes comprising units of time for telephone usage outside of a home calling area defined by a user's calling plan, wherein the user's calling plan includes a roaming charge for the prepaid roaming minutes and wherein the home calling area comprises one of a plurality of predefined geographical areas each of which is within a larger predefined geographical area comprising a national calling area; receiving one of a plurality of access codes before dialing a roaming call, each of the plurality of access codes corresponding to a certain number of the prepaid roaming minutes; notifying the user of the number of prepaid roaming minutes in the user's account via a display on a wireless telephone associated with the user; determining whether the prepaid roaming minutes were purchased at a time greater than a predefined time before a call is made, wherein the prepaid roaming minutes are purchased at a discounted rate, wherein the discounted rate is lower than the roaming charge included in the user's calling plan, and wherein the prepaid roaming minutes are subtracted from the user's account at the discounted rate when the prepaid roaming minutes were purchased at a time greater than the predefined time and when the call is made outside the home calling area defined by the user's calling plan; and determining whether the length of the roaming call is greater than the number of prepaid roaming minutes in the user's account, wherein the difference between the length of the roaming call and the number of prepaid roaming minutes in the user's account is charged as undiscounted roaming when the length of the roaming call is greater than the number of prepaid minutes in the user's account.