To provide a method that facilitates provisioning of pre-paid wireless services.

Credit refresh operations involving a pre-paid wireless communication device involves transmitting SMS messages to the device over-the-air. The device uses tariff tables to keep track of a call's impact on available credit. A service provider is capable of arbitrarily updating the tariff tables using SMS messages. In one embodiment of the present invention, the wireless device includes a memory for storing balance or tariff tables or tariff rate tables. Balance setting can be performed in activating the device.