ya you dont really have to pay for it. Just wait for the continue button to come back up after your 30 days are up, and you can still get on.
Or, an alternative is to use trilian. it has msn, aim, yahoo, icq, irc and I think 2 other chat programs, and they are all in one program, that way you dont have to use like 5 programs and you can have them all running at one time, simultaniously (sp?)
go here to get trillian
http://www.ceruleanstudios.com/[/url]