[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And if you do a search on Google or any other search engine and you go to the news thing, you put in Zelle, you will see.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] One TV story after another after another being done by local television stations all across America because


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] One person after another go on camera and say, I don't know what happened, but all this money disappeared from my account and the bank says life's tough and I'm going to die because I had cell and I didn't even know I had cell. So here's what's going on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Banks so badly want this Zelle thing as part of your life that a lot of them are activating it on your account without even telling you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Others are conning you that zeal is some kind of good thing and getting you to sign up for this trash because


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They don't want to have to deal with the potential competitors taking market share from them. But the problem is, and this is why the US Senate.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is doing hearings right now about what they're gonna do about the problems with Zell.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When a thief gets in your account at a bank under federal law, the bank has to restore the funds to your account. You have protection against fraud. But what the banks are saying is that Zelle


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, we're so negligent in setting it up or just flat out didn't care. And so eventually.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The banks will pay ridiculously small compensation and all that, but your money is still going to be gone. I need for you to know, Zelle is dangerous, dangerous, and you need to shut it off at your bank. Period. Shut it off. Again, you may not even know you have it active. You go to the app that you have for your bank.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hopefully there's a click off to shut Zell off.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But the problem is, is, has come out in news reports that may not even be sufficient because if a criminal hacks into your account


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They can go in and they can turn it back on, but at the very least,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You want to shut it down. Never use it. Never, never, never, never, not ever use Zelle until the banks, and again, the big bad banks that own this.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Bank of America, Capital One, Chase, PNC, Truist, US Bank, Wells Fargo, oh there's Wells Fargo again. What else is Wells Fargo gonna do for you today? Anyway, know that these banks have within their operation the power, since they own it, to set it up the right way with rails that provide consumer protection. But they cynically don't.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I told you a couple of weeks ago that there's apparently some arguing going on among the banks that, hey, you know what? This, this is a problem here. We should probably do something. Then other banks are like, no, no, no, no, this is great. Our liability is going away. We did a work around with that and we're getting fat off this thing. This is dangerous. Make a point.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Of doing what you need to, whatever your bank requires to shut Zelle down and get it out of your life. Period.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I want to share you as, as something I talked about about six weeks ago that I heard from a bank officer who said, Hey, keep saying all that stuff about Zelle. So we have people come in all the time. They're having problems with it. So this was the funniest thing. This bank officer told me that she went and opened an account at an online bank, put a tiny amount of money in it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Attach Zelda it, because once you have it attached somewhere, you can't then do it at another financial institution.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Plus whatever overdraft she had with the bank she worked for to a maximum risk of $5 by setting up an online bank account and attaching it to you. Should you have to do that? Should you have to do any of that? No, you shouldn't. So again,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Why do the banks want to bring more shame on themselves? Why do they want to bring harm to their customers?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And why, oh, why are the Zell owners such cowards that I've offered over and over again to come on this podcast and tell why I'm wrong about Zell? Why are they silent? Because they know I'm right. They know I'm right and they got a problem and they need to fix it. They need to fix it. So again, one more time, Krista, the banks that own this bank of America,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't want it to be just the generic banks. These are the parties that have caused this problem.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And they're the ones that need to get together and say oops!


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We're ruining people's lives. We're destroying their hard work saving money.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And their money's vanishing from their accounts because of what we have done. And so we're going to fix it and we're going to make it right. It's about time to do that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So with Venmo and Cash App, really easy. You just go and you shut down your account.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is it Venmo or Cash App that they've got a simple thing that you just click?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So there's nothing to it. There should be the equivalent for Zell. So far there's not.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because they're under so much pressure from the bank they work for. By the way, I talked about the owners. Zelda is everywhere with the banks, even the ones that don't own it. And so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, it's part of their culture to try to get you hooked into the zel con game. And so you're the one who's gotta be assertive.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] About making sure Zell is turned off. This is fixable. The question is why they're not fixing it, and that's what's so upsetting.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Or something that, that is out there used a lot in industrial jobs used by people who are working in remote corners of the earth.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And if you were to do a search for satellite phones,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You'll see a lot available. You'll get confused about it. You gotta make sure.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Your daughter being in a remote area, if there really is wifi then you don't want the big expense of a satellite phone.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You should try to buy one used. You'll find them available used on eBay.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And just kind of know what network it operates on and that network is available and then you pay.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's expensive calling, but they offer very affordable texting.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so you would be able to stay in communication. No.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That is more involved and that is using Starlink.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Expensive disc, you'd have to travel with it, you'd have to set it up, but then you have full communications at very high speed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And soon it will be available worldwide. It's $120 a month for unlimited use of Starlink.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, the target red card because it comes under debit card rules.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The issue is that if there's fraud with that account.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Your money ultimately gets restored to your account, but in the meantime you don't have access to your money, which makes it


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Not a debit card is kind of a way station of risk versus what Venmo and Cash App and that other one that I was talking about earlier.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, fraud, where the money is stolen. Somebody hacks in, whatever. Uh, they steal your number.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You have protections, but in the meantime, the protections are not nearly as good as with a credit card. And again, you're without your money for a period of time. So I like the idea


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] of tying in a target red card to a separate account just as you might do with Venmo or Cash App.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I wanna thank you for listening, and I hope-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That you picked up some information that will be very useful to you in your life. If you did so, please share it with others.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And please take to heart what I've said about Zell.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Get that garbage out of your life now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] My parents got ripped off by someone like that years ago, so I appreciate you reiterating that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right, right. And my parents are fine, but it is definitely a lesson. He said he was a fee-based planner.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And my parents got this person through a really big company my dad worked for for 35 years. They recommended this person to retirees so you have to watch out and watch out for your parents.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Especially when it's affiliate, you know, affiliated with a company or whatever, so you just have to.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Katya in Illinois says, I'm looking for the best term life insurance. Insurance we do recommend.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Why do they repeatedly ask me to sign a proxy agreement so that they can vote on my behalf? I'm afraid this credit union is acting like one of the big monster mega banks. Is there anything I can do to challenge this?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And from Beth in Washington, I called my credit union to unlink Zelle from my accounts. The representative I spoke with was surprised that I wanted to do this and said there's no difference between Zelle, Venmo, and Cash App. No bank is going to protect a person against fraud should they get scammed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But according to the Clark.com website, the thing about Zelle is that once the money is transferred by fraudsters, there's no getting it back.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But is that the case with Venmo and CashApp? So what's the real issue with Zelle? Is it simply just that banks don't give you a choice of opting in?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, I haven't seen many for sure. But again, that's spelled M-I-N-T.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the first question I have is actually, it's like a comment for you about this from Diana in New York and she says, when you're evaluating mobile phones, I've never heard you seen or seen you talk about or write about track phone. I've had track phone for years and so far it has cost me less than a hundred dollars a year.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On from tips were only paid a small percentage of the service costs, sometimes a small hourly amount and finally tipping.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We spend over an hour of manual labor with clients. Please remember that skilled licensed professionals also depend on tips in America. And then another comment on tipping from Steve in Minnesota. When tipping, I calculate the tip before the tax has been added.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's my pleasure to welcome you to the Clark Howard show. Our mission is to serve you and empower you to make better financial decisions in your life.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Speaking of empowering you, I hope you've signed up for our daily free newsletter at Clark.com that will


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Constantly about what do I do with my savings? I mean, we're earning like nothing on our savings. And so I've talked before


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] About the remarkable opportunity for now offered by series I savings bonds. They allow you to electronically set up an account and put money into an account that you have to have for a minimum of a year. Typically you want to have them for five years, but you can keep your series I savings bonds for up to 30 years.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which for years has been pretty much lame.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What you can earn on a Series I savings bond is phenomenal. Reset every six months and as long as we are in an inflationary cycle, you're in a great position because


