01.27.25 SAVE More On Airfares / Your Privacy & Vehicle Data Collection

Summary

The Clark Howard Podcast - Episode Summary Release Date: January 27, 2025 Episode Title: SAVE More On Airfares / Your Privacy & Vehicle Data Collection

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1. Saving More on Airfares

Timestamp: 00:54

Clark Howard opens the episode by addressing the evolving landscape of air travel in the United States. He highlights the dominance of major airlines—American, United, and Delta—and their establishment of “fortress hubs,” which has shifted the dynamics for consumers seeking affordable airfare deals.

Key Points:

• Emergence of Low-Cost Airlines: Howard introduces Allegiant, a Las Vegas-based airline specializing in leisure-oriented routes to less-served markets. He notes that Allegiant flies to numerous smaller cities, often twice or four times a week, providing significant savings compared to the major carriers.

• Competitors Rising: Following Allegiant’s model, airlines like Avelo and Breeze have emerged, expanding their networks to include destinations typically overlooked by the full-service airlines. For example, Avelo has made a notable presence in New Haven, Connecticut, offering fares that are about a quarter of those from American, United, or Delta.

• Advantages and Trade-offs: While these low-cost carriers offer substantial savings and reliable, non-stop flights to unique destinations, Howard warns of potential downsides, such as flight cancellations. Given their limited flight schedules, cancellations can leave travelers stranded for extended periods.

Notable Quote: Clark Howard emphasizes the reliability of these airlines by stating, “Allegiant, Breeze, and Avelo have been running extremely reliable schedules and reliable airlines” ([02:45]).

2. Identity Theft and Banking Issues

Timestamp: 07:52

In a call from Ray in Florida, Clark discusses the challenges victims face when dealing with identity theft and bank disputes.

Key Points:

• Delayed Bank Responses: Ray shares his experience where stolen identity information led to unauthorized bank transfers and withdrawals. It took months for the bank to return the stolen funds.

• Clark’s Advice: Howard advises that banks have a 10-business-day window to address written disputes. He stresses the importance of promptly visiting a branch to file written protests to initiate this timeline.

Notable Quote: Clark remarks on the inefficiency of large banks: “They just don’t care what the law is. They don’t care what the regulations are” ([08:20]).

3. Credit Freezes and Store Credit Cards

Timestamp: 12:54

Dean from South Carolina inquires about the implications of applying for store credit while having a frozen credit file.

Key Points:

• Impact of Credit Freezes: Howard explains that applying for a store credit card with a frozen credit file typically results in the application being rejected without affecting the credit score.

• Store Credit Skepticism: He voices skepticism about the value of store credit cards, referring to them as “junk credit” and advises listeners to avoid them unless necessary.

Notable Quote: Clark asserts, “Store credit is junk credit. There’s no upside to having store credit” ([13:47]).

4. Utilizing AI to Dispute Parking Tickets

Timestamp: 14:50

Scotty from Tennessee shares a success story about using artificial intelligence to dispute an unfair parking ticket.

Key Points:

• AI Assistance: Scotty used ChatGPT to draft a detailed and convincing dispute letter for a $65 parking ticket, which resulted in the dismissal of the ticket within 30 minutes.

• Clark’s Personal Anecdote: Clark relates by recounting his own experience disputing a wrongful ticket from the Pennsylvania Turnpike Authority without using AI, ultimately succeeding by presenting his own written appeal.

Notable Quote: Clark encourages listeners not to fear disputing tickets and to leverage AI: “Moral of the story, don’t be afraid to dispute tickets and don’t be afraid to use AI” ([14:50]).

5. Vehicle Data Collection and Privacy Concerns

Timestamp: 17:49

Clark delves into the increasing privacy issues related to vehicle data collection, sparked by an incident involving a soldier’s suicide and the Tesla Cybertruck’s tracking capabilities.

Key Points:

• Surveillance Capabilities: Modern vehicles, especially those like Tesla’s Cybertruck, can provide law enforcement with extensive data on a vehicle’s movements and activities.

• Lack of Privacy Laws: Howard highlights the absence of federal privacy laws that protect consumers from pervasive data tracking by automakers. He emphasizes the need for consumers to have control over their personal information and criticizes the legal loopholes that allow companies to exploit user data.

