Patent ID: 7958022

Claim:
A system for crediting a user account of a pre-pay communication service, the system comprising: a shared credit resource to which a plurality of users of the pre-pay communication service are authorized access and to which at least one user contributes credit; and a controller to transfer credit from the shared credit resource to the user account to enable the user associated with the user account to use the pre-pay communication service, wherein the shared credit resource is specifically adapted to store credit to be used as payment for the provision of a pre-pay communication service, wherein the controller monitors the credit available in the user account to pay for the provision of the pre-pay communication service while the user associated with the user account is accessing the pre-pay communication service, and wherein, based on the monitoring and while the user is accessing the pre-pay communication service, the controller automatically transfers credit from the shared credit resource to the user account in response to the value of the credit in the user account reaching or falling below a predetermined threshold value.