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then you can in a savings account or CD at any bank or credit union. And I know right now the rates are crazy high. So you probably have heard about the fact that right now you are earning at least for a six month period, the equivalent of like 9% a year. That got your attention, didn't it? It is a fully.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Federal, it's not federally insured, it is from the feds, a series high saving spot.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's a lot of requirements with it. You got the holding period and all that. So now I'm going to take you to something more complicated. Series I savings bond so easy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Go to savingsbinds.gov, you see how to buy them and all that. Now I'm moving into complication land. So you can buy U.S. Treasuries like the big boys and girls.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That are buying millions of dollars of government instruments.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You have the ability at treasurydirect.gov to setup an account and buy


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, the equivalent of six month CDs, one year CDs sold as 26 week or 52 week dead instruments. And they regularly do these and then there are others of longer terms. But the important thing is the interest you earn, you can see what they've been paying lately.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You buy on what's called a non-competitive bid. You get what the big boys and girls are able to get at auction. You get the basically the average of that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And what that means is money that you have right now in a savings account, let's say with a big bank, well, even a small bank where you're earning one, one hundredth of 1%. You can earn rates depending on the term you go typically one to 2% kind of in that general vicinity and your money's only tied up for half a year or a year, typically by 26 week or 52.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Now, the reason I've been reluctant to talk about the whole treasurydirect.gov thing


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is people get overwhelmed at that website. It's not designed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For what I'm promoting it for now, which is for an ordinary saver is generally geared towards.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sophisticated money market kind, not money market, uh, you know, wall street crowd kind of people. But if you go through the process and you want to set up an account and buy these, then you will be able to take the money you're earning in a savings account, which is basically nothing. That's money you're trying to use potentially six months or a year out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is if you are a huge investment house or you are a billionaire, you're getting the same kind of advantages through treasury direct. Again, not a user friendly kind of thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So at Clark.com, I have a very simple guide.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For how you invest in the treasury market or save through the treasury market direct.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because it will overwhelm you when you get there and I hope that our little cheat sheet


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Will help you know the process to buy treasuries and they use all kinds of terminology.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which is inside wall street kind of terminology, but you distill it down. Basically you're buying


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The equivalent of a CD for various terms.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you can buy from a relatively small amount to huge amounts can go into this.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you are sick and tired of your idle cash earning like nothing in the bank, this is how you get the same kind of interest rates.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That the big players get, or similar to what they're getting.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With zero risk. Let me repeat that. There is zero risk.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When you buy either the simple thing, the Series I savings bonds, savingsbonds.gov or buying the debt instruments that the treasury is


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Putting the auctions out repeatedly and they tell you the auction schedule and when you can get them at treasurydirect.gov. Krista?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Did I put you to sleep or with that? No, not at all. Good.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Somewhat complicated to get, so it's not an actual bank, it's a fintech. But they work with a bank behind the curtain.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So the money you put into a savings account with current.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is FDIC insured up to a quarter million dollars? But the 4% interest rate that Current offers is really just a teaser.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because they call it a savings pod.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you only earn the 4% on up to $2000. If you've got


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A lot of money from selling your house before percent.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, teases you in, but that's not really what you're gonna get. Cause you get that 2% on that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] 4% of that first $2,000 and then you can pay them $5 a month.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To be able to increase the amount that you're earning 4% on to $6000 from $2000. That math doesn't seem that great to me to do that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So it really is a way of attracting new customers.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It allows people who've got smaller amount in savings that they'd like to earn a lot more than they can otherwise and they're earning the 4% on their money.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Rate can change while I'm speaking. It can go up or down, but it is a great attention getter. It's almost like a form of low cost advertising for current.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To do this and it is a legitimate thing. It's not a scam. It's just, you gotta know that the 4% is only on, uh, that up to that maximum two grand as of today's rules.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, so you have someone who actively knows who you are, has your social security number, your other personal information.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so you were wide open for various forms of identity theft. Now the one we talk about most often


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is where somebody attempts to get credit as if they're you, buy a car as if they're you, uh, do anything like that where they impersonate you in financial crimes. So if you've not done so yet, the most important thing for you to get on right away


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You have to do it with each. You'll need to set aside about 15 minutes to do so. It's free to do and what it does is it locks down.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Your credit, where the credit you already have works just like it always has, but if somebody, person who has this information,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Attempts to apply for a credit card as if they're you or anything like that. They're shut down because they don't know the information necessary to do what's called thaw your credit for them to be able to process that application for credit. So it would just reject their application.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What it means for you is that if you go attempt to apply for credit, you're rejected too.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Unless you temporarily do what's known as a thaw of your credit file or a temporary lift of your freeze, whatever terminology you see is being used. So it gives you peace of mind.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What other things might somebody do where they steal your identity? One of the most common things they do is they seek medical care as if they're you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that's one that there's not yet a process or procedure to prevent that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So you can only prevent what you can prevent.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And what you want to be about now is setting up credit freeze. And if you go to Clark.com slash credit freeze, you'll see our guide how you do that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With each of the three credit bureaus and again, it is free to do so and pretty quick to set it up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So Laura, this is the Turo equivalent of buying coverage from a traditional car rental company like


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Alamo or National or Hertz or Avis or Budget or whatever. Uh, Turo for people who are not familiar with it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is kind of like Airbnb for car rentals where somebody rents you their own vehicle. And so there's.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Risk like you'd have with any rental car, which is if you're in an accident and your fault, somebody else is hurt or whatever, um, you're, you're at risk for liability. You're also at risk for the damage to the vehicle. So those issues can be addressed one of two ways.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] One is I want you to check with your own automobile insurer and ask them, Laura, how you're covered or not covered for temporary use of


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, Turo and their competitors, there's some terminology they use about private


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Private use of a rental vehicle


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Rental of someone's private vehicle. Maybe that's what they call it. And so you want to know, do they already have in your incorporated in your automobile insurance policy, temporary use of a Turo?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That you're covered for liability under your own automobile insurance. If you are, then that's step one out of the way. Then the second is you may well have one or several credit cards that normally provide you protection for the vehicle and other expenses, either primary or secondary of a rental car. What you also want to see is do they cover?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The use of rental of somebody's private vehicle or whatever language they use, you'll know that means Touro and people like that. If you have the coverage, particularly if you got both, that you're covered under your own automobile insurance and you're covered by a credit card


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then you will not need any robust coverage from Turo.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you'll be able to reduce the expense of that rental. And I hope you have a great time on your vacation. Up next, this is really something. There's an item that parents buy brand name at ridiculously high prices.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When absolutely you don't have to do it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it involves baby formula. I'm going to tell you what every parent of young children should know to protect their wallet ahead.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So anytime there's an opportunity for me to talk about how much


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I love store brands and why you should buy generics or store brands and there's absolute


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Science to back it up. I'm really excited to bring it your way. And parents of young children who


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, formula feed at least part time or full time instead of breastfeed that you gotta buy formula. There's a tendency for parents to be risk averse at what formula they buy. But did you know that baby formula is tightly, tightly controlled by the FDA? I mean, completely. And one thing that's clear.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is that what it says on the label that better be what's in that formula. Well, wire cutter did a deep dive into baby formulas with a full explanation about the formulas. And, um, I want to tell you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That it was clear as could be in their research that the formulas you should be buying


