02.09.26 Gift Cards: Use Or Lose Them / Big Changes For Home Backup Power

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Clark Howard Podcast

Episode: 02.09.26 "Gift Cards: Use Or Lose Them / Big Changes For Home Backup Power"
Date: February 9, 2026
Host: Clark Howard
Co-Host: Krista

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Episode Overview

This episode focuses on two main themes:

1. The urgency of using restaurant gift cards amid ongoing restaurant closures and financial instability, with Clark giving practical advice for consumers in the current economy.
2. Major improvements and falling costs in home backup power solutions—especially battery backup options that now offer affordable alternatives to traditional generators.

Listeners’ questions address a range of personal finance topics: sending affordable flowers, receipt tracking, digital payment app risks, Roth IRA strategy, a travel visa update for Heathrow, and rental car fees. Throughout, Clark emphasizes practical, actionable advice for consumers, with his signature mix of humor and empathy.

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Segment 1: Restaurant Closures & Gift Cards—“Use or Lose Them”

[01:37 – 06:38]

Key Points

• Restaurant Industry Struggles:
  Clark highlights an ongoing wave of restaurant closures, even for long-standing establishments, caused by increased costs, higher labor and rent, and lingering debt from the pandemic era.

  “The cost pressures in the restaurant business are so great. And even at increased price for your bill of seven and a half percent, approximately, a lot of restaurants cannot make it.” — Clark Howard [03:13]

• Gift Card Risks:
  Restaurant gift cards are especially at risk: if the restaurant closes, the card becomes worthless. Clark warns, “That gift card goes up. Poof.” [04:31]

• Advice:
  Use restaurant (and retail) gift cards as soon as possible—waiting “doesn’t make them better with time.” The financial pressure on restaurants means closures could occur with little notice.

• Empathy for Owners:
  Clark acknowledges the pain for restaurant operators: “I know again, if I’m talking to you and you’re an owner of a restaurant, I know how hard things have been for you for the last seven years. I’m just so sorry it’s been so hard.” [05:43]

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Segment 2: Listener Questions—Money-Saving Practicalities

A. Sending Flowers Affordably

[07:08 – 09:22]

• Warehouse Clubs Rule:
  Clark and Krista recommend Costco and Sam’s Club for flower delivery, costing roughly $50 for a robust bouquet—far less than traditional florists.

  “The warehouse clubs sell arrangements so much cheaper... Typically, the sweet spot for Sam’s and Costco on flower delivery is 50 bucks.” — Clark Howard [08:00]

• Quality vs. Price:
  Local florists may offer higher quality but at a premium. Warehouse clubs include delivery, usually with a vase, and offer special deals through Valentine's Day (with advance ordering required).

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B. Tracking Credit Card Purchases and Receipts

[09:22 – 11:40]

• Clark & Lane’s Method:
  Clark’s household no longer keeps physical receipts. His wife, Lane, checks all statements regularly (on the 1st, 10th, and 20th of the month).

• Apps for Receipts:
  For partial documentation, use smartphone receipt apps—just photograph each receipt to retain digital records for reconciliation.

• Krista’s Practice:
  Krista logs into credit card accounts every few days to spot charges, trusting her memory for recent purchases.

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C. Digital Payment Apps—Zelle, Venmo, Cash App Safety

[11:40 – 16:47]

• The Problem with Zelle:
  Zelle is especially risky due to lack of federal consumer protection and its deep connection with checking accounts. Frauds via Zelle are often unrecoverable.

  “Zelle has so much danger with it that you only want to use big bad Zelle when you have manually gone into the app, turned it on, sent the payment, go back and turn it off.” — Clark Howard [12:25]

• Best Practice:
  Only enable Zelle when actively sending money; disable it immediately after.
  Use an entirely separate account at a different institution for payment apps and never link to your main accounts.

