In other embodiments, funds may be sent to a virtual account, such as a virtual wallet, which may be utilized to provide payments to third parties.

At the time an application is made for receiving information, goods or services, the buyer declares the cost thereof and an amount is then blocked in the virtual wallet of said buyer in accordance with the cost and any fees.

The customer is provided with a virtual purse (6.1 ) linked to the customer profile and enabled to use the mobile device with the linked MSISDN to transact against a balance associated with the virtual purse.

The virtual purse may be linked to a bank account (4) of the customer.

Access to the service is payable via a virtual purse which is located on a page (207) of the provider's site.