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That will be best for your baby and best for your wallet.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There were two absolute runaway winners. One.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Kirkland Signature ProCare Non-GMO Infant Formula. That is a mouthful.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That was not written by a marketeer. Let me say that again. Kirkland signature, Costco's private label, pro care, non GMO infant formula.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You didn't hear as much about the whole GMO thing anymore, do you? Anyway, that and Sam's club members, Mark infant.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Absolute top rated that those are the two that are best for your wallet and absolutely great for your baby. So let's say you're not a member of a warehouse club. You don't pay those fees to be a member of Sam's club or Costco wholesale. What should you then buy? So the two you should be buying targets up and up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Advantage in formula or walmart's parents choice tender infant formula.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That whether you are a warehouse club member, non warehouse club member, the ones to buy all store brand, all store brand. And why? Because again, the formula as they said in wire cutter,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Talking about Costco is as effective as any other traditional formula.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] All the same potentially beneficial extra ingredients found in much more expensive formulas. So this one isn't even gray.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's green. It's your green. Are you going to waste your green or not? Okay, so let me tell you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Something that the ripoff expensive formula people do, they give huge amounts of free formula to the hospitals. They may even pay them to hand that stuff out. They give it to the pediatricians and they give you samples.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Those free samples are the most expensive stuff you can ever get because you think they're doing you a favor. They're not.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They are hooking you on feeling like, oh, our baby started on this and he or she's doing great on this.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So we're gonna keep throwing our money away. Let's just, you might as well take it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And put it in a fireplace and burn your money paying for brand name formula. Instead, if you're going to do formula feed from the beginning, go to LDR labor and delivery recovery, go to the hospital with the formula.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That is either the Costco, the Sam's, the target or the Walmart. Take it with you when you go to the hospital, say thanks, but no thanks to the pediatrician when they want to give you the ripoff free samples and save your money.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I hope also you get a good night's sleep those first six months of your baby's life.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So Steve, I'm going to shock you. Be shocked. When you're shopping for a mortgage, this is a time that you want to go wherever you got the overall best deal.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you don't want to limit yourself, although credit unions typically have the lowest mortgage rate.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] May or may not happen where you live in Illinois. Who knows? It's going to depend on how competitive the credit unions are in your area. Uhm, you don't know if, uh, most mortgage lending now is done by non-bank lenders, which are the ones you see advertising so heavily that are not related to a bank. They're independents, uhm, credit unions,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For a while we're the biggest, the smallest now in mortgage lending.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, pretty much a pipsqueak now are traditional banks, because yes, you're right, traditional banks tend to be very pricey on mortgages, but not necessarily always.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I want you to look at all the expenses, not just the interest rate. I want you to look at what are the closing costs.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Estimated by each lender. Are they going to charge you any junk fees known as points?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Each point is 1% of the amount of money you're borrowing and so you want to look at the rate, the points and closing costs and you're able to figure out if you look at it methodically like that who actually does have the best deal.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] At the very least, in addition to credit unions, you don't even want to bother with the banks, at least do credit unions and independent mortgage lenders.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you can look also at a mortgage broker, mortgage banker, or what are known as the directs, the people that, uh, advertised so heavily at the real estate sites on the real estate apps and on TV.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, you can shop with those people. You can shop with the local credit unions and maybe you can get quotes from banks. All depends on how much you want to do.


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[Assistant] That what you're thinking of doing though is great because most people only go to a single lender for a mortgage when they are buying a home.


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[Assistant] Generally at the recommendation of their real estate agent, they'll get a referral and they don't shop the market. And if you don't, you're going to pay too much.


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[Assistant] All right, uh, Rosalyn and Rosalyn, yeaah. That is very disturbing to me. I do know you're talking about those thermal receipts. They get exposed to light and they do go blank. And, uh, it's terrible that Coinstar told you that


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[Assistant] It's not their problem that you have to go back to.


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[Assistant] I hop that's ridiculous because who was it who issued the receipt to you? It was coin star and I'm very.


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[Assistant] Surprised and disappointed by that. I don't know if you're active on social media.


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[Assistant] But I would post your story on social media and you'll probably get


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[Assistant] Likely they're probably monitoring social media, Coinstar. You may get a request for a direct message. And that has been a technique that seems to help with companies that are really worried about their reputation and public image. Guess we'll be able to see if Coinstar is worried about their reputation and public image. What this concerns was I talked about how I take my change. I put in the Coinstar thing.


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[Assistant] And that's because I got dollar for dollar for my coins. But if I ask for cash from Coinstar, they charge, uh, they take like 14% or something like that of the action. And that's why I do the gift cards for Starbucks coffee, because I've got these people who are like you, Kristen, spend too much money buying coffee since I've never had coffee in my life.


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[Assistant] I've always been able to be superior about not spending money on overpriced coffee.


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[Assistant] Okay, Karen, I love it. You are a true example of squeeze every penny, squeeze every penny. That is absolutely great. Never heard, uh, what you're suggesting. The fidelity card is great. The tens of millions of Americans who have accounts that fidelity would benefit from getting their 2% cash back card. And Karen, I should also mention.


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[Assistant] That the number of issuers of 2% cash back cards has been rising.


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[Assistant] The, that it has found to be effective, been an effective tool to gather credit card customers in the marketplace and


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[Assistant] There are two newer ones in the marketplace. One that we've had questions about from Wells about that's issued by Wells Fargo.


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[Assistant] I'm always nervous about anybody doing business at Wells Fargo. The other is Synchrony. Synchrony, which is a credit card issuer that people generally aren't that thrilled by, but they offer a no-frills 2% cash back card as well.


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[Assistant] In addition to the, uh, city double cash and some of the credit unions that offer 2%.


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[Assistant] And we've got a simple guide and list to cash back credit cards on Clark.com if you're not getting a really good cash back on a card.


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[Assistant] You definitely want to do that if you're somebody who pays your bills in full every month.


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[Assistant] I want to tell you, I appreciate you listening today. I appreciate all your questions. I hope the rest of your day is fantastic.


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[Assistant] The bank, the, and current, the site current, she didn't say bank, and current is giving 4% on your money.


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[Assistant] I looked up current and they asked me for my social security number and my bank account number to transfer money. Do you know anything about them and is it okay to give your social security number? I didn't give access to my bank account. Any guidance is greatly appreciated.


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[Assistant] From Connie in Ohio, I was recently notified that someone submitted an unemployment claim in my name. I contacted the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services and flagged my account.


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[Assistant] So that no claims are paid. Is there anything else I should do regarding my credit cards, etc.?


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[Assistant] This is from Laura in Florida. We're going on a summer vacation and have booked a Turo.


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[Assistant] What would we be responsible for if we declined the extra protection?


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[Assistant] Okay, Steve in Illinois says, we're planning on buying a new house in 12 to 24 months. Our current mortgage in all our banking is with a mega bank, but we want our next mortgage to be with a credit union. When should we start shopping?


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[Assistant] But at home in California, they wouldn't take it as they said they could no longer read the author number on the paper e-gift card, the authorization number.


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[Assistant] I tried calling Coinstar, but they said I had to deal with IHOP who never returned my calls. I lost about $37 in cash money. Never again.


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[Assistant] And I would say take a picture of those in the future for sure and try to use them right away if you get any thermal receipt anywhere if you have something like that because they do, they fade so much. Uhm, this is from Karen in Alaska. Here is a tip for those who, like me, took Clark's advice and got the 2% cash back fidelity credit card.


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[Assistant] When you manually redeem your 2% through the website, the deposit is made almost a month earlier than the automatic redemption. That means a lot more compound interest. You can leave your account on the auto redemption so you never forget to redeem but still go in each month to manually redeem.


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[Assistant] What you can do about it, and I've got some odd suggestions for you, I'm going to give you.


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[Assistant] And speaking of spending, all we're hearing about right now is price is going up, up and away for everything we do. That makes headlines, but there's also sectors of the economy.


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[Assistant] That for a number of unusual factors also related


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[Assistant] To the hopefully moving in our rearview mirror pandemic that have led to deals.


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[Assistant] The city in America that's gotten the most coverage about its apartments.


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[Assistant] Is a fast growing metro area in Florida, Jacksonville.