  “If a crook gets a hold of your account for Zelle ...the bank does is it goes in and grabs money from your other checking account you have with them... The bank will not care about what's happened.” — Clark Howard [15:04]

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Segment 3: Big Changes in Home Backup Power

[20:09 – 26:03]

Key Points

• Recent Power Outages:
  Clark shares personal experiences with winter outages, emphasizing the disruption and food spoilage risks.

• Battery Backup Revolution:
  Advances in EV battery technology have dramatically cut costs—prices are now a small fraction of what they were just two years ago.

  • Entry-level units: ~$3,500 (portable; not wired into home panel)
  • Wired systems: $5,000–$8,000 (can power major appliances)
  • Small units: Under $1,000 for bare minimum backup (phones, a fridge, etc.)

• Batteries vs Generators:

  • Battery backups: Silent, maintenance-free, run during short to multi-day outages, best for typical emergencies (not hurricanes/tornado recovery).
  • Traditional natural gas/propane generators: Can run indefinitely (assuming fuel), but require ongoing maintenance and are noisier.

• Where to Buy:
  Hardware stores, warehouse clubs, electrical contractors, and many online retailers.

  “Because of the worldwide, minus the United States, move to electric vehicles … [battery] costs [have dropped] by 95% from where they were 14 years ago. And that's why this is becoming a viable alternative.” — Clark Howard [24:38]

• Extra Advice:
  Solar panels can extend battery backup duration, but battery is still not a total whole-home solution for extended outages.

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Segment 4: More Listener Q&A—Smart Money Moves

A. Roth IRAs as Savings Accounts

[26:03 – 28:35]

• Clark’s Take:
  While Roth IRAs grow faster than savings due to tax-free compounding, using them as an emergency fund is risky—people may develop bad habits of frequent withdrawals, undercutting long-term growth.

  “I like for people to think of a 401k or a Roth IRA as where you stash money that stays there and grows there for way down the road for financial security. And that having a separate savings account ... is worth having.” — Clark Howard [27:36]

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B. Do You Need a Visa to Transit Heathrow?

[28:35 – 33:00]

• Answer:
  If your transfer in Heathrow might require passing through UK border control (e.g., changing terminal and going through immigration), you should get a UK ETA (Electronic Travel Authority).

  “If your flight connection, you miss it, your flight’s canceled. You could be marooned in the terminal. … Just pay the 22 bucks. Oh my gosh, yeah, have the ETA.” — Clark Howard [29:43]

• Warning:
  Only apply via the official government site—many scam sites exist. This warning also applies to business owners renewing corporate filings.

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C. Rental Car Fees at “Off-Airport” Locations

[33:00 – 34:34]

• Fee Creep:
  Some rental locations near airports now impose the same high surcharges/fees as airport outlets to curb fee-avoidance.

  “Within a certain radius… a neighborhood location will charge you the same fees… to try to prevent people from diverting. And so this does happen. You saw it, you stood up for yourself and they remove the charge.” — Clark Howard [33:49]

• Advice:
  Carefully check for fees when booking off-airport; challenge undisclosed surcharges. Fortunately, base car rental rates are much cheaper than recent years.

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Gift Card Warning:
  “When you have a gift card for a restaurant … and the restaurant closes and that gift card goes up. Poof.” — Clark Howard [04:31]

• On Receipt Hoarding:
  “You’re unusual and they do so. And that’s the smart thing to do, is to keep receipts. But… there are now apps you can download … and they are receipt apps.” — Clark Howard [10:23]

• Zelle’s Danger:
  “Zelle has so much danger with it that you only want to use it … when you have manually gone into the app, turned it on, sent the payment, go back and turn it off.” — Clark Howard [12:25]

• Battery Tech Revolution:
  “The prices… are a fraction of what they were even two years ago.” — Clark Howard [23:31]

• Travel Visa Humor:
  “If your flight connection, you miss it, your flight’s canceled. You could be marooned in the terminal. … Just pay the 22 bucks. Oh my gosh, yeah, have the ETA.” — Clark Howard [29:43]
  Added by Krista: “Can you imagine?... why didn’t I pay $22? I would pay a king’s ransom right now for a hotel room or something.” [32:38]