• Future Market Trends: Clark foresees a potential market shift toward vehicles with minimal tracking technology as consumers become more privacy-conscious.

Notable Quote: Clark articulates the struggle between technology and privacy: “We’re in a time where the technology is accelerating so quickly and we need to have more control over what others know about us” ([25:00]).

6. Freestanding Medical Scans vs. Hospital Systems

Timestamp: 26:59

Janice from Georgia shares her experience with freestanding medical imaging services, which provided significant cost savings but encountered issues with hospital system compatibility.

Key Points:

• Cost Savings: Howard previously discussed the benefits of using freestanding MRI and CT scan facilities to avoid exorbitant hospital prices. He cites his personal experience of saving approximately $2,400 at a hospital versus $300 at a freestanding center.

• Compatibility Issues: Janice points out that some hospitals refuse to read or accept scans from external providers due to their proprietary systems, forcing patients to repeat expensive procedures.

Notable Quote: Clark expresses frustration over the lack of interoperability: “It’s just wrong that they would pretend that only their own scan was a valid scan” ([27:25]).

7. Additional Listener Questions

• Byron from Kentucky on Sales Tax: Byron questions why his prepaid phone service provider collected tax on the full retail value of a discounted phone. Clark explains that state tax regulations, such as those in Kentucky, may require taxation based on the original price rather than the discounted rate. He advises contacting the state’s sales and use tax office for clarification ([30:08]).

• Diana from South Carolina on Credit Card Offers: Diana asks whether accepting a promotional lower interest rate on her credit card is beneficial since she pays off her balance in full each month. Clark advises that unless anticipating significant expenses, accepting such offers provides little advantage and recommends maximizing rewards from cards that offer cash back or other benefits ([31:33]).

Conclusion

Clark Howard wraps up the episode by reiterating the importance of being proactive in financial decisions, whether it’s securing affordable travel, protecting personal data, or navigating banking challenges. He encourages listeners to utilize available resources, such as the Team Clark Consumer Action Center, and to stay informed through various platforms provided by Clark Howard.

Final Quote: Clark concludes with a call to action: “The purpose for you to learn ways to save more, spend less and avoid getting ripped off” ([31:57]).

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Resources Mentioned:

• Allegiant Airlines: Offers affordable flights to less-served destinations.
• Avelo and Breeze Airlines: New low-cost carriers expanding into niche markets.
• Consumer Action Center: Free one-on-one advice available at clark.com/cac.
• Clark Howard's Resources: clark.com and ClarkDeals.com for saving tips and consumer advice.

Note: Advertisement segments were omitted to focus solely on the content discussions and listener interactions.

Transcript

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[Clark Howard]