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[Assistant] That is a news story after news story on TV and in a print around the country about how.


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[Assistant] Impossible it's become for people to find


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[Assistant] A friend of his who's on the waiting list at 16 different apartment complexes in Jacksonville.


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[Assistant] And how they've continually raised their budget and they still can't find a place and so they're living with, uh, her husband's mom because there's no


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[Assistant] And this is happening city after city. Even you look at New York city, which was so heavily hit.


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[Assistant] By COVID with extreme lockdowns and extreme number of deaths in the New York metro area.


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[Assistant] And apartment rents in New York have gone absolutely, unbelievably high. And the vacancies, there's just like, it's, it's takes an act of Congress to find an apartment available.


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[Assistant] Out of boroughs, it's become very difficult to find housing. And I could name city after city, I could talk about the Salt Lake Valley in Utah. I could talk about the Denver metro area, what's going on in Colorado Springs.


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[Assistant] Uh, what's going on in the, uh, Southern California market, Phoenix, uh, the Texas markets, particularly Austin, place after place, Atlanta, where the cost of apartment rentals and houses gone crazy. Well, in the midst of this, USA Today did something that


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[Assistant] Is the kind of thing people do in a time like this where people are just exasperated. They put together a list.


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[Assistant] Of the 10 metro areas where housing is the most affordable.


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[Assistant] And they had a floor on the sides of the metro area to make the list and the number one most affordable in the country for rent is


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[Assistant] The only state in America I've not been to is positions one and two on this list. Grand Forks, North Dakota.


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[Assistant] Where typical rent on a two bedroom apartment, average 890 a month. Fargo, North Dakota.


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[Assistant] 9.36 a month. I'm giving two bedrooms because that's kind of a way to compare us in shop. But you're thinking,


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[Assistant] Okay, is Clark only going to give me places that it's really cold in winter? No. Number three, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Baton Rouge, where


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[Assistant] Des Moines, Iowa, 1,300 and change a month.


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[Assistant] Are much more affordable now that there are millions upon millions of Americans who work in jobs where they can work remotely. They have the ability to live one place or lifestyle or affordability and work somewhere else.


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[Assistant] Even with employers that require that you be in the office a few days a month. I read a story. I forgot where I read it recently.


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[Assistant] About how there's a new market hotels are serving and it's why the hottest part of the hotel market


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[Assistant] Or extended stay properties is where somebody may have to come in to the home office, uh, one time a month.


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[Assistant] Or something like that. And so people are coming in and they're renting a home away from home.


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[Assistant] For that week a month or those days in a month or whatever.


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[Assistant] Even if they're living all the way across the country, they're saving so much money. It was a New York Times story. Thank you, Krista. They're saving so much money.


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[Assistant] Living in a more affordable place where they could afford a home.


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[Assistant] Where they didn't have the long commutes. Where the whole lifestyle thing was better.


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[Assistant] Where the employer is. There are a number of options. Rent a room from somebody who you work with.


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[Assistant] In their home, I mean, there are lots of options where you don't


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[Assistant] Necessarily have to feel like a sitting duck living in an ultra high cost market with very, very long commutes.


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[Assistant] Have to be visible and present for your customers. Obviously.


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[Assistant] The suggestions I'm making don't work unless you uproot your whole life and move to a place with a much more affordable, uh, cost of living.


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[Assistant] For you where you are versus somewhere else and you can see what a difference it might make in your life and in your lifestyle. If you were to uproot, you know, a story for a long time this century.


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[Assistant] Was that people were not moving like Americans used to. It was because of the two income household thing where people were finding it harder to move because maybe one


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[Assistant] This is a time that you can do a full reset for your life, your career, and your wallet. Krista?


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[Assistant] So uhm, I really appreciate the suggestion Christopher. The, the issue always with


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[Assistant] They collect money from you, you know, deposit first month, that kind of thing.


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[Assistant] And that's been really hard with the housing problems, the shortages in a lot of the country.


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[Assistant] Well, I'm so glad you asked this question because


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[Assistant] There are no federal legal requirements that a brokerage house restore your funds in the event your account is hacked. So it goes by a different standard.


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[Assistant] Please set up two factor authentication. An example where an account might get hacked


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[Assistant] You worked for an old employer. You left a 401k there. You moved a couple of times. You don't get statements from it anymore. You lost track of it. That gets hacked.


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[Assistant] Is the only firm I know of. There may be another someone can point out to me, but Charles Schwab has a clear, concise guarantee that they protect you from account hacks.


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[Assistant] There is no equivalent wording I've been able to find.


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[Assistant] I check my Vanguard account even though normally I would not look to see losses, gains, anything like that except four times a year, but I make sure that my account is okay twice a week at Vanguard just because I'm paranoid having done this so many years about the possibility of hackers. And it's wrong that the brokerage industry has opposed efforts in Congress to provide consumers the same protection


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[Assistant] On their brokerage accounts and investment accounts and mutual fund accounts and 401k accounts that we have on our bank and credit union accounts. By the way with banks and credit unions, business owners, you do not have that protection.


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[Assistant] You were held to a much higher standard as a business owner, and you were expected


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[Assistant] To do good steps that you have written down that you can refer to, we do this, this, this, this, and this.


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[Assistant] To protect your funds in that institution. If you can't do that, the bank can say, oh well, that money's gone from your business.


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[Assistant] So everything I've been reading since the Ukraine war started says that my idea is solid. The amount of money I've recommended that people put aside is not near enough if there was a concerted effort by Putin.


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[Assistant] To shut down our normal databases and banking systems and ATMs and.


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[Assistant] Is that per household you should have $2,500. I have not changed my $400.


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[Assistant] But that is the latest recommendation I've seen is 2500 per household thinking that if a serious shutdown of our data networks occurred,


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[Assistant] That you may have to do business in cash for a meaningful period of time.


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[Assistant] Strongest recommendation I've read since the whole Putin threat came along is that they should be in small bills. No fifties, no hundreds, uh, ones, fives, tens, twenties, because people are not going to be willing


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[Assistant] To accept large bills and make change for large bills if we get into


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[Assistant] We're in a time that has a lot of uncertainty to it. We don't know how this war is going to play out, where it's going to end, uh, where Russia's territorial ambitions will stop. And the tools of the trade include all kinds of electronic actions, including hacking into various networks and causing havoc and chaos.


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[Assistant] And Putin obviously is of a mentality that all those things are on the table. So on that warm, happy note.


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[Assistant] I do have actually some good news. How about I have good news? Yes.


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[Assistant] There are categories where the prices are going the other way. Want to give you some examples. Okay, go back to 20.


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[Assistant] And if you could find a laptop, MacBook or Chromebook, you were lucky.


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[Assistant] People were paying significantly more for used computers than what they were new. Sounds a lot like the car market right now, right? Anyway, that has completely flipped and laptops now are generally in surplus. Apple, uh, unusual for them being pretty aggressive at discounting.


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[Assistant] The newest generations of the M1 chip-based MacBook Airs and MacBook Pros. They're not doing it direct with Apple.


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[Assistant] You gotta know something about Apple's business model, and you need to know this if you're an Apple devotee. Is that a word? Devotee? People who go direct to Apple are Apple fanboys and fangirls, and they are not


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[Assistant] Price oriented, price sensitive. They are product centered. So apple.


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[Assistant] Does not need to discount directly. It's very rare that Apple will discount directly, but third party channels, retailers, electronic stores, the warehouse clubs.


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[Assistant] They discount Apple products because the person who comes in to buy an Apple product


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[Assistant] At Best Buy or at Walmart or at Sam's Club or Costco or whatever, they are somebody who's more a free agent.