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Important Timestamps

| Timestamp | Segment/Key Topic | | ---------- | --------------------------------------------| | 01:37 | Restaurant closures/gift card warning | | 06:38 | Listener Q&A begins | | 07:08 | Flower delivery savings | | 09:22 | Tracking credit card purchases | | 11:40 | Zelle/Venmo/Cash App safety | | 20:09 | Home backup power revolution | | 26:03 | Roth IRA vs Savings account advice | | 28:35 | Heathrow/UK ETA transit visa question | | 33:00 | Rental car fees at off-airport locations |

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Takeaways

• Don’t delay using restaurant gift cards—closures can leave you with nothing.
• Warehouse clubs (Costco, Sam’s) offer major savings on flower delivery.
• Apps can simplify credit-card receipt tracking; regular statement review is crucial.
• Only use Zelle (or similar) from a dedicated account and with Zelle turned off by default.
• Battery backups for home power are now vastly cheaper, making outages easier to manage.
• Roth IRAs should be reserved for long-term saving, not as an emergency fund.
• When in doubt, get the UK ETA for Heathrow layovers and always use the official site.
• ‘Off-airport’ car rental locations may add hidden airport fees—check and contest extras.

Clark's advice remains focused on practical, consumer-first action, delivered with warmth, humor, and a sense of urgency to help listeners save money and avoid headaches.

Transcript

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[Clark Howard]

It's my pleasure to welcome you here to the Clark Howard show where our mission is to serve you with advice and information that empowers you so you make better financial decisions in your life. So we're going through a really tough time for restaurant owners. You may have noticed a lot of restaurants closing that have been in your neighborhood or your area maybe for years and years. And there are very clear reasons why this is happening. And I feel so badly for these restaurant owners. I need to tell you what's important for you about it, an important task for you. And later, with the wave of storms we've had around the country recently, winter storms, animals falling out of trees in Florida from near record low temperatures. Man, there's a lot of things I want you to know about the power outages and that kind of thing. Things you can do Right now that have become more affordable. Technology is our friend in this. And you can buy backup power for your residents at the lowest prices. Well, for backup power pretty much ever. And I'll talk about that later. So the restaurant business is normally marginally profitable most years of late. It's just so hard. Okay, so average restaurant price up roughly 7 1/2% in the last year. Grocery prices average increase about 3 1/2% over the last year. I'm not talking about the cumulative trend since 19. That is much higher than that. About 30 something percent for grocery stores. But the cost pressures in the restaurant business are so great. And even at increased price for your bill of seven and a half percent, approximately a lot of restaurants cannot make it. They're in an impossible bind because if they raise prices, there are people who say, can't afford to eat there anymore. Don't raise prices. The restaurant may bring customers in, but lose money on every one of them that they seat. So the only ones that make announcements are with the chains closing so many locations and then a company owns dozens of restaurants, it'll make the news potentially, and they'll file a bankruptcy and they liquidate a lot of the locations and try to survive with others. But the quiet closing of restaurants is really the bigger story. So many not making it. So I want to talk about indigestion for your wallet. When you have a gift card for a restaurant that you keep intending to use and you just don't get around to it or you forgot even got it this past Christmas or who knows when, and the restaurant closes and that gift card goes up. Poof. So that's why it's indigestion for your wallet, because you didn't get to get any indigestion from the meal if it wasn't good. Use those cards. I always talk about in January, why you want to use the gift cards you got for retailers and all that over the holidays. They don't get better with time. You use them well. Now, here we are in February, I'm talking about gift cards again. And it's because I keep reading about the problems in the restaurant business. And so even though you should burn through the money on gift cards anyway, because there's nothing backing them up if a retailer closes or whatever. But this is especially a priority right now with the restaurant gift cards. So please think about that. And I know again, if I'm talking to you and you're an owner of a restaurant, I know how hard things have been for you for the last seven years. I'm just so sorry it's been so hard. And Krista, one of the surprises I read in a financial publication, I forget which one was that people are confused. How did a restaurant make it through Covid, make it these years, and now suddenly they're closing. Accumulated pressure. Accumulated financial pressure. They may have borrowed money to keep the doors open. So they've got the cost of running the restaurant and they've got the cost of the loans. The labor costs have kept going up, the rents have gone up. So it's accumulated pressure that we're now seeing that. So delayed from when restaurants were so disrupted during COVID A friend of mine.

