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

Did you know there are new requirements for reporting debts or delinquencies? Clark recently had the chance to speak with two experts on the Fair Credit Report Act and the FACT Act (Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act). What he learned was illuminating. For example, if you have a credit card debt that went delinquent in January 2000, you might start getting calls from collection agencies in December 2006 -- one month shy of the seven-year expiration limit. What's probably going on is that the collection agency has put a new date on your account. By doing this the agency is breaking the law. If the debt has moved beyond the statue of limitations, you have no legal requirement to pay that creditor anything. Bear in mind that Clark is not talking here about the ethical obligation to pay up -- that goes on forever. He's only talking about your legal obligation.

So what can you do if your debt has passed the statute limit and the collection agency puts a new date on the account just to harass you some more? You can sue them in your own small claims court where you live. They have to come to you and answer for their actions! Just beware that these legal battles can be a two-way street. There are a lot of unsavory characters in the collection business who will try to sue you on expired debts. If you don't show up in court, they get a judgment in their favor when they didn't deserve it in the first place. Meanwhile, Clark also shared some personal anecdotes about working as a bill collector in graduate school, and trying to collect on past debts when he had his travel agencies. To do the latter, he often showed up in person to collect his money! He was always polite and calm. And you know what? It actually worked and he got a lot of money that way.

As some of you may know, San Francisco has gone ahead and banned plastic shopping bags. Clark says he never really gives much thought when baggers in the grocery store ask him if he wants paper or plastic. He leaves it up to them and they usually opt for plastic. But the city of San Francisco is concerned about the environmental impact of plastic bags, which usually are made from foreign oil. So the Golden Gate City has banned all bags that aren't biodegradable. The idea of the government telling a private business how to handle bagging your groceries doesn't sit well with Clark. Instead, he'd like to see the government tax people who want their groceries in a plastic bag, while offering recyclable paper bags for free. As Clark says, if there is a valid environmental concern here, we should let the marketplace sort it out. Interestingly enough, San Francisco lawmakers at first considered levying a tax of 17 cents per plastic bag, but the stores preferred the ban over the tax. On a related note, a recent poll on Clark's site asked web users if they would pay more for environmentally safe picnic utensils. Overwhelmingly you said no.

Clark has a cell phone that allows him to surf the 'net and view websites on the phone screen. Sometimes the phone freezes up if a site is too big or it has lots of graphics, however. The latest big deal in the cell phone industry is to allow websites to render easily and be seen clearly. Around the world, companies have been able to do this successfully. But in the States, it's been a struggle. So, Clark was excited to hear that a new technology -- currently only available overseas -- is coming to the states. It's called a "dot mobi" site, according to Fortune magazine. Basically, instead of the site ending in ".com," it ends in ".mobi" and can be view on a mobile device. Clark is hoping his site can be converted to a .mobi so people can see it clearly on their phones. We'll let you know what it costs and how it works.

When you're shopping online, you want the best price -- but you also want to know you're buying from a reliable retailer. Online sales continue to grow by leaps and bounds, although people still shop in stores much more often. About 90 percent of the retail dollar is still spent in brick-and-mortar stores. The one great thing about online shopping is the ability to comparison shop. Clark has enjoyed shopping around on the web on sites such as Froogle, Shopzilla and CouponMountain. But he's never found a great site that gives him exactly what he wants…until now. DealNews.com is a new site that is almost like a message board. Deals are updated about twice an hour and each deal is graded based on how hot it is. The more orange circles, the hotter the deal. So, you can tell if it's really a great deal or not. Check it out!

Clark and his wife, Lane, are making significant renovations to their home and he admits it has been tough. Not only is it hard in terms of uprooting their daily lives, with construction trucks all over the place and part of the home uninhabitable. It's also hard for Clark to accept that he's spending a lot of money and probably won't get much of a return. He's about 15 percent over budget right now. The good news is that the home is actually starting to come together and he's excited to enjoy the fruits of his labor. Or, someone else's labor, rather. ;)