US Patent 7953213 Systems and methods for providing prepaid collect telecommunications service

A method of transmitting value via a telephone system, includes receiving a request from a Grantor to designate a predetermined number of minutes that are to be reserved to fund a telephone call between a telephone number associated with a Beneficiary and a telephone number belonging to the Grantor, receiving a request to establish the telephone call between the telephone number associated with the Beneficiary and the telephone number belonging to the Grantor, establishing the telephone call between the telephone number associated with the Beneficiary and the telephone number belonging to the Grantor, and deducting from the predetermined number of minutes a number of minutes corresponding to a length of time of the call between the telephone number associated with the Beneficiary and the telephone number belonging to the Grantor.