It'S my pleasure to welcome you here to the Clark Howard Show. You know our mission is to serve you with advice and information that empowers you to make better financial decisions in your life. Now I want to tell you something. There are certain tricks to the trade that I talk about with travel, but there's one that I've mentioned over the years that has suddenly become much more relevant than it used to be. And I want to make sure you know when you're searching for a deal by air, how to take advantage of these new opportunities. And later my car spies on me every single second and more and more that's what's going to happen with cars. So you need to know what's up and more important who has access to that data. So air travel goes through continuous change in the United States and right now, especially because American, United and Delta, the three full fare airlines, are so large now and have concentrated their power so heavily in their what are known as fortress hubs that it's changed the equation for people that are looking for a deal. There's also a change in the competitive landscape that I want to make sure you are clued into. And it all starts with an airline that's been around for a while called Allegiant. Allegiant, based in Las Vegas, flies leisure oriented routes. There's some term for it, family and something like that, but they they serve markets that are for vacation and family visits. That's what they do. They may not fly to a place every day of the week back some places they only fly twice a week. To understand what I'm talking about, if you go look at Allegiant and pull up their map of where they fly in the country, I promise you there are a lot of cities they fly to, you've never heard of or only know faintly of. And so what they're doing is they fly to places that the big three don't care about. So they have led to copycats. And now there's a Velo and Breeze both which started four years ago that are both growing around the country. But again they go to places that you wouldn't think to look. One of the places that Avelo is big and is New Haven, Connecticut. Now let me tell you, somebody going into Massachusetts or going to Hartford or maybe going to the New York suburbs, you're never thinking of looking for a fare to New Haven, Connecticut. You don't even know anybody flies there. Let me tell you, the people in New Haven know because now there's all these huge traffic jams around the airport because people who do know are getting fares that are usually one fourth of what the fare would be on American, United or Delta flying to the big city. Any of those three fly to that are shouting distance from New Haven. There's also Breeze Air. Breeze does a similar kind of flying, flying to places that the full fare airlines aren't really interested in. And the advantage with Allegiant and Breeze and available, oh, all their flights are set up to be non stops. There's no changing in any hub or anything like that. You just have to go on the days of the week they fly and the days of the week they return. This is just a tactic growing in popularity because these airlines are filling these planes because people are getting so much better. Deal. When is it not a deal? So you go to fly and your flights canceled. Now remember I said a lot of these routes they're only flying maybe twice a week, four times a week and the busiest ones once a day. And that flight gets canceled. It's not a laughing matter because you're going to be stranded for a while either going from where you're leaving from to where you're going or vice versa. So there is a big, big trade off with this. You've heard a lot about Spirit being in bankruptcy and Frontier having trouble making money and all that. What's different about those two is they decided it would be a great idea to go right after the big markets of the full fair lines at the same time treat people like dirt that are flying them. Now I don't know who ever thought it was a good idea to treat people like dirt, but they that's been the problem with both of them. And I have a particular grudge against The CEO of Frontier who has designed the relationship between his employees and the customers as an adversarial one where the employees get bonused for every time they can charge a ripoff fee to a customer. The interest of the employee and the customer should be aligned. At Frontier they are diametrically opposed. I don't know what business school the CEO went to, but he was obviously sleeping through all the classes. But this is something that does have the trade off if there is a flight problem. But I can tell you there's a general rule. Allegiant, Breeze and Avelo have been running extremely reliable schedules and reliable airlines. When you're looking to book somewhere, look where they go and know that the full fares may at an airport nearby be offering certain deals on certain flight times that match up with the flights that Avelo and Breeze and Allegiant are running to cities nearby. And the Frontier people, I'm more than happy to have them come on the air because I am so unhappy with a company that from the executive suite looks at the customer is an enemy and not their customer. Yuck.

[Caller]

Okay. Ray in Florida says my wife and I both been victims of identity theft.

[Clark Howard]

I'm sorry about that.

[Caller]

In her case, a thief broke into her car and stole her wallet, including id. Several months later they used her ID and probably the info out of a hacked database to call into the bank, transfer a bunch of money into one account and then withdraw $1400 in cash. It took us months to make the bank return the money. They should have never paid it out in the first place.

[Clark Howard]

Before you go on, I need to say something about that. A bank only has 10 banking days once you've protested something in writing to either restore your funds permanently, restore them temporarily, or, or tell you why they're not going to give you the money back. They don't have an endless number of months to do so. And what's key to make this work is you have to go to a branch and put your dispute in writing. And that starts the 10 business day countdown, the two week countdown. And I hear your thing again and again where the banks just don't care what the law is. They don't care what the regulations are. They just take their sweet time and go on. Because I got more to say. A year later, the banks don't I.

[Caller]

A year later, something similar happened to me in another giant monster mega bank. The thief calls in, transfers 750 from two accounts into the main account. Then the thief attempted to withdraw it at a branch but was caught in the actual still awesome. Yep. Still, I had to go in and change all my account numbers and spent many needless hours in the bank. From my perspective, the banks don't do nearly enough to protect us. They allow people to call in, impersonate us, obviously not from our registered phone numbers, and obtain information and initiate money transfers. These banks could do so much more. They could require an SMS code for all transactions. If you can't give the code, you don't do business. If it's an in person transaction, they could mandate two forms of id, a password in the SMS or or proof of online banking access. But these banks remain big and stupid. Who can I bank with that has a clue about security and will look out for my best interests?

