A smart card designed to be used as a pre-payment device comprises a multi-stage counter which includes a first stage which is decremented during payment. A second stage of the counter operates as set of one or more control bits designed to be switched by a recharging terminal to cause the first stage to be recharged. In this way a smart card having a predetermined capacity can be used as a card of lower capacity, but which can be recharged a limited number of times according to the number of control bits available.
