Patent ID: 7167699

Claim:
A method for tracking allotted wireless telephone minutes used during a billing cycle and providing an alert before overage charges are accrued, said method comprising obtaining the number of metered usage minutes allotted under a user's wireless telephone plan from the user and storing them in a user's record; obtaining instructions from the user as to the reporting basis for alerts before overage charges are accrued during the billing cycle and storing the instructions in the user's record; retrieving usage minutes used and number of days until the minutes refresh from a user's wireless telephone service provider on a periodic basis during the billing cycle; comparing the usage minutes used during the billing cycle with the number of number of usage minutes allotted; and, sending an e-mail or text message to the user during the billing cycle before overage charges are accrued reporting the number of usage minutes used and the number of days until the minutes refresh on the basis selected by the user.