Patent ID: 7053793

Claim:
A system for notifying charge information, comprising: a user identification device that stores a user identifier of a customer, the user identification device being mountable on a vehicle; a gate transmitter/receiver capable of wireless communication with the user identification device; a charge apparatus configured to store information on a balance in a prepaid account of the customer or the vehicle, and configured to subtract a toll charge from the balance in the prepaid account on the basis of information transmitted from the gate transmitter/receiver; a mobile communication device configured to communicate with the charge apparatus; and a navigation device capable of communication with the mobile communication device, the navigation device being mountable on the vehicle; wherein the navigation device comprises: a memory configured to store map information, the map information including locations of toll gates; a passage detector configured to detect that the vehicle passes one of the toll gates on the basis of a toll gate passage detection rule, the toll gate passage detection rule including a relation between the vehicle and the one of the toll gates; and a passage signal transmitter configured to transmit a toll gate passage signal to the mobile communication device when the passage detector detects that the vehicle passes one of the toll gates; the mobile communication device comprises a request transmitter that is configured to transmit to the charge apparatus a request to transmit information including the balance in the prepaid account; and the navigation device comprises notifying means for notifying the customer of the information including the balance in the prepaid account.