[Krista]

Is in that exact situation, and I was talking to her about it yesterday. And when you have weather situations, you know, a cold snap, things like that, in the winter, a lot of people might not go out as much too. So that's compounding it if you're already on very slim margins and all that. So, yeah, it's tough. Very tough. Okay, we'll go to questions. Now, Ellen in California says, my sister lives in another state and I want to send her flowers. What are the least expensive options for doing that? This is the time of year.

[Clark Howard]

Yeah. So the answer is the answer to every question.

[Krista]

I know. Ding, ding, ding. I'm guessing it's going to be Costco.

[Clark Howard]

Sam's club and Costco.

[Krista]

Okay.

[Clark Howard]

They both do huge businesses now in delivery flowers. And if you were to guess what they charge for a robust bouquet delivered, what would you guess that Sam's and Costco have decided is the sweet spot for delivery?

[Krista]

What's robust mean?

[Clark Howard]

Like. Like a pretty nice display of flowers.

[Krista]

Like two dozen roses? Oh, just flowers. Well, now I see, because you. I see you pulled something out for me. So I can't say, but normally I can tell you looking on other sites, as I have this one on the. The first one on the left there that is pulled up, would be definitely $150 delivered.

[Clark Howard]

Right. The warehouse clubs sell arrangements so much cheaper. Typically, the sweet spot for Sam's and Costco on flower delivery is 50 bucks. Now, local forests will say, and I'm not an expert, and they are, that the flowers that they use in their arrangements are going to be higher quality than the flowers used in an arrangement at Costco or Sam's. But you get to delivery usually with a vase included vase on these. I say vase, you say vase. I say vase, you say vase. Which are you supposed to say?

[Krista]

You can say either, but I think vase sounds a lot more fancy.

[Clark Howard]

Well, I mean, you are getting it from a warehouse. So it is supposed to be the fancy. And so you asked me what's the most cost effective way it's going to be from the warehouse clubs. And both of them do. And I don't know if BJ's wholesale does this as well. They both do more affordable than normal deliveries through Valentine's Day as well. But you're too late. Now. One of the things with the warehouse clubs for their Valentine's Day things, they require significant advanced ordering. They're not necessarily delivered on the day itself.

[Krista]

Okay. Mike in New York says I check my credit card statement every month and compare the listed charges against all my saved receipts. This is getting harder and harder to do and also takes a lot of time. I'm charging more mostly because I use my card for the points. Some vendors don't print receipts and some don't even accept cash anymore, including our local pie bakery. Anyway, I find that at the end of the month I may have documentation for about half of the charges. And the others I just eyeball to make sure they look familiar. I thinking about ditching the practice of saving receipts and just looking at all the charges to make sure there isn't anything funny happening. I'm just wondering what you do. Do you compare every line item against receipts? Do you look at the statement only? What about Lane? Do you look at her statements as well for quality control? Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

[Clark Howard]

Oh, my goodness. Oh, my goodness. You don't know Lane. If I did that, she'd be like, what, you're checking my work?

[Krista]

Oh, yeah.

[Clark Howard]

She is so thorough and so detailed.

[Krista]

Lane actually just checking your statements?