[Clark Howard]

Size alone is not the indicator. Although I find that with the four giant monster mega banks, they're almost like a law into themselves. Who are the four giant monsters? Chase, Citibank, Wells Fargo bank, bank of America. They are so large, so powerful that they pretty much do what they want. I think there's an advantage. I have such a bias. This is clearly a bias in you being with a local credit union. You're an owner, you have a board that you've elected if you choose to participate. There's accountability at a credit union. Imagine at a bank like Chase that has bigger size than the economy of many countries, getting them to respond. But one thing with any financial institution is when you are being ignored, you file a complaint@consumer finance.gov it starts a clock ticking again. The banks don't like. And a lot of times I find with the banks it's not that they're trying to cheat you, it's that they don't care. They just don't care. And the bigger they are, the less they care. So as far as the ID being stolen, from that moment forward you want to freeze your credit files because a lot of the mischief the criminals are going to do is from taking over your identity through your credit. And if you have your credit frozen, it will eliminate a lot of the kind of hassles you would have. Second thing I'd say is that if there was any information in your wife's wallet about having a relationship with the giant monster mega bank where the money was taken or the other giant monster mega bank where money was taken from your account, that that would be for me a direct call for you right after the wallet was stolen to close your banking relationships with those banks and go somewhere else. That may be harder for the criminals to figure out where you have moved your banking or to whatever credit union you've moved it to. But these situations are so bad, ugly. And having to wait such a long time to get your money back after the giant monster was sloppy and allowed the criminal to swipe the money is totally unacceptable behavior.

[Caller]

Dean in South Carolina says, my credit is frozen with all three credit reporting agencies and has been for years. So thank you for that. My question is, if I'm at one of those department store checkouts and the pesky clerk says, hey, if you fill out this credit app for our in store card, you'll get 10 to 20% off today with this purchase, would this affect my score like a hard inquiry since my credit's frozen? Thanks for everything, Clark.

[Clark Howard]

Yes. So what would happen at most retailers, Dean, is they're going to reject your app. What will happen? Usually at the register, they'll ask you some basic information, punch it in, and it will come back as no wreck or credit frozen. And you're not going to get that 10 to 20% off. It will not hurt your credit in any way because it will come back no wreck. There will be no credit that it will hit against.

[Caller]

My attitude. Don't.

[Clark Howard]

My attitude is store credit is junk credit. There's no upside to having store credit. And I know there are people who say to me all the time, but look, I got all these coupons at Macy's for having the Macy's card. It's not worth it for those savings you get, trust me.

[Caller]

And I would worry like if I had another credit card with the bank that underwrites the card for that store.

[Clark Howard]

Go right through.

[Caller]

Could go through.

[Clark Howard]

I never thought about that.

[Caller]

They're not offering you that percentage off just for applying. They're offering it if you get approved.

[Clark Howard]

Yeah. So the thing is, you brought up a point I've not made in forever. If you have an existing relationship with a financial institution and you apply for something, even with your credit frozen, they're already aware of who you are. And that app may be approved because a bank is allowed to transition you to a different form of credit. And that could happen in this case.

[Caller]

Scotty in Tennessee says artificial intelligence saves the day. I thought you and your fans might appreciate this story. My teen daughter parked in a downtown parking lot and was only there for about 30 minutes. When she left, she said there was no parking attendant present and she left without paying. About a month later, we got a ticket in the mail for $65.

[Clark Howard]

Wow.

[Caller]

I looked up the parking lot and found that the charge for all day parking is $8 I was willing to pay a fine, but $65 for an $8 parking fee. I went to their website and was about to pay it, but then saw a dispute option. I went to ChatGPT and asked it to write a detailed dispute based on the details of the incident. I. I must say the AI wrote very well written argument that was kind yet convincing. I then pasted that into the dispute box on their website. Clark. I received an email from the parking lot within 30 minutes saying they would dismiss the ticket. Moral of the story, don't be afraid to dispute tickets and don't be afraid to use AI. Huge thanks to you and your team for all that you do. From a Clark super fan in Knoxville, Tennessee. Scotty too hottie.

[Clark Howard]

Scotty too hottie. Okay, so did I tell the story about me getting the ticket from the Pennsylvania Turnpike Authority?

[Caller]

I don't remember if you told it on the podcast or not.