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[Assistant] And so then the deals are in the marketplace. By the way, always know about Micro Center if they're in your, uh, part of the country, microcenter.com. They are a very aggressive discounter of Apple products. And so Apple's having to discount.


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[Assistant] All the Windows based computer companies discounting.


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[Assistant] During the parts of the country that had the severe shutdowns to more modest shutdowns, people said, I gotta get me a big TV. And people were buying them like you can't believe. Well, now that demand is not there.


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[Assistant] I mean, it's like stopped. So the TV prices are coming down, down, down. We do a roundup on ClarkDeals.com.


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[Assistant] You can see, like, we check historical, the prices have come down so much. Another category where price is going down instead of up. Uhm, I should say in computers, if you're into gaming, different story.


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[Assistant] And I'm still going into stores seeing leftover Christmas stuff being marked down, marked down, marked down.


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[Assistant] And you know what else never made it to retailers? Seasonal goods. Clothing. That was for fall and winter, heavily is showing up now. So retailers


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[Assistant] They can either try to find scarce warehouse space to store past season goods till the next season. They can sell off to people like


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[Assistant] Ross or TJ Maxx or, uh, Marshall, same company and they can, and you'll find in those stores that they are, they have massive inventory of past season goods right now and


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[Assistant] Uh, the retailers that choose to hold onto their own inventory and not store it, they're having to clear it out at really great prices. So there are segments of the economy.


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[Assistant] That because the seasonal nature of what they do, or in the case of things that were pandemic related,


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[Assistant] They were all at home, indoor activities, and people are now out doing things again.


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[Assistant] That there are really good deals out there. That's the zig for the zag of our time right now with a lot of things we do getting steadily more expensive. Krista?


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[Assistant] You a big Marshall shopper? I love all those. Report back that I was making it all up, or it really is true.


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[Assistant] Are those all TJX companies? Are you a stockholder?


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[Assistant] You are so wise. So first I should explain.


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[Assistant] Cause when people are asked this on, uh, personal finance surveys, over 80% of people get this one wrong.


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[Assistant] Then the new one I can get that pays a higher interest rate. So I've got to discount my bond.


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[Assistant] So that it gives you the equivalent interest rate of what the current market is. So you are completely on the money. So I own a number of bond funds.


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[Assistant] And I add to what I invest in every month.


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[Assistant] And so I'm a steady as you go, was known as dollar cost averaging investor. In your case, you're right that in the short term, bond funds take it hard with the value of the fund declining. But if you're in a long game, what happens is you benefit over the long haul.


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[Assistant] By bonds earning a higher rate of interest than what they earn when we're in a depressed interest rate environment. Short-term pain leads to ultimate long-term gain. But if you are a short-termer with money,


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[Assistant] This is a very rough time to be in bond funds or bonds.


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[Assistant] Her son, if she's not capable of doing at this point being legally blind and older.


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[Assistant] Security precaution with a secret code or secret word. I would pick the money up


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[Assistant] And start all over somewhere else. I know that's offensive to people who work at the bank. They didn't do anything wrong.


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[Assistant] Oh and uh, one other thing, before you freeze your mom's credit files, set up a Credit Karma account. It's free to do.


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[Assistant] You'll be able to monitor activity on your mom's accounts, uh, whenever you want completely for free. And you'll have a very early warning system.


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[Assistant] You can't set up that Credit Karma account, which is why you do it in that order.


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[Assistant] Set up the credit karma and then do the three credit freezes.


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[Assistant] Lee, I'm so glad you're asking this question. I just was having a conversation with a friend about this two days ago.


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[Assistant] About why so many people, because he was asking me about his homeowner's insurance.


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[Assistant] Why so many people are so drastically underinsured? Because


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[Assistant] The increasing cost of building materials. And then in addition, so many people


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[Assistant] Take a higher deductible on your homeowners insurance. Avoid filing any small claims, but make sure you have


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[Assistant] A lot of money available to rebuild, expecting the cost of rebuild to be three times per square foot.


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[Assistant] Your insurer may say that ball can say that's too much coverage, but I'd rather you err on the side of having.


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[Assistant] Too much to fix and repair and rebuild your home than too little. And I want to tell you that does it for us today.


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[Assistant] I hope you enjoyed today's podcast and if you did,


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[Assistant] Please share it with a friend. Help us empower others.


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[Assistant] To take control of their lives, to get more freedom in their lives, and more choice for their future.


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[Assistant] It's my pleasure to welcome you to the Clark Howard show. Our mission is to serve you so you are empowered with knowledge, so you make better financial decisions in your life.


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[Assistant] Today, I want to give you some great strategies to save big money in your life. Easy to say, not necessarily easy to do.


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[Assistant] Later, I've been getting a lot of questions about


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[Assistant] People stealing your home from you, right out from under you.


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[Assistant] And I want to tell you what to watch out for and I want to tell you how you can protect yourself. So I am.


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[Assistant] Maybe something you've heard before, others have not heard it at all. So I'm going to digress for just a second. When I was a teenager, my dad lost his job. He'd worked


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[Assistant] For a family business for his in-laws for almost 30 years and they let him go.


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[Assistant] And it was then and only then I found out when my dad sat me down and he was really upset and I, uh,


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[Assistant] Thought, you know, as a teenager, I thought, oh my goodness, my dad's going to tell me he's dying or something.


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[Assistant] And he said, I have something terrible to tell you. And it's like, oh yeah, that's what he's going to tell me. And then he said, I lost my job and I started smiling ear to ear.


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[Assistant] And he said, what are you smiling about? I said, well I thought you were going to tell me you were dying.


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[Assistant] And all of a sudden he broke out in a big smile. He had this wonderful smile. And he broke out in this big smile because it took a teenager to give him perspective that there were things worse than losing your job. But then he went on to say,


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[Assistant] And I was, had just gotten into college and was in college and this was at Thanksgiving. I'd come home for a visit. He said, uh,


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[Assistant] I don't think there's money for you to go back to college in January. This is Thanksgiving and I'm like WHAT?!


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[Assistant] Cause I thought my parents, like many of us might, you know, they, they had money, but it turned out they had always


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[Assistant] I went back and, uh, where I went to college, most people were night students. They were people who worked full time and went to college at night. I went to the American University and


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[Assistant] At the time I was there, don't know how many kids there are now, kids, I mean, people of different ages, but there were, I think 14,000 and a little over 2000 were daytime college students and the rest were night students.


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[Assistant] And so it was really easy there for me to re-register as a night student. I scrambled and got a job. It was the tail end of the Vietnam War and I got a job as a civilian with the Air Force. And I worked my way through the rest of school and, uh,


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[Assistant] I then got a higher paying job when the war ended at HUD, Department of Housing and Government Development, because I was going to school in DC. I mean, most college students wouldn't have most places the opportunity to get what was a really good paying job for a college student at that point, a lower level government employee.


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[Assistant] When I finished undergraduate school, I got a job with IBM as a bill collector for IBM and they paid my way through graduate school.


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[Assistant] Not with the salary I made, they had a tuition reimbursement program, which those are very present today. So many places will pay for you to go to college working for them. And so I was able to get through school, no student loans, tuitions were much cheaper in that era. And then of course, IBM paid for my grad school. And I, when things happen to you as a teenager, it has the greatest impact on our lives.


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[Assistant] Krista, you've shared with me things that happened to you as a teenager.


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[Assistant] And those things still color your life the rest of your life. And for me, in my case, it was the finance. And so knowing my parents had not saved money, I, uhm, lived on every other paycheck.


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[Assistant] When I was working, I mean, after I got out of undergraduate school and then I didn't have to worry about school tuition, I was used to living on very little and I decided extreme.