[Clark Howard]

Yeah, she looks through every credit card statement, pretty much every statement. Brokerage, credit union, she looks through all of those every month. She pays all the bills. So we no longer keep receipts. You're unusual and they do so. And that's the smart thing to do, is to keep receipts. But what people do as an in between is there are now apps you can download to an iPhone or an Android because we all have our phones with us and they are receipt apps. And so you just take a picture of your receipt. Basically it scans it in and it keeps records for you. When your bill comes in, you can then go and look and. And you have all the receipts that you do get a printed one and you can throw away the paper receipt because that's a lot to keep track of.

[Krista]

I kind of do something that's not as thorough as that, I guess, but I log into all of my credit card accounts at least every couple of days and look at the recent charges. So I, I mean, I remember what I spent within a couple of days.

[Clark Howard]

You know, so Lane checks credit cards on the 1st, 10th and 20th.

[Krista]

Nice.

[Clark Howard]

She looks at all of them.

[Krista]

All right. Chris in California says, before I understood the risks associated with Zell, I send payments to about a dozen different people over time. I haven't had any fraud so far, but I'm concerned about whether I've exposed myself to future risk. What should I do now to protect myself? Is it enough to call my credit union and have Zelle disabled, or should I consider closing the account entirely and starting fresh elsewhere? I've been with this credit union for decades and would prefer not to leave if there's a safer way to handle this.

[Clark Howard]

Yeah, I hope there's no reason for you to dump your credit union union. Depending on the financial institution, you may be able to go on their app and turn Zell off and on, and that's what I recommend that you do. If your credit union is any size, they should have the on off button and you shouldn't have to call. Zelle has so much danger with it that you only want to use big bad sell when you have manually gone into the app, turned it on, sent the payment, go back and turn it off. Zelle, if you're not aware, is owned by a consortium of the banks. They were terrified about losing control of people's wallets and freaked out when Venmo and Cash app became popular. And so Zelle, if I read the stats right, is now more popular than Venmo or Cash app. The reason Zelle has more risk is it's embedded in your checking account and if somebody cracks into it, they then have the keys of the kingdom to swipe money out that's unrecoverable through the Zelle app. And the banks have never, in spite of all the focus it was put on them and hearings in Congress and they made some mealy mouth promises about how they were going to offer consumer protections. They've never done that. Now, are Cash App and Venmo safe? No. None of these have consumer protections by law behind them with them. So we use Venmo because there are people who want to be paid through one of these apps. So we have a separate account at a credit union is the only account we have at this credit union. So it makes us a bad member and we deposit money into it. I just did this the other day, deposit money into it and we use it to pay the various things we pay by Venmo. So the only money at risk is what's on deposit at that time.

[Krista]

I have to admit something. I have an account for my Venmo and Zelle at one of the big banks I have a credit card with. So I have this free checking account with them and I just deposit because there are two people in my life that I have to pay with Zell. Like they don't accept anything else and they're doing services and I just feel, I feel pretty comfortable with it just because there's really nothing for anyone to take. It's just what I pay these guys every month. And I don't have it attached to my other checking account, my other institution or anything. I just have direct deposit money put in there every month for those services.

[Clark Howard]

And so you brought up something. I'm sorry, we're beating this to death. It is not a protection if you go into a bank and say, well, I'm going to open a separate account to do Zelle or Cash App or Venmo. Because banks, their lawyers have all written these cross default clauses into your account structure with the financial institution. So if a crook gets a hold of your account for Zell and they're just sending themselves money and that account zeros out, what the bank does is it goes in and grabs money from your other checking account you have with them or savings account or whatever funds you have. You have overdraft, they're going to grab it and the bank will not care about what's happened with the money being swiped from your account through Zelle. That's why you have to set up an account elsewhere that you cordon off, that you do nothing else there. The credit card's okay, but you do no other deposit account, savings account, cd, checking account. Because this is the wild west with Venmo, Cash App and Zelle again, the greatest danger with Zell, because it is embedded in your account. Enough said about big bad sell coming up ahead. Big bad power outages. We're going to talk about how much more affordable it's become for you to deal with a power outage. I'm going to share the good news with you.