[Clark Howard]

Okay, so I, I get this ticket in the mail from the Pennsylvania Turnpike Authority. I've never been on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. It has a picture of this giant suv. It was like an Escalade or something. I've never owned anything like that. And it says it was my car and whatever. So I did what you did, Scotty. I went on the website for the Pennsylvania Turnpike and they have this thing where they say the only way to dispute the ticket is this weird affidavit and you got to do all this stuff and all that. Instead I sent in a thing on their question form or whatever and told the story. And I didn't use AI like you did. I actually came up with my own words and three days later I got something saying, please excuse the error. That is not your ticket. We've removed it. So just ignoring is not a good idea. Because what was funny on that is how much the fee went up if I didn't pay within seven days under Pennsylvania statute. Whatever, whatever. And ignoring is dangerous. So. But I love your AI suggestion. My son uses AI tools all the time. Except where?

[Caller]

College.

[Clark Howard]

College. Because every professor knows every answer that chat GPT is going to give to anything that somebody tries to do that as a way of avoiding work that's not going to work for college students. Coming up ahead, we're talking about AI and all that. What about your cars? What did they know about you? More than you might like.

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[Clark Howard]

Edu on this event that happened in Las Vegas with this decorated soldier committing suicide in the cyber truck, the Tesla cybertruck. It was so sad that he felt like if he had sought help for his depression that he would have been bounced out of the prestigious unit he was in in the military. And I just feel so bad about that when somebody feels like they lose too much if they were to seek help. But in his case, he lost everything. And I, I just feel so bad about that. But you know, within two hours of when soldier took his life, the law enforcement people in Nevada had every bit of information on that cyber truck, where the soldier picked it up, where he stopped to charge, where he stopped to do everything. And I noticed in people's reaction to the media coverage about how much Tesla knew about what the soldier had been up to, that people are not aware that this is a common industry practice. Now I had told you last year about GM tracking people's driving and then selling the information to insurance companies so they could cancel your insurance or charge you higher rates. And GM was like, well, it's in our terms of service. Then when there was such a backlash, GM apologized. They're being sued. They're not doing it anymore, where they're not sharing. When you're not a good driver with your insurance company. But unless you really want an older analog vehicle, it's the thing where automakers are putting in this technology to track everything that goes on in your car, everything you do, because they're trying to monetize the data that they come up with. And so we don't, in most modern vehicles, have the privacy we used to. And I know this is going to sound weird, but it bothers me that we still don't have a federal law with a right to privacy that we should have. With all the technology that exists today, we should have the ability, the right to choose not to have information shared. Right now, what happens is just as GM said, well, it was in the terms of service, written by some lawyer to write something that's 80 pages long. I don't know how many the GM thing was. And in all the legal mumbo jumbo, you've signed away everything. This is not right. We're in a time where the technology is accelerating so quickly and we need to have more control over what others know about us. To me, it's pretty simple. It's pretty clear that the the rights of an American citizen should outweigh the commercial desires of companies, both American and foreign, that are tracking everything we do. And with the cars, I can see there's going to be a market for people buying vehicles that are sold without all the advanced technology in it that will not allow somebody to track everything you do. Obviously, there are times as an example for law enforcement, it was really useful that they were able to find out so much information so quickly after what at first appeared to be possibly a terrorist attack. But at the same time, we have this constant push and pull between your and my privacy and what right we have to it under the law. None, pretty much. And then what others may misuse that information for to our harm or for their commercial benefit. Krista, you and I both drive Teslas and it knows all.

[Caller]

It sure does. Yep.

[Clark Howard]

And there's some of that stuff that's great. If it's cold, you can start the heat in your vehicle before you go to it.

[Caller]

Got my seat heater on high. Yep.

[Clark Howard]

If it's hot, you can put the air conditioning on way before you get to it. And that's just the most basic of things. It does.

[Caller]

Yep. I love it, I have to say, but I'm also not.

[Clark Howard]

You've given up on privacy. What? 15 years ago you said to me there's no right to privacy.

[Caller]

Yeah, no, it's over. Janice in Georgia says. I'm not saying I like it, I'm just saying. Okay. Janice in Georgia says Clark recently talked about going to a freestanding MRI, CT scan, etc in order to save money and not have to pay his exorbitant hospital price. And I agree. But there's a catch. I had to do just such a thing with a scan. I got the freestanding scan and when I sent it to the hospital, they said they can't read it.