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[Assistant] That I was going to live on every other paycheck. Well, the funny thing is today, that's a very common strategy that's talked about a lot that you live on alternate paychecks and you save the other. So live on one, save one, live on one, save one.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And those are people known as max savers. There are different terms for it. It's part of the fire movement, financial independence, retire early, that it's all about


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You live on less, so you're used to living on less, so when you stop working, it costs you less to live.


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[Assistant] And because you're living on less, you're able to accumulate enormous amounts saved.


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[Assistant] And thus you're able to make the choices you want to with your life.


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[Assistant] Which is when you don't wanna work anymore, when you wanna work less, you wanna live somewhere else, or whatever, you have the financial freedom to be able to do it.


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[Assistant] Another thing that is often recommended and is something that I was always about was


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[Assistant] Buying a house that had rental income that came with it. And you'll hear me when I talk with people who are interested in being a real estate investor.


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[Assistant] I talk about when they call me and ask me about a duplex or a triplex or whatever, we just talk about my built in bias.


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[Assistant] Is buying something that has a garage apartment or a basement apartment or something like that where you have a principal home that you live in or if it's just you and you want to live


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[Assistant] And the garage apartment or the basement apartment, you rent out the rest of the place. I learned that first when I was 18 years old and went to visit a friend at college who was renting from a professor, the place to live and the professor made more money


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[Assistant] And she lived, she was single, she lived in the little part and rented out the rest of it to students and developed


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[Assistant] Amazing wealth in a job that you normally don't do that as a college professor.


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[Assistant] We need to take out a mortgage for part of the purchase price of that house because I hate taking out debt, but it was a bigger house and we needed a mortgage and it had a garage apartment to rent out. And so we made a deal. I said, as long as we have a mortgage, can we have a tenant to help defray costs and pay off the mortgage quicker? And so we had a tenant.


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[Assistant] And that you found for us and became a great friend and still is this day. And then, uh, she moved out, bought her own home and then we had another tenant and we paid off the home in five and a half years and we owned it completely, pretty unclear. We had a tenant there and we weren't going to kick our tenant out.


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[Assistant] And I kept hoping that Lane had forgotten our deal, that we would have a tenant.


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[Assistant] Until we paid off the mortgage, so this tenant stayed about another year and moved out and I was looking for a new tenant and I come home from work one day


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[Assistant] And the garage apartment is suddenly my office. She said, you remember our deal when we no longer have a tenant anymore. We aren't going to have that because she, she didn't.


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[Assistant] She was not as much into that as I am. I mean to this moment, I would still have a tenet because I love the income coming in. Those are, are


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[Assistant] Specific things that I did that also are often recommended


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[Assistant] That you live on no more than half of what you make and that you always try to have


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[Assistant] Income production in your life, even where you live. I think about some of the podcasters that have built their financial independence all through owning investment properties. They've done nothing else.


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[Assistant] The other than, you know, no stock investing, anything like that. It's all been investment properties and that is absolutely a workable strategy if you're willing.


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[Assistant] The goal is what are you trying to accomplish? It's so hard to make the changes in your life.


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[Assistant] With how you handle money, if there's not something specific you're trying to accomplish.


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[Assistant] And let me tell you, it's not that you want to be on the golf course every day. That is not a real goal. It's not a realistic goal.


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[Assistant] People who, when they retire and think they're just going to play golf all the time.


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[Assistant] Find that that ends up being pretty empty. It's not, that's not it. It has to be, what are you trying to do? Is it that you really wanted?


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[Assistant] To do a different kind of thing with your life but doesn't pay a lot. Maybe you wanted to be involved with a religious thing, a church, whatever. Uhm, maybe it's that there's


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[Assistant] Something you really want to do like travel the world and visit a hundred countries or whatever it is. It needs to be something.


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[Assistant] That really moves the needle in your life, something that really is worth it enough to you.


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[Assistant] That you rethink and reorient what you're going to do with your life. Many people with the fire movement


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[Assistant] Are all about being able to retire by a certain 45, 50, 40, whatever it is. But excuse me, for most people like that, it's not about never working again.


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[Assistant] It's about being able to have the freedom to make the choices you want to.


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[Assistant] And whatever you do including work is because it's a want to, not a have to. So when you hear me talk about strategies that create space in your life, freedom in your life,


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[Assistant] Remember, money is the currency you use to do that.


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[Assistant] But it's not the goal in itself, it's what you're trying to accomplish and that's what makes it possible. Without a roadmap though, it's really hard to do this stuff.


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[Assistant] That is really cool because the student loan burden for people who study veterinary medicine


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[Assistant] Is one of the worst of all areas in terms of being financially backbreaking and the federal government has a big need for people who have studied veterinary medicine to take on a public service job and in turn


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[Assistant] You do the things right after 120 payments, you're done and there's no tax bill due on your part. The federal government, your fellow taxpayers absorb


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[Assistant] The entire cost of your remaining student loan balance.


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[Assistant] This is the nightmare that never ends. Never ends.


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[Assistant] So the thing with the Equifax settlement is


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[Assistant] It goes on and on and on and now there are new filing dates.


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[Assistant] An amount of money that you may remember originally was promoted as the amount people would receive.


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[Assistant] From the Equifax data breach, which was like 125 bucks and nothing like that is gonna happen at all because that was all fiction. The number of claimants is so large.


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[Assistant] That the amount of money people are going to receive who can't document specific costs that they suffered. That's the up to 2024 thing. The amount of money people are going to receive is teensy, teensy, teensy tiny. And so


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[Assistant] Uh, the reality is Equifax got away with it. Nobody went to prison and Equifax suffered such minor financial harm.


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[Assistant] Unfortunate. It could lead people to be cynical, but don't be cynical. Be hopeful. Just because things like that happen doesn't mean things are always going to end rotten terrible. So every once in a while there's a story on local TV about somebody having their house stolen from them. And it makes anybody who owns a home tremble with fear.


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[Assistant] I want to tell you how this works and how worried you need to be coming up.


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[Assistant] It's become a big deal with, uh, ads promoted on the web, on radio, on TV, with people trying to get you to buy a real estate title protection insurance. It's not really insurance. It's like an alert kind of thing.


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[Assistant] Because there have been these spectacular crimes that have occurred in various places around the country where a criminal will find a house, most often one that is vacant.


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[Assistant] And they'll go search to see if there's any debt against the house and then they will submit fraudulent documents and basically steal the value of that house. They find there's no mortgage against it.


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[Assistant] Do fraudulent documents pretending that they are the owner. They'll do a loan application. They'll do a cash out.


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[Assistant] And you don't even know if you are the ultimate owner of the property that it's been foreclosed on.


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[Assistant] Because this fraudulent loan that you didn't originate and you didn't know about was never paid.


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[Assistant] And the, the stories make great television when you have somebody standing there on the street with a house behind them that's no longer theirs. Okay, so this occasionally does happen and it's a very, very rare crime and hideous when it does.


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[Assistant] For a normal homeowner living in a home, uh, particularly anybody with an existing mortgage on a home, this is something that you don't need to worry about. It almost always involves a home, let's say,


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[Assistant] That you inherited and you haven't done anything with it sitting there vacant.


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[Assistant] And criminals just looking for a crime of opportunity. The good news is more and more


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[Assistant] Local jurisdictions typically at the counting level around the country.


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[Assistant] Have a registry you can be on for any property you own where you're notified if there's any action involving your title.


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[Assistant] Anybody attempting to take out debt or anything like that.


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[Assistant] You are aware of it the better and these services are free. These registries are free because unwinding all this and dealing with the mess is a hassle for everybody. The lender who got cheated, the homeowner who somebody's cheating, all of that. And by the way, if you inherit a property,


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[Assistant] Or you move away and you leave a property vacant. Know that you are leaving an open invitation to squatters, to vandals, to all different kinds of things. Uh, of them the rarest would be somebody


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[Assistant] Figuring out how they could steal money against your title, impersonating you, committing fraud. And this is just unfortunate. Now you do prevent anybody taking out debt as if they're you, if you have a credit freeze in place.


