02.25.26 Buying & Selling Gold / Why Simple Appliances Win

Summary

The Clark Howard Podcast

Episode: 02.25.26 – Buying & Selling Gold / Why Simple Appliances Win

Host: Clark Howard
Date: February 25, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode of The Clark Howard Podcast centers on two main personal finance issues: the savvy buying and selling of gold and silver, and the virtues of choosing simple appliances over high-end, feature-laden models. Clark addresses listener questions about precious metals, consumer scams, technology security, navigating cable company woes, and making practical lifestyle choices that put savings and reliability first. True to the show’s mission, Clark delivers clear, actionable advice to help listeners save money, avoid ripoffs, and make informed financial decisions.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Buying & Selling Gold and Silver (01:37–18:40)

• Gold and Silver as a Hedge, Not an Investment (02:10)

  • Clark clarifies: "Gold and silver... operate as a hedge in times of uncertainty or worry about the world or the value of currency... Having some hedge in gold, silver, commodities is a valuable strategy. It is not investing."
  • He recommends precious metals should make up only 5–10% of your investable assets: "The amount you should buy and own should represent somewhere...5 to 10% of investable assets...I don't refer to them as an investment." (03:15)

• Physical Gold vs. ETFs/ETNs (05:40)

  • Physical coins involve high buying and selling (buy/sell spread) and storage risks.
  • Buying via ETFs or ETNs offers “teensy tiny buy sell” costs and eliminates risk of theft.
  • “Funds are your friend. You want to sell them? Bam. You sell them ultra easy.” (06:30)

• When Not to Buy Gold (04:30)

  • “The time not to be excited about buying gold or silver is when they're in the news, because when they're in the news means they've had a big run up.” (04:35)

• Tax Considerations (08:40)

  • Those in very high tax brackets may see tax advantages in gold mining stocks over physical gold or funds: “The tax treatment of owning mining companies is much more favorable than owning actual gold.”

• Caller: Counterfeit Silver American Eagles – What Now? (09:13)

  • Caller “George in California” shares experience of getting scammed with counterfeit coins and being let down by his bank’s dispute process.
  • Clark’s advice: Filing a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) complaint is worthwhile, though success rates dropped from 50% to just 5%. Small claims against scammers is essentially unenforceable. (10:06–12:48)

2. Q&A: Roth IRAs vs. Saving for a Car (12:48–16:35)

• Listener Dilemma (Chris, North Carolina)
  • Family with modest income and strong savings receives a large tax refund: Should it go to their Roth IRAs or be saved for a future car?
  • Clark’s advice: Invest in the Roth IRAs. With a solid emergency fund and low-interest car loans available, the Roth offers a better long-term gain: “Put this money into the Roth...grow your money for the long term.” (14:27)

3. Security: Face ID vs. Passwords (17:00–18:40)

• Face ID and Passkeys for Banking Apps
  • Clark says, “Yes. Pass keys are awesome...they are safer than passwords and I would feel good about using it for a banking app.” (17:14)

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4. Why Simple Appliances & Cars Win (20:28–26:53)

• Clark’s Story: Fancy vs. Basic Dryers (21:30)

  • Clark found his expensive, feature-rich dryer unreliable, replaced it with a “plain dull white dryer” that works perfectly: “Simple. Works better.” (21:48)
  • He stresses Consumer Reports for appliance reliability research.

• The Dangers of Over-Engineered Products

  • High-volume, simpler appliances are usually more reliable and cost-effective.
  • Clark links this to today’s $50,000 average car prices, blaming unnecessary gadgets for high cost and reduced reliability.
  • “Manufacturers...run up the price, put more and more gadgets on them, more and more frills, they become less reliable.” (24:05)
  • Highlights Europe’s Dacia brand as a model for affordable, practical vehicles.

• Anecdote: John Mulaney & Bad Washer/Dryer Experiences (26:04)

  • Comedian’s frustration: Bought the “best” washer/dryer but it consistently underperformed, echoing Clark’s points.

