Packet8 - Try this alternative to SunRocket
Unified Communications - Here's another alternative for VoIP service
Skype - One final alternative to SunRocket
Fighting Back Now - Find out about a woman who caught someone who stole her identity
MovingScam.com - Helps consumers find reliable moving companies
American Moving and Storage Association - Represents the domestic and international moving and storage industry
Epinions.com - Helps consumers make informed buying decisions
BizRate.com - Free comparison shopping site
ShopStyle.com - The looks you crave from the stores you love
Glimpse.com - Get the hottest fashion trends online
MakeUpAlley.com - A social networking site all about the cosmetics industry
StyleForum.net - Features message boards dedicated to the fashion field

This is a special message for people who go to Clarkhoward.com. I want to thank you so much for your support of our website and I want to let you know right from me what I've got to say about this mess with SunRocket. I'm miserable because I was a SunRocket customer for the past couple of years. I loved the service and I loved the price. You may have heard me joke about how my brother got a SunRocket "buy one year, get one free" deal even cheaper than I did. He'd just laugh about how he trumped me. He's not laughing now, and I'm certainly not. A lot of people on our message boards are hot at me for having recommended SunRocket in the first place. There was no way I could've known that they were in the kind of financial trouble they were in. They burned through a huge amount of cash. They were one of the best funded internet startups in recent years. Eighty million bucks went into the company and they blew right through it. I can't believe how badly they handled things as they ran out of cash, that they just basically shut down and left town. There's been so much negative publicity that the companies that originally put money in SunRocket are scrambling to arrange for customers to switch numbers and service supposedly seamlessly. Packet8 and Unified Communications are both offering such deals, but both of these are more expensive than what you were paying with SunRocket. Nobody is honoring your prior SunRocket payments. So that money is toast unless you paid by credit card in the last two months and you can dispute the charge and get your money back. But this thing stinks all the way around obviously. SunRocket had the risk of making you pay up front for a service you get over time. I paid my most recent year just four months ago. So I got four months service out of my $200. I paid about $50 a month for something I expected to cost $17 a month. You think I'm happy about that? I'm not. But I'm unhappier because I caused you a problem if you heard about SunRocket from me. Anytime you pay for anything before you receive it, there is this risk. This is just an unusually rotten situation. There are other companies out there that did not cut a deal with SunRocket that are offering special deals to SunRocket customers. There's a $199 company offering three months free to SunRocket customers. That's not much different than SunRocket's normal promotions. The cheapest alternative of all is to go with Skype, which offers unlimited calling in the U.S. and Canada for $30 for a whole year. It's not as easy to use as SunRocket, nor is it exactly like the same kind of service. But now there are Skype phones you can buy that make it as easy to use as SunRocket was.

This was a year of embarrassment for colleges who were in cahoots with unethical banks and other lenders. First there was the whole student loan scandal. Now The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that there are some dubious practices taking place on campuses related to student credit cards. Many schools get kickbacks for allowing there to be an "official bank" on campus. Such financial institutions offer outrageous terms and conditions on their credit and debit cards for students. The universities do this to get money under the table money from the banks. These arrangements are technically "partnerships," according to the schools. But the fees on the cards are almost double those available in the general marketplace. Clark believes a full investigation is necessary. As he says, if university officials have been getting bribes, they should go to prison. This is yet another thing for parents to worry about when packing their kids up for college at the end of the summer. Clark says to shop around on campus for a bank or credit union that's available to faculty, staff and students -- instead of just going to the preferred campus lender where the university sells out its students. What is going on in the banking world that offering bribes and kickbacks are becoming so routine??

As you probably know, Clark hates to waste things. He had been using the same pair of headphones in the studio since the '90s. Even though they were old and ratty, he used them until the end of their life. Now he has a new pair, so don't be surprised if he's able to hear you callers a little bit better! Likewise, he holds onto clothes long after they should be thrown away or given to charity. In fact, his wife has to periodically purge their closet and make the old threads "disappear."

Clark read a TechWorld.com report about how manufacturers of the cartridges we all use in our printers give you a notice that your cartridge in empty when nearly 60 percent of the ink is still left. If you throw it out at that point, more than half the ink you pay for goes unused! So when your computer tells you replace to the cartridge, instead just pull it out and shake it. You'll probably get several weeks more use out of it. After all, manufacturers have a clear financial incentive to shortchange you and make you buy more of their product. What you pay to print per page skyrockets if you throw that cartridge out or recycle it too early. Multi-ink cartridges are the worst because they have individual ink banks for up to three or four colors. Any one of them can run out before the others do. Another way to save money on ink cartridges is to get them refilled. Manufacturers hate it when you do this. Studies haven't yet shown decisively if the refilled ink is good quality or not. So just shake it up, baby! Samsung is one of the few companies that makes printers with a toner saver button that can reduce the amount of ink you use per page by 40 percent. Over time, that becomes a great savings.

China is a communist country that has many capitalist tendencies. Mobile phone technology like text messaging now allows people to express opinions to each other without the fear of censorship. Just as modern technology makes it possible for there to be a variety of voices, it also makes it harder for one person or political party to have a huge influence. Books like 1984 were filled with fears that technology would aid dictatorships, but China is showing the opposite proves true. China's fellow communist neighbor in North Korea is now frightened that its people will revolt after hearing radio ads from South Korea where there's a free-market economy pushing new cars, appliances and so much more. It seems like there's always skepticism about technology. Now there's even a question in the medical field about whether video games can be addictive. But the reality is that technology is so useful to us in so many ways.

The internet offers users the opportunity to get thing much cheaper than at physical stores. The Wall Street Journal's Personal Journal section reported that people have begun treating cyberspace like an old-fashioned bazaar, where they haggle for lower prices. Comparison shopping websites like ShopStyle.com and Glimpse.com have always been helpful in this regard, especially if you're in the market for a good deal on clothes. You can even find out about big savings at message boards like MakeUpAlley.com and StyleForum.net, where bargain hunters will post their finds from around the web.

To bargain for lower prices online, you should e-mail the website you're interested in and tell them about a better offer you found elsewhere on the web. Often the e-tailer will give you a comparable or lower price (and maybe even throw in free shipping) to get your business. One thing from the Personal Journal article that really struck Clark was that the writer mentioned getting a pair of blue jeans online for the bargain price of just a little above $100 -- some $50 cheaper than list price. That just goes to show that Clark really lives in a different orbit than most people. He says he doesn't do triple-digit clothing; in fact, he doesn't even really do double-digit duds. Single digit? Now that's more his style!