Abstract: When a telephone caller charges a call to a commercial credit card an announcement which includes the name of the credit card issuer is supplied to the caller after the validation of the credit card. In a preferred embodiment, the issuer of the commercial credit card is identified, for purposes of announcing its name, by examining the prefix code of a credit card number supplied by the calling party. Also, in the preferred embodiment, not only the issuer of the commercial credit card but also the name of the telephone carder is supplied as part of the announcement given prior to connecting the calling station to the called station after validation of the credit card. An illustrative such announcement is "Thank you for using AT&T and for charging this call to your American Express card".

Abstract: Charges and balances assignable to a credit card account are controlled and monitored by assigning a purchase limit to the card. More specifically, when a card is used to pay for a telephone call on a telecommunication network, the validity of the card is verified in, for example, a network database and the card record is examined for the presence of a purchase limit. If the card has a purchase limit, the network database determines the type of purchase limit which applies and if the balance is positive. If the balance is not positive and the purchase limit applicable does not authorize the extension of credit, a denial response is sent from the network database to an appropriate local operator system which provides a denial indication to the caller. If the available balance is positive, the network database forwards the balance to the operator system.

Abstract: When a telephone caller charges a call to a commercial credit card, an announcement which includes the name of the credit card issuer is supplied to the caller after the validation of the credit card. In a preferred embodiment, the issuer of the commercial credit card is identified, for purposes of announcing its name, by examining the prefix code of a credit card number supplied by the calling party. Also, in the preferred embodiment, not only the issuer of the commercial credit card but also the name of the telephone carrier is supplied as part of the announcement given prior to connecting the calling station to the called station after validation of the credit card. An illustrative such announcement is "Thank you for using AT&T and for charging this call to your American Express card".