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5. Cable & Internet: Navigating Customer No-Service (26:53–31:42)

• Cancelling Cable is War

  • Caller describes the hassle of canceling with Spectrum/Charter: “...question after question...finally told her I was only going to give her one more minute. She said it would take at least five more minutes...completely unprofessional.” (27:19)

• Clark’s Advice:

  • Expect retention specialists to stall; watch YouTube tutorials on expediting cancellation.
  • Document every conversation: names, dates, times.
  • Always get (and keep) receipts for returned equipment to avoid spurious charges. (29:00–31:10)

• Clark’s Quote: “It is war. Customer no service war...when you deal with the cable monster you gotta be prepared.” (31:38)

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6. Other Notable Q&A Segments

• Credit Card Limit Cut After Paying Off Balance (32:00)

  • Clark explains card issuers can reduce limits for many reasons, not always your fault. Always diversify card issuers and check your credit report for errors.

• Venmo for the Older Generation (34:22)

  • Older listener hesitant to use Venmo; Clark suggests using a separate online account for apps, citing fraud risks with physical checks outweigh those with apps.
  • “Giving people checks, I wouldn't do it. It’s too risky...My mother-in-law...she now has a Venmo account and sends [grandkids] money that way. And they're all thrilled...” (34:33)

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On Gold/Silver: "The purpose for me is simple and clear: protection. It's almost like an insurance policy against potential bad times." (07:30)
• On Appliance Choices: “With appliances...simple works better.” (21:48)
• On Technology Security: “Pass keys are awesome...you are who you say you are in a way that seems to be superior, usually involving biometrics.” (17:14)
• On Cable Companies: “It is war. Customer no service war.” (31:38)
• On Embracing New Payment Apps: “Giving people checks, I wouldn't do it. It's too risky." (34:33)

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Key Timestamps

• 01:37: Intro to gold/silver—hedge vs. investment
• 05:40: Physical precious metals vs. ETFs
• 09:13: Caller on counterfeit coins, Clark’s CFPB advice
• 12:48: Chris in NC: Tax refund—Roth IRA vs. car savings
• 17:00: Face ID and passkeys—better than passwords
• 21:30: Simple appliances win reliability test
• 24:00: Dacia cars as affordable, functional models
• 26:04–26:53: John Mulaney washer/dryer anecdote
• 27:16: Cancelling cable—Spectrum and retention roadblocks
• 31:38: Equipment return, billing disputes, and documentation
• 32:26: Card limit cut after payoff—check your credit!
• 34:22: Venmo vs. checks—advice for hesitant users

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Summary

Clark Howard unpacks the realities of investing in gold and silver, advising that their primary role is as a hedge—not a wealth-building investment—and steering listeners toward ETFs/ETNs for simplicity and liquidity. He fields cautionary tales of scams, provides practical solutions for financial windfalls, celebrates the virtues of basic appliances and cars, and offers tactical advice for dealing with predatory cable companies. The episode ends with reassurance that adapting to new financial technology is both inevitable and manageable, as long as you take steps to protect yourself. Throughout, Clark’s tone is approachable, direct, and relentlessly focused on putting the listener’s financial well-being first.

Transcript

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[Clark Howard]