[Clark Howard]

No, they didn't want to read it.

[Caller]

They said they couldn't. Yeah, they said it's because they have their own system that doesn't read off site information. I had to do it again and pay the exorbitant price. Just for listeners to be aware. It may not always work. Although my ultimate results were good.

[Clark Howard]

Okay, that story is so disturbing to me. So you ended up having the scan twice, Janice, and being ripped off by the hospital system. For those of you missed, when I talked about me having an MRI of my knee without contrast, I went to a freestander after I, I took some, some work, wanted to find out what does it cost. At the hospital near me it was 2,400 bucks. So then I call a freestander and the same MRI without contrast was 300 bucks. My copay through my insurance would have been more than the $300 that I paid. I didn't have to pay 300, I had to pay $53. I think 55, something like that. Because I only had to pay my copay versus the bill. And the hospitals hate this. They hate it that people are learning more and more about the freestanders to go to. They treat you much better, they're on time and it costs a fraction. And this is a crazy story you're telling me that they said they couldn't read it. So what I did was I got the disc as well as the report. So any hospital, anybody could put that disc in their computer and they would see the results. And it's just wrong that they would pretend that only their own scan was a valid scan. Wow. And you know what? I bet you, Janice, any amount of money that hospital that cheated you this way is a non profit that's supposed to be doing things to benefit the community and avoid paying taxes that way. And then they lie and cheat you like that.

[Caller]

Oh, Byron in Kentucky says, I recently upgraded my phone through my Prepaid, no contract service for $99. This didn't require plan upgrades, so I got to keep my $15 a month service. However, they collected tax on the full retail value of the phone, which was around $600. If I'm never charged full price for the phone and I'm not subsidizing it with monthly service fees, why do they collect so much tax? Does this just become extra profit when they file their tax return?

[Clark Howard]

So, Byron, I'm familiar with this because this came up before and there have been stories about this. Different state taxing authorities treat discounts that you receive differently. And what you're telling me is Kentucky is one of the states that's interpreted the sales tax code that you pay on the original price and they treat it as a. I don't know if they call it a manufacturer's discount or what they call it. But what you pay is not what's used in some states to determine the sales tax. And I find it just a crazy thing that the state would potentially take advantage of you that way. But if you want to verify that it's the state of Kentucky that's doing this to you and not the cell phone provider, cell phone carrier, I would call the state sales and what do they call it? Sales and use tax office. And ask them the situation and ask them, are you supposed to pay tax on the original retail price or what you paid? And you'd get the answer. If that's Kentucky's interpretation or an error, let's call it an error on the part of the cell phone carrier.

[Caller]

All right. And this is from Diana in South Carolina. I pay my credit card balances off entirely every month.

[Clark Howard]

Good for you.

[Caller]

I try to do this before the next statement date. So my statement shows zero due each time. My credit score is excellent. So here's the question. When I receive an offer from my credit card company for a six month promo for a lower interest rate than the normal rate of my account, example 9.99% for six months instead of 17%. Should I accept these offers even though I'm never owing any interest? Is there a benefit in doing so?

[Clark Howard]

No interest, Diana, at all. But if you do pay your balance in full every month, I hope that the card you have is paying you cash back or some other kind of reward. Because as a net payer, a payer in full every month, you are in a position that a lot of these reward programs would work very well for you. Right now it's like not even a heavy lift at all to get a card that will pay you 2% cash back on everything you do, and you should be rewarded for your incredible payment habits of always having a zero balance but taking the offer for the 9.99 for six months does nothing for you unless you're anticipating a really major expense in your life where you wouldn't be able to pay off your balance in full. And with that, we conclude today's podcast and I want to tell you we got so much else available to you. All week long. We've got one on one free advice available to you Monday through Friday from the Team Clark Consumer Action Center. We've been offering this free advice since February of 1993. You want to know how to get it? Go to clark.com cac and whether it's free advice, one on one, our newsletters, our websites, our social media, our podcast, our YouTube show, or if you live in a city where I'm on radio or television, I want to tell you it's always with the same purpose for you to learn ways to save more, spend less and avoid getting ripped off. Have a great rest of your day.