A system and method are provided for controlling a cellular telephone account User Terminal (UT). The method includes: registering a UT with an account in a cellular telephone network; uploading a credit for cellular telephone network services to the UT from a second party; and, converting the credit to an account balance. When the UT accesses a cellular telephone network service (i.e., makes a call), then the account balance is debited. In one aspect, the method accesses a credit server funded by the second party. Then, the credit is uploaded in response to accessing the credit server. For example, the credit server may be a module embedded in the UT. Alternately, the credit server is accessed via the cellular telephone network. For example, an Internet Protocol (IP) network-connected credit server may be accessed via the cellular network.