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[Krista]

Yikes.

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[Krista]

Ouch.

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[Clark Howard]

When you need it.

[Schwab Advertiser]

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[Krista]

Yikes.

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[Krista]

Ouch.

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[Clark Howard]

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[Don McDonald]

You know what's funny about free financial advice? It's usually the most expensive kind. I'm Don McDonald from the Talking Real Money podcast. For over three decades, my co host Tom and I have been the antidote to the financial nonsense that fills the airwaves. We don't sell products. We don't have sponsors paying us to recommend their funds. We just tell you what has actually worked. Backed by decades of academic research, not some guru's gut feeling. Our listeners Tell us we're like car Talk for your money. Minus the car problems with maybe even more bad jokes. You're already listening to a podcast right now, so finding us couldn't be easier. Just search for Talking Real Money or visit talkingrealmoney.com give us a few minutes. The worst that happens, you're mildly entertained. The best? You stop making your broker richer and start building actual wealth.

[Clark Howard]

Just search for Talking Real Money.

[Don McDonald]

Talking Real Money is an educational podcast, hosts or affiliated with a registered investment advisor. For disclosures, visit talkingrealmoney.com so power outages.

[Clark Howard]

Are something that is no fun at all. Lane and I, through the recent winter storms, lost power twice. Fortunately, the total power outage was two hours and change. The first time, three hours the second time. We never opened the refrigerator freezer and gosh, they're insulated well enough. Nothing went bad. But that's one of the things I know has happened to my oldest daughter and her husband. They're in an area where power lines are above ground and every time there's a storm, it seems the power goes out and the stuff in the refrigerator freezer ruined because of the time it takes to get the power back on. This was something that used to be you either got a generator that was a partial whole house, whatever, and it would run on most often natural gas, propane, something like that. Well, what's changed gradually, but much more so in the last year, is the affordability of power backup with batteries. Either batteries that you use for a rental property or in your own home, the same kind of batteries, or one that plugs in to your power supply like a generator would, you know, a one running on natural gas or on propane. But those require a lot of maintenance. Over the years, the big change that's happened is, as a general rule for most dwellings, somewhere between a 7 kilowatt and 12 kilowatt system will provide a decent amount of power for your home. And these batteries can either be on wheels. This is for a renter. You plug a bunch of stuff in, you can plug the refrigerator in, you can plug the microwave in. You can of course charge your phones. That's nothing. And you can have lighting that operates from these. And the prices of them are a fraction of what they were even two years ago. You will be able to buy one that is not a whole house solution. These aren't don't pass out and hit your head when I talk prices and you'll be like, that's cheap. But now we're looking at people being able to buy One that provides decent backup power for somewhere around 3, 500 bucks for one not hooked into your panel, to around 5 to $8,000 for one that does. And you'll be able to run a lot of stuff in your house. And depending on what you're trying to run, it can handle a multi hour outage to multi day. The advantage of a traditional natural gas powered or propane powered, that's that is hooked into your panel is there's no end to how long it can run on natural gas propane. You might need another tank, but the reality is they're for different purposes. If you know power outages where you live tend to be measured in days and hours or no more than a day, the battery backups are a much more efficient, affordable option. And they don't make that lousy noise that all your neighbors hear. My middle brother is putting in a battery when hooked up to a panel and putting in solar panels for it so that it extends the length of time that the unit will be able to supply power. These units that range from really small ones that run just a few things in your home that are measured under $1,000. To buy these units, what they do is you plug them into an outlet in your home. Most basic ones they charge up and then they're just standby power if the power goes out. But this is a huge shift because of the worldwide, minus the United States move to electric vehicles. That's led to such enormous improvements and the efficiency of batteries and lowered the cost of batteries by 95% from where they were 14 years ago. And that's why this is becoming a viable alternative. You can buy them so many different places. You can buy them from the big hardware stores. You can buy from if you're hooking it into a panel, you can buy them from a electrician or electrical contractor who specializes and backup power to homes. You can buy them from the warehouse clubs. You can buy them so many different places. But the point is it's not going to provide multi week replacement power. This isn't for that, which you can only do at this point with most often natural gas backup. You have natural gas backup. Yours is natural gas, not propane, natural.

