Clark Howard's Tips

MagicJack still wowing Clark

June 19, 2008

Being a cheap guy, Clark is often willing to take a chance on a wide variety of thrifty things -- including dubious tech services that soon fail and go into his company graveyard! The latest service that Clark's been excited about for some time is MagicJack.com. A scant $40 buys you 1 year of unlimited local/long distance VoIP phone service. An Internet connection is required for the hardware -- a jack that you plug into your computer's USB port to start making calls. Subsequent years of service cost around $20 annually.

Clark is going to Scandinavia in late summer and will use MagicJack with the free Internet connection in his hotel rooms to call back to the United States -- all for nada.

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The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that MagicJack is the fastest growing phone company in the United States. It's supposedly racking up 9,000 new customers everyday. That blows away the traditional cell phone carriers who are probably losing that many customers on a daily basis!

MagicJack's business model is a complete mystery to Clark. He long ago expected them to be in the graveyard, but he hopes they stay around.

One caveat: We do receive customer service complaints about MagicJack on the show. But Clark is enamored with this service that works out to be about $3/month! It's unbelievable.

More Clark Howard Tips for Utilities Save up to $60/year on your computer's energy expenses  Using residential fake grass to conserve water  Offshore drilling only one part of overall energy solution  Surviving this summer's coming spike in electricity prices  Prepare for increased winter heating costs  T-Mobile launches HotSpot @ Home service  Virgin Mobile rolls out $79 unlimited calling plan  MagicJack still wowing Clark  Metered Internet plans to become more prevalent?  Cell phone companies revive The Cram  Full list More Clark Howard Consumer Tips Maximize your money in the market over time  Who wants to be a teenage millionaire?  Texas is the Fortune 500 capital  Fee-only financial planners are in your best interest  Claim your unclaimed money before the State does!  BusinessWeek: 25 ways to save more each month  Internet gets its wings, netbooks to be hot holiday item  Network DVR -- with no hardware -- coming in 2009  New site for auction of sports and concert tickets  Census Bureau: College is worth the cost!  Full list