Patent ID: 8837694

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: a fee module that charges a fee for an incoming call, the fee being specific to the incoming call, the incoming call being made by a caller to a user, the fee module charging the caller for the incoming call; an exemption list module that maintains an exemption list, the exemption list comprising one or more callers and associated information for each caller in the exemption list, the associated information operable to identify a caller in the exemption list when the user receives an incoming call from a caller in the exemption list, the exemption list comprising callers whose calls are exempt from the fee charged by the fee module; a call module that receives an incoming call; a matching module that determines if information associated with the incoming call matches information associated with a caller in the exemption list; a fee payment notification module that notifies the user that the caller has been charged a fee by the fee module and notifies the user of an obligation of a minimum call time; and a fee waiver module that exempts the incoming call from the fee charged by the fee module in response to the matching module determining that information associated with the incoming call matches information associated with the caller in the exemption list, wherein the fee module charges the fee for each incoming call not exempted by the fee waiver module and, if the call ends prior to the passing of the minimum call time, the fee waiver module one of exempts the incoming call from the fee and reduces the fee charged to the caller, wherein at least a portion of the fee module, exemption list module, call module, matching module, and fee waiver module comprise one or more of logic hardware and executable code, the executable code stored on one or more computer readable storage media.