A credit card is used to purchase services, such as special pay-per-view television events, when the purchaser is located remote from his or her home base. When a subscriber is in a location remote from his or her base, that is, out of his or her subscription area, and wishes to view an event that is carried by his or her subscription service but which is not carried by the carrier serving the remote location, the purchaser contacts the system that is offering the event by telephone for example and uses a credit card that is issued by the system to purchase the event.