Patent ID: 7024174

Claim:
A method for prepaying wireless telecommunications charges, comprising: receiving information identifying a user's wireless telecommunication device by a mobile payments engine via a mobile payments interactive voice response unit; passing the information identifying the wireless telecommunication device to a mobile operator's billing system with a request for validation of a mobile account for the user related to the device; if validation of the account is received from the mobile operator's billing system, receiving financial source account information from the user by the mobile payments engine via the mobile payments interactive voice response unit; receiving user identity verification information from the user by the mobile payments engine, wherein receiving the user identity verification information further comprises receiving by the mobile payments engine via the mobile payments interactive voice response unit the user's entry of a secret shared between the user and the mobile payments engine, wherein receiving the user's entry of the shared secret further comprises receiving the user's entry of at lease two debit amounts previously charged to the financial source account for the user via the mobile payments engine, and wherein receiving the user's entry of the at least two debit amounts further comprises generating the at lease two debit amounts by the mobile payments engine that sum to a predetermined total debit amount requested by the user; assigning a mobile personal identification number for the user by the mobile payments engine; and arranging a credit from the financial source account to the user's mobile account by the mobile payments engine via the mobile operator's prepaid billing system.