determined that a selection is made at 950 then the associated telephone number is retrieved note that the associated telephone number is not displayed to or available to the user at 952 and a call is placed at 954 after the call is placed the application ends at 956 if a u201c place an e calling card request u201d is not selected at 944 then it is determined whether u201c quit u201d is selected at 958 if so then the application is ended in the above described serverless embodiment of the invention an application running on for example handset 34 receives the e calling card from handset 32 and stores the card locally on handset 34 the application can recall stored e calling cards and display the e calling cards in a list the list shows the user name corresponding to the e calling card and any relevant expiration information the associated telephone number is not displayed the user can thereby select an e calling card for placing a call the application uses the associated telephone number to place a call but the telephone number is not displayed as part of placing the call the above approach can also be used to establish a voice conversation without the subscribers being aware of a calling card in this case the application on handset 34 receives the calling card information and immediately places the call the e calling card information would not be stored locally or on a server and the subscribers would be unaware of its existence there would be no need for expiration information since an.