Bureau of the Public Debt - a consumer site with basic debt information and an online bond-transaction page
Prosper - an online community for person-to-person lending
Zopa - a British social-lending site that's coming soon to the United States
Circle Lending - formalizes and administers private loans between individuals
emigrantdirect.com - earn 1.4% on "reward" cards
zennioptical.com - cheap glasses you can purchase online
ticketmaster.com - cheapest tickets for events not already sold out
craigslist.org - cheapest tickets for sold-out events

Today's topics are "Best Of Clark" repeats from recent shows

Not very long ago, Clark mentioned that people from the United States are now going to Mexico for dental care. That discussion sparked some unfriendly response. Now London's Financial Times has done a report about the medical tourism trend. People are going overseas to Thailand and India to save money on surgeries. The number of Americans going overseas is rising 20 percent per year, according to the report. The savings can be extraordinary -- up to 75 percent. The big question is, "What kind of care will you get overseas?" While the quality does vary, many third-world countries have first-rate hospitals that cater to foreigners. The Financial Times reports that Singapore is the best place to go for overseas medical care that is roughly equal to American care. You'll still save substantial amounts there -- up to 50 percent off -- and have a private nurse for 24 hours a day. While Clark admits that he is a medical idiot, he does believe that if you are grappling with the cost issue alone you should consider this option. There are now medical tourism businesses that handle accommodations, finding doctors and all the other logistics of getting care abroad.

What do you do if you need money but want to avoid borrowing from the banks? In the past, Clark has always recommended credit unions. But now there are even more options available. Prosper.com is a site where people lend money to each other instead of a bank being in the middle. The investor who takes a risk in lending to you earns relatively high returns and you get a low rate. This is a big success that's growing exponentially. The way it works is that a borrower gets a lot of cash from several different people online. That helps lower the individual lender's risk in the case of default. People are essentially becoming their own loan officers by calculating the risk to see if they want to be part of a loan. There's a similar website in Britain called Zopa.com that's getting ready to come to the United States. A little competition in this field is going to be a healthy thing. However, there are some core differences between Proper and Zopa. The former grades your credit and then assigns you a lender, while the latter is tougher and only allows loans to those with moderate credit.

The volume of transactions on sites like these is growing. So is this a threat to the banking business? While it's still small potatoes today, over time it could be. CircleLending.com is also a good site to use for lending to people who are your family members or friends because it helps you negotiate a contractual agreement. Meanwhile, Clark has a rule for lending to family that he calls the "one time out rule." It states that you can lend to a family member once (and only once) as a gift. Even though they will call it a loan, you may never see the money come back. If it does, you'll be pleasantly surprised. It's kind of the same idea as the old saying, "First time shame on you, second time shame on me."

Look out for the advertised "deals" on reward cards: Clark saw one in a retail store. He opened the brochure and flipped to the "mice-type" in the rewards section. The 2% reward turned out to be only .5%! You only got 2% if you shopped at that store and ran a credit balance. It's not that all rewards cards are a bear trap, but there are enough duds out there that you just can't trust them without really looking over all the asterisks.

You have to be very savvy to even make airline reward cards work. You have to be doing a substantial amount of flying on the airline and charging on the card to get your rewards. And even so, the company might cap the amount of miles you can earn per year, or they may suddenly change the rewards on those cards! Look out for three things:
(1) be wary of annual fees;
(2) be aware of fake reward levels (like the 2% "deal" above)
(3) these cards have awful interest rates.
For people with money, it’s hard to beat the deal from emigrantdirect.com! They have a deal where you put money with their savings account, and you get a MasterCard that earns 1.4% But you have to maintain $10,000 in the account. Other good deals include the CostCo "True Rewards" card: No annual fee, 1% back on all purchases, 2% on all travel, 3% on all restaurants. It's pretty simple and clear, but you must pay your balance in full each month to avoid high interest rates!

A Wall Street Journal journalist wanted to find out how easily and cheaply he could find tickets for certain entertainment venues. After doing some research, he found that TicketMaster was cheapest when the event was not sold out. But for sold out events, it turns out CraigsList is the best! CraigsList is good because it’s person to person; you meet the person who’s selling, and that helps prevent buying counterfeits.

Some promoters and sports teams are learning that most fans can’t or won’t pay corporate prices, and are starting to offer cheap back-of-house seats. Having empty seats really hurts the feel of the event. People who buy cheap seats -- the real fans -- bring life to the concert or event. And they often buy more at the concession stand!