[Krista]

Gas, whole house generator.

[Clark Howard]

So you can run your air conditioning, your heat. You can run everything in the house. Yep, that's pretty good. Yeah, but you have to do maintenance twice a year and you got to pay for the gas.

[Krista]

There's a monthly, I pay a monthly fee like $35 for them to test it every week and all that stuff. So okay. Adrian in Texas says Clark, I always hear you and others saying you should never use your Roth IRA as savings. What if I'm not able to max out my Roth? Shouldn't I just put all I have, as much as I can into the Roth? And if God forbid, I have to take money out, then so be it. Again, I'm not able to max it out even if I do put as much in as I can. So wouldn't that be better than having a designated savings account where it'll grow less? What am I missing? Thanks for all you and the team do.

[Clark Howard]

Okay. I love this because now we're talking about if you just look at dollars and cents, you're right. You would take every penny, including what normally might be in a puny interest earning savings account. I don't mean the amount and it's puny, but the interest you earn, it's going to be so much less than what you'd earn over time in a Roth ira. And the money and the Roth IRA grows tax free. You spend it tax free. So from just that perspective, 100 right here's the problem. When people historically develop a pattern of using 401k at work or an IRA. Roth IRA is like a piggy bank for unexpected expenses. The transmission goes out in your car, the air conditioning goes out at your home, whatever. And you don't have that money sitting around. That rainy day savings account you have doesn't exist. The money's in a Roth. So you develop a pattern because in a Roth you can always pull out your contributions, you can't pull out earnings. That it becomes this thing that you feel like you're going forward with saving for the future, but you keep having to take detours and u turns pulling money back out. So I like for people to think of a 401k or a Roth IRA is where you stash money that stays there and grows there for way down the road for financial security. And that having a separate savings account, even though you're going to lose money you would have earned in the Roth, is worth having. So that the Roth becomes like a fortress of money that is not touched, not breached, and you use the rainy day account for the unexpecteds.

[Krista]

All right. This is from Lynn in North Carolina. Lynn says, can you clarify if we now need visas to travel through Heathrow Airport? The UK website is confusing and says if you're going through security then they are required. We always seem to have to do that in Heathrow when continuing on to other European destinations. We are U.S. and Canadian citizens.

[Clark Howard]

Okay, so there's a technical answer and the practical answer, the technical answer is Heathrow. We got terminals 2, 3, is it 2, 3 and 5? 2, 3, 4 and 5, whatever. There's no terminal 1. When you change from terminal to terminal, a lot of people go through immigration then take free train to the other terminals. If you do that, you have to have the UK eta. The Electronic Travel Authority costs, depending on the exchange rate, about 22 bucks. It's good for two years. If your flight connection, you miss it, your flight's canceled. You could be marooned in the terminal. If you don't have an ETA and you're just sleeping on the floor, it's almost like an insurance policy. To get the ETA, you can technically come in, let's say to Terminal 2 and take an airport shuttle bus to Terminal 5 and stay in what they call sterile, where you are not actually entering the UK Technically, you're only an in transit passenger. I think it's worth it to get the ETA because you never know with a flight. Flight has a mechanical, you miss the connection, whatever it is, just pay the 22 bucks. Oh my gosh, yeah, have the ETA. Now, when you're buying an ETA for the United Kingdom, when you're buying one for any country, Australia requires them. So many countries require them now. The EU keeps delaying theirs, but sometime in 26, supposedly you're going to have to have one to go across the European Union. Make sure you're not being tricked. If you do a Google search, all the results are going to be phony websites and people keep getting ripped off. You read one of those a while back from somebody who got ripped off. So make sure that you go to the like uk.gov whatever the Australia one is, any of these countries, you want to make sure you're at the actual government website. And I'm going to go on a huge tangent from that. If you own a business and you have to do corporate filings with your state, you need to know that there are phony baloney organizations that will send you a notice of renewal for your filing with your state for an L.L.C. s corp, whatever, and they are not your state government. These are cheats, ripoff artists, con artists. They're not trying to steal your identity, they're trying to steal your money. And they will charge you many times what the state registration fee is. It can be an annual or every third year or whatever. They'll charge you way in excess as a business owner, what it should be. So know that emails you get saying your renewal with, with the state is overdue or whatever. Unless it's from your state, it's totally not where you want to go. You want to go to the state corporation Commission, secretary of state's office, whatever it's called in your state, and make sure that's where your registrations are up to date and pay your fee that you have to pay the state. That had nothing to do with the.