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[Assistant] How many times do I talk about credit frees in the first place? Now there's another form of this.


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[Assistant] Where it involves, uh, dishonest people at various points, professionals in the process, where someone will identify a vacant property or one that seems not to be tended to. They will have somebody who impersonates the owner.


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[Assistant] And they will sell it to somebody else.


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[Assistant] Who then takes out a loan against it and that will defeat your credit freeze. But again, these are very rare crimes and these are, uh, fairly sophisticated criminals, but the danger really comes from you having a property that you essentially have abandoned.


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[Assistant] You need to take care of real estate. Real estate that is not managed, that is not handled, goes bad in so many different ways. This is just one of them. Subscribing to those pay services.


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[Assistant] Is not something that I recommend. It's not a scam or anything like that. I just don't recommend it.


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[Assistant] Okay, so this is something that is a great confusion to people because for so long there was a traditional 401k.


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[Assistant] And then there was the traditional Roth IRA. There were almost no employers that offered Roth 401k's. Now almost every employer.


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[Assistant] Offers the option of 401k, and the ones who don't, I don't know what they're thinking.


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[Assistant] But you can do either Roth 401k or traditional.


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[Assistant] The contribution limits based on your income that you can contribute to a retirement account, it doesn't matter if you're doing


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[Assistant] Uh, raw 401k to the max, you are also eligible to do a Roth IRA to the max, no different than if you did a traditional 401k


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[Assistant] And a Roth IRA because the limits when you can't do the Roth IRA anymore is based on how much money you're earning.


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[Assistant] And that is not at all affected by whether you're doing traditional 401k or Roth except in one circumstance. Do you know what that is? What? If you are earning a lot of money and you do traditional


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[Assistant] 401k may bring you below the threshold of income.


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[Assistant] Where you'd maintain your eligibility for a Roth IRA. But these are big numbers we're talking about.


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[Assistant] So only in that circumstance where you're using a traditional


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[Assistant] To bring your, uh, adjusted income down to a point.


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[Assistant] Put as much money as you want to in that Roth 401k and do your Roth IRA.


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[Assistant] So Regis, uhm, there's not a problem with you having the person you trust in Florida being the person you have handle the disposition of your assets. You know them, you trust them.


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[Assistant] And the fact that they've moved from New Hampshire to Florida from one tax free state to another.


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[Assistant] They can still fill this role for you. Of course, it's a little easier for them if they were local in New Hampshire, but it's a okay and I want somebody who you know and trust to be the named individual as long as they're willing to serve.


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[Assistant] Rather than you trying to figure out what to do when you don't have that other individual in your life who you can trust. I mean, what people do in this situation most frequently when you don't have that is they hire a lawyer to fill this role for them would be the most common thing you would do, but then that would eat up some of the assets that you would want


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[Assistant] To be used for whatever purpose you wish at the end of your life.


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[Assistant] Isn't that the second class action question you've asked me this podcast or am I losing my mind?


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[Assistant] Okay, so this is another one of those settlements that the number of people


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[Assistant] They used the plaid platform versus the amount of money that's there.


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[Assistant] I don't think this is of use to you. I think the only people are going to make any money.


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[Assistant] Are the lawyers. It's rare in these class actions that there's enough money that the


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[Assistant] Effort really needs to be there. In fact, usually when there is a class action that has meaningful money.


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[Assistant] You do want to jump on, but for the most part, nah.


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[Assistant] You actually do? Yeah, I do. What's the smallest you've ever gotten from one of the classics?


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[Assistant] I love how much great feedback I get from you Krista and from our listeners about our podcast. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. Remember we got great money saving advice for you 24 hours a day at Clark.com and the greatest deals for your wallet at ClarkDeals.com.


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[Assistant] It's my pleasure to welcome you to the Clark Howard show. Our mission is to serve you and empower you so you make better financial decisions in your life.


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[Assistant] Today, I have an update on the original ugliest data breach of all time.


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[Assistant] Equifax breach of five years ago. So there's a lot of emails floating around about it. Letters to file a claim. I want to tell you what the real scoop is. And later, I've got some amazing news on the cell phone front.


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[Assistant] It's not a joke, a free calling plan. I'm going to share a couple of options that the marketplace is now presenting to us, one that's free and one that's a deal.


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[Assistant] Consumer Advice Center called the Team Clark Consumer Action Center.


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[Assistant] People that are just absolutely befuddled and confused.


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[Assistant] An unbelievably horrific set of circumstances where two thirds of American adults have had deep data about them that were


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[Assistant] Leaked because of sloppy work by Equifax and


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[Assistant] A lot of people lost their jobs there, but at the same time, millions of Americans and also, if you have any Canadian relatives, Canadians as well.


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[Assistant] Uh, it was actually a credit union. Someone at the credit union thought, you know, before we send all this money away, we should really make sure, make sure. And that was the first our employee knew that there was a full identity theft going on. And that sharp person at the credit union prevented what would have been a big theft of money.


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[Assistant] The Equifax data breach, although it's the worst data breach ever experienced in the United States, is certainly not the only one.


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[Assistant] Now that the Equifax Breach became finalized just a few weeks ago,


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[Assistant] People are like really confused. How does it apply to me? What do I need to do? First things first, the only thing that is pretty much universal


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[Assistant] Is if you want it, you can have four years of free credit monitoring. You don't have to worry that at the end of four years.


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[Assistant] They're gonna start charging your credit card or anything. You don't post a credit card, uh, they don't have anything to charge. If you want it, for whatever reason, you can have the four free years of credit monitoring.


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[Assistant] Credit monitoring is not nearly as valuable as having, uh,


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[Assistant] Where you have the credit freeze. Credit freeze is where you lock down your credit. Credit monitoring only says, hey, by the way, somebody just did something.


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[Assistant] So I'm much more into credit frees, both are free. Second thing is if you had actual real demonstrable expenses


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[Assistant] That you can somehow prove that because of the Equifax data breach, you can claim up to $500.


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[Assistant] With documenting the time it cost you and all that they pay you.


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[Assistant] That unfortunately because of the number of people who are out there who were harmed and likely to claim.


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[Assistant] I mean it may be just pennies per person or a dollar to a person. I'm not even bothering. And I did not have a data breach that in any way I could pen on.


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[Assistant] The Equifax thing I've had over the five years. I've had some credit cards compromised. I've had nobody attempt


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[Assistant] Big time identity theft where they pretended to be me and apply for credit.


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[Assistant] Nothing like that. So, it still means the information's out there and somebody might try to do something, but, uh, I,


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[Assistant] I don't think you should say, hey, wait, they got a settlement with Equifax. I'm going to go get my money. There's no there there really. There's not any real compensation that you should run after.


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[Assistant] And this is usually true with class action lawsuits, is that there's


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[Assistant] Well, this same theme, isn't it? Because I had somebody ask me the other day when I was getting a bagel.


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[Assistant] That they had gotten this one and they wanted to know if they should do it. I mean, if you wanna, if you wanna come find me.


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[Assistant] I mean I could run for mayor of Costco or Sam's Club whenever I'm in one.


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[Assistant] There's not one close to me anymore. So, nope, just a two warehouse club guy now.


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[Assistant] It handles a lot of stuff for fintechs and financial sites and


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[Assistant] So they're kind of the plumbing behind the scenes. Well, the class action lawsuit was about them capturing too much of your information.


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[Assistant] Having too much of it there to then use for whatever purpose they were using it for.


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[Assistant] And this one is another one that the collective payout is.


