comment service suggestions?

haloscan, the comment program that i have been using ever since i got comments on this blog, is trying to get me to upgrade to echo. i like the simplicity of haloscan's comments better than the newfangled echo features. also, while haloscan is free, echo costs $9.95 per month year. unfortunately my haloscan account is being phased out over the next two weeks so i need to either buy the echo service that i don't want before then or export all my comments to some other comment service.

does anyone out there have an suggestions for an alternative comment service? ideally something free and really really simple? i guess i could use the blogger in-house comments. they didn't exist when i started this blog, which is why i went with haloscan. then when it started up, i liked haloscan better. is there anything else i should consider?

meanwhile, this blog maintenance crap is falling on my lap at the worst possible time. we are possibly 48 hours away from moving to kazakhstan until about february. or maybe we are 12 days away. they're not telling us until tomorrow.

UPDATE: i meant to write "$9.95 per year" but i originally wrote "per month" instead. thanks anon for catching it!