[Krista]

Lynn's question. That's okay. But Lynn, I mean, seriously, like Clark Howard saying, pay the 22 bucks. Like, definitely, like, can you imagine? I'm just when you said that I was envisioning myself laying on a bench in Heathrow Airport trying to sleep because something happened, going, why didn't I pay $22? I would pay a king's ransom right now for a hotel room or something.

[Clark Howard]

So, Kristen, I have a friend named James who hates Heathrow Airport so much. What would he do if he didn't have an ETA and he got stranded in Heathrow? I don't know. He says he's never the rest of his life, no matter what, ever going into or through Heathrow Airport.

[Krista]

That's funny. All right, Brian, in Texas, I says I usually rent a vehicle off airport to avoid the extra fees and to receive a car since the airport facilities lack enough cars. I recently rented a car in Orlando and was told that since the facility was close to the airport that I would be charged the extra fees. And this is the rental car company's protocol. I complained and the fees were removed. But is this a common rental car practice?

[Clark Howard]

Common to call it common. It is something that first came on our radar probably eight years ago that there were so many Travel bloggers and YouTube video people talking about how much and I've done it too, over the years, talking about how much money you save off airport with a rental car versus on airport. And I remember my middle brother I talked about earlier was on a trip to Austin, Texas, and the rental car at the airport was four times the cost of him taking an Uber to an off airport location and getting the same car four times the cost. And this can often be true, particularly in cities that have big sports events or a lot of conventions that rotate in and out that you'll have a much, much higher cost at the airport. So within a certain radius that car rental companies decide within so many miles of the airport, a neighborhood location will charge you the same fees as an out of stater as you would have paid at the airport to try to prevent people from diverting. And so this does happen. You saw it, you stood up for yourself and they remove the charge. Which is ridiculous because those extra charges for renting in an airport, this isn't about the rate, daily rate. This is about all the junk fees they add on or fees they actually do have to pay to the airport authority. And if you avoided that by getting to that off airport place on your own, you shouldn't have to pay those fees. They should have been disclosed at the time you were doing the booking. You know, with all the when they show all the extra junk fees. And the only good news I have about the car rental business is car rental rates are so much cheaper than they were even a couple of years ago is crazy. So it really pays to shop around. And there are so many ways you can save money that I love sharing with travel. With that having been said, I hope you have an absolutely great rest of your day. We serve you all week long so many ways, including if you live in a market where I'm on the evening news on TV or news through the day or radio. I hope that you enjoy the advice you get from me that way. We provide this as a YouTube show and if you watch the YouTube show, I really appreciate you doing that. You listen to it as a podcast wherever you like, downloading podcasts, our newsletters, our websites. All about you being able to add knowledge however you wish. You prefer social media. We got that for you too. So whatever way you best like receiving information, getting knowledge so you're empowered to save more, spend less and absolutely never, never, never, not ever get ripped off. That's what we're about is serving you. Have a great day. We'll be back with you on Wednesday. Hablas espanol spries to dioech if you.

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