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[Assistant] 50, 60 million dollars, let me look, 58 million. But the number of people affected is so huge that there's not going to be any big payout. So this is one that if you want to file a claim, you have through the spring to do so. And if you want to go ahead, but it's not going to be enough for you probably.


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[Assistant] To even go buy one of Krista's overpriced coffees that I see you have another one today. How much was this one?


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[Assistant] $3. Yeah, I don't think you'll get $3 from either settlement, so.


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[Assistant] Okay, so first of all, you have a fantastic income. You have an income much higher than the average American couple. You have relatively low debts. I mean, almost no debt. You've done a great job saving money and this is why California is suffering an out migration. People going places where you can have a nice middle-class lifestyle and have a nice home.


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[Assistant] At a decent price because when you're in coastal California.


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[Assistant] There's just so much land, you got mountains around you, you got the ocean and the real estate is a zillion dollars. I mean, you know, Edgar, if you go inland from where you are, there are so many people buying in the inland desert communities and having


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[Assistant] Unbelievable commutes or being able to work remotely.


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[Assistant] Because it was the only place they could stay in Southern California and own a home. This is hard stuff. So you're living, you're renting a family home at a fantastic rent, a thousand dollars a month. I mean, that's great. And if that is an arrangement


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[Assistant] That your family member is comfortable with renting you a home.


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[Assistant] Add a thousand a month and it's a neighborhood you're happy in. I know this is weird and crazy.


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[Assistant] And not try to buy right now, you know, conditions in the real estate market, as you know, not just in California, but around the country are very overheated right now. And the market is inflated for a number of factors.


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[Assistant] That I've talked about related to the pandemic with too much money floating around the prior record low interest rates, still low rates. I'd like you to continue to rent for a while.


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[Assistant] And I don't know Edgar, if it's realistic in your life, if you would consider if it's important for you as a couple to own a home, if you would consider.


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[Assistant] For that lifestyle reason, relocating to somewhere else in the country.


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[Assistant] And you won't have the housing costs of southern or northern California along the coast. Uh, but if you did want to buy a home,


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[Assistant] Keep saving money like you are. You've already saved over $100,000. This is great.


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[Assistant] I don't know if inflated is really the right word, but it's so ridiculously pricey that it's a lot to take on to spend a million dollars.


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[Assistant] For a 3-2 that might even need renovating.


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[Assistant] Krista quotes stuff from, to me, from that all the time, don't you, about...


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[Assistant] Just trying to keep you healthy. You are very unhappy with my eating. Anyway.


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[Assistant] So yeaah, it is something that you're going to see erode over time and that is the use of traditional credit reports and credit scoring models from Equifax, TransUnion and Experian in order to establish credit worthiness. Uhm, there's so much deep data available now.


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[Assistant] There are a number of financial institutions, fintechs and some banks.


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[Assistant] That are using alternative and internal, uh, methods of crunching data to determine if you're credit worthy.


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[Assistant] So the issue that you're bringing up that's really smart Paul, is that


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[Assistant] When you put a credit freeze in place, which I'm, you know, the man from Credit Freeze, really. When you put that credit freeze in place,


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[Assistant] You're shutting down the ability for somebody to impersonate you, take over your identity, apply for credit because with the credit frozen, they're going to try to do a credit check on you through Equifax, TransUnion, Experian. They're not going to be able to. So if lenders start relying more and more on their own proprietary systems and internal systems, and they're not using the three major credit bureaus, then the criminals now have a way around


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[Assistant] Uhm, so far this is a small enough effort that


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[Assistant] Process and thought behind credit freeze will have to change and there will have to be


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[Assistant] A financial industry wide database where you freeze your credit rather than being credit bureau specific. I don't think that anybody in any legislative body congressional body


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[Assistant] Is onto this yet and thinking this through yet. Usually they're reactive instead of proactive. So it, I mean, what you're fearing could happen. The financial damage you would be able to assert


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[Assistant] Would normally be low enough, it's more your time and aggravation when somebody applies for credit as if they're you. So I think what you're doing already is sufficient and the 15,000 in coverage should be enough. So I would feel okay with that.


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[Assistant] I love that you were processing the if then, cause it's been on my mind.


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[Assistant] And I just haven't wanted to go into the school of the paranoid. So I let you do that for me. They're coming up next.


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[Assistant] What you're paying for your cell phone almost always is more than you have to. But what if I told you, you could get your cell phone service for free? Well, of course there's a catch. I'm an affiliate.


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[Assistant] We go through the process of getting a plan, getting a phone, and we tend to stick around.


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[Assistant] Is the big cell phone carriers are really getting afraid?


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[Assistant] From the new fourth national player using a legacy name brand that you've heard of before, Boost Mobile, which is rapidly building out a new advanced network. And the owner of this is the guy who owns Dish Network, very aggressive price wise.


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[Assistant] And so the cell phone carriers are doing something I want you to be really aware is happening.


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[Assistant] They are doing three year contracts for a new phone, not for your service. The service is just pay as you go, right? But if you want the new fancy, whatever phone,


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[Assistant] What does that mean? You're billed every month and then you get a service credit every month.


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[Assistant] But you have a three year commitment to them and if you decide to bail and go somewhere else,


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[Assistant] They've got you as their prisoner because then you lose that free on that phone and you have to pay the full remaining balance for it and it's their replacement for the


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[Assistant] Thank goodness, long gone contracts to try to keep you


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[Assistant] From going to Boost with their new aggressive plans or going to, uh, one of the, one of the captives like, you know, with Verizon, you've got, uh, uh, Visible.


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[Assistant] And you've got the various other brands that they bought from.


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[Assistant] Track phone like straight talk and all that to keep you with the more expensive option. They hook you in with the phone.


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[Assistant] Now it's important if you can avoid those long-term phone contracts because the cost of monthly service keeps going down, down, down with competitors. All the way down potentially


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[Assistant] Well, one of the discounters called TexNow.


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[Assistant] Is doing a plan that is one of those freemium business models. You pay them 99 cents for a SIM card. You know, the addressable chip that you get from them to put in your phone.


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[Assistant] And then you have monthly service at no cost or unlimited talk and text. What do you not get? Data.


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[Assistant] So what they hope to make their money on is selling you a data plan to go with it, but you don't have to do a data plan. So let's say you want to stay in touch with a child or


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[Assistant] Uh, an elderly relative or a preteen or whatever.


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[Assistant] You can put them on one of these plans and you have the ability to reach each other all you want by talk and text, but without a monthly bill. Isn't that weird?


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[Assistant] Remember Krista, there used to be a company that originally was from Europe.


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[Assistant] That had the free service, but it, it never worked right. What's the name of that one? Do you remember who I'm talking about around for a number of?


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[Assistant] No, I'm trying to remember. I mean, it's so weird, it's become a trivia question because it...


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[Assistant] Failed and it's gone, but who knows what will happen with text now. The great thing is it's available for free. Now something else, all the cell phone carriers are competing for the segment of the market


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[Assistant] That are not the people who by inertia are staying with who they're with. And everybody's playing this game right now.


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[Assistant] Including AT&T, a most interesting way. So.


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[Assistant] Uh, the most important seller of cell phone service in the United States outside


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[Assistant] In the sale of cell phones and cell phone plants.


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[Assistant] So AT&T is trying to muscle in the Walmart stores because to this point Verizon has had


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[Assistant] Heavy control over the sale of cell phone service and cell phones in Walmarts.


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[Assistant] So AT&T is doing a rate plan.


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[Assistant] At the Walmart stores that you can't buy direct from AT&T.


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[Assistant] So think how weird this is. You got a cheaper deal on AT&T.


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[Assistant] From Walmart than you can from AT&T.


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[Assistant] It's branded AT&T, you just can't buy it from AT&T. Only Walmart. So the plan is an unlimited data plan, 5G.


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[Assistant] Or $45 a month for one individual.