If you've ever used a prepaid phone card or prepaid calling card, you already know that the minutes you get are rarely ever what they advertise on the card or poster. No matter how careful you are, the minutes seem to fly away. Unscrupulous phone card carriers charge exorbitant connection fees, maintenance fees, and disconnection fees. If they could charge you a volume or packet fee based on whether you were doing the talking or just listening to the other person talk, they would charge a different fee for that too.

It is quite simply highway robbery, and it seemed like no one out there could stop them. Until now, that is.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has turned its attention to the up-till-now unregulated international calling card industry, and some new laws are in place.

Fees haven't gone away, but false advertising sure has. The FCC has mandated that phone cards or calling cards must deliver the minutes they promise to deliver if those minutes are used in one phone call. As long as you use all of the minutes in your prepaid card in the first call, then you are guaranteed to get them. Calling card companies that fail to provide the number of minutes they promise in that first call risk massive fines and penalties.

Now, it is important to note that this FCC law only applies if you use all of the minutes in your international calling card in the first phone call. If you end the call before the minutes are used, then the prepaid phone card company is still able to whisk away whatever remains of your balance in bogus fees.

The second law that the FCC has passed to regulate the calling card industry is also related. When you call the 800 number for your prepaid phone card, you are told how many minutes you have remaining on your calling card. It used to be where you never ended up getting those minutes, either, due to the previously mentioned fees. But now the FCC is requiring the prepaid calling card companies to actually give you those minutes that they say you have remaining on your phone card. Again, keep in mind that this assumes that you use all of those minutes remaining on your calling card in the call you make right there.

While the new changes will go a long way to protecting the rights of prepaid phone card buyers, buyers still have to be aware that these rules only apply provided they use their minutes in the first call (or, in the case of remaining minutes, in the call they are about to make at that time). Hanging up the phone still gives phone card companies leeway to siphon the funds on your calling card, so use it wisely.