Patent ID: 8064581

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving, from one of a plurality of prepaid card users, each of the plurality of prepaid card users associated with a respective one of a plurality of prepaid cards associated with an account, a request to establish a telephone call to a destination telephone number; determining call restrictions placed on the respective prepaid card by a control card associated with the account; connecting the telephone call; monitoring the telephone call to verify that the call restrictions are maintained; determining if the account has adequate minutes to allot to each of a plurality of telephone calls, each call associated with one of the plurality of prepaid card users; if there are adequate minutes, allotting a number of minutes to each of the plurality of telephone calls; contemporaneously connecting each of the plurality of telephone calls to a respective destination telephone number received from an associated prepaid card user; determining that one of the plurality of telephone calls has been completed; querying a prepaid card user associated with the one of the plurality of telephone calls to determine if the prepaid card user associated with the one of the plurality of telephone calls wishes to make an additional telephone call; if the prepaid card user associated with the one of the plurality of telephone calls wishes to make an additional telephone call, receiving a second destination telephone number from the prepaid card user associated with the one of the plurality of telephone calls; determining if the additional telephone call is permitted; and if the additional telephone call is permitted, connecting the prepaid card user associated with the one of the plurality of telephone calls to the second destination telephone number by allotting a predetermined number of minutes to the additional telephone call.