I'm so glad to have you here on 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. And on today's show I'm going to talk about something. Something our teams asked me to address because man are we getting questions about it. When and where should you sell gold and silver? Another question I often hear do big price tags equal better quality on appliances? I got some surprising info for you and I'm going to tell you the difference between brand name and quality when it comes to just buying and getting the price quotient in there as well. That's later. So gosh, every time gold and silver is kind of an afterthought in this, but every time gold and silver start having very large price movements up, people are all about it. And then it'll go kind of quiet for a while, as does people's interest. And gold and silver having had a big run up and then then kind of a climb back down and all that. It's a question that when I'm asked it, I gotta tell you, there's a certain amount of broken record to me on this because I'm asked repeatedly when gold gets hot and actually this last time, silver as well know, should I be buying it, how much should I buy? What should I do? Let's talk about what role they play in life. Gold and silver and other commodities operate as a hedge in times of uncertainty or worry about the world or the value of currency. By currency I mean US Dollar, other developed world currencies like the euro, that kind of thing, Japanese yen. And so having a hedge, which is something that the idea of a hedge is that it provides some downside protection when the world gets uncertain, which in some extent the world's always certain amount uncertain. Having some hedge in gold, silver, commodities is a valuable strategy. It is not investing. Why? Because with gold and silver, other than some amount used for jewelry or in rare industrial uses, it doesn't create wealth the way investing in an enterprise does. It serves a different purpose. And that's why you will hear me say over the years that the amount you should buy and own should represent somewhere. If you want hedges 5 to 10% of your investable assets, and again, remember, I don't refer to them as an investment. The time not to be excited about buying gold or silver is when they're in the news. Because when they're in the news means they've had a big run up and then you stand the risk that it overshoots to the high end. You've bought when it's way on its way up and then you ride it back down. And that's happened to some people lately. How would I buy a precious metal? So this is something that I differ a lot with. A lot of people who buy particularly gold wants the actual physical gold. When you do that, you've got a lot of costs involved on the buy, on the sell. And that's why we get so many questions about it. When people want to get rid of stuff. There's one thing when you buy, I mean, that's why Costco has become the go to when people want to buy physical gold, because they don't mark it up like other people. And every time Costco puts gold up for sale, bam. It sells out in minutes many times. So the Buy sell spreads a real problem because you have to have a nice run up in the value in order to just break even when you have coins, gold coins, silver coins, whatever, because the buy sell spread in the marketplace. On the other hand, if you buy an ETF or ETN for gold, an exchange traded fund or note, and we have information on how to do [e-mail] you can also find it on Investopedia. You're paying teensy tiny buy sell and you don't have to physically store it. You don't have to worry about somebody breaking in and stealing your money from your safe in your home or whatever, or hiding it under the mattress or wherever you put it. And then it goes the question, the heart of all the questions we've been being asked lately about how do I sell it? So difficult. In fact, I saw stories when gold hit its peak that jewelers that buy gold were afraid to buy any more at that point because they were having to pay at such a high price at that point. So then you're running around trying to find somebody who will buy it from you, who. And then you got the buy sell spread and the differences in what one place will pay you from another, pretty significant. So to me, I come all the way back to the beginning, which is how you buy it is more important because it helps you avoid the difficulty trying to sell it later. And paying that sell spread where you lose some real market value. From what you see the value is per ounce versus what you're getting. And that's why funds are your friend. Because you want to sell them. Bam. You sell them ultra easy. And again with gold and precious metals, remember the purpose. The purpose for me is simple and clear protection. It's almost like an insurance policy against potential bad times. And insurance, the whole idea of insurance, you don't put all your money in insurance. Insurance is to deal with potential calculated risk. That's why you cap how much you put into it to a small percent of your overall money. All right. Do you own any gold or silver?

[Caller/Listener]

I don't. I don't think I do. It could be in a fund because I do use a fee. Only fiduciary who buys things inside of my ira. So. But I don't think so.

[Clark Howard]

So I'll tell you something. We got esoteric and exotic for a second. People who are worried about taxes or a real high tax rate often will buy gold mining stocks instead of actual physical gold. Because the gold miners, the tax treatment of owning mining companies is much more favorable than owning actual gold. Either through a fund or physically owning it.

[Caller/Listener]

Interesting.

[Clark Howard]

But that's really for people who are in extremely high tax brackets.

[Caller/Listener]

Okay. All right. Well, George in California has a question for you. He says, I paid $1,773 for 60 silver American Eagles in September using my credit card. Upon receiving said coins, right away, I knew they were counterfeit.

[Clark Howard]

No.

[Caller/Listener]

Yeah. I made a dispute ASAP with my bank. They settled in favor of the scammers. I then contacted the office of the president of the bank to plead my case, but they did not see it my way.

[Clark Howard]

Any information about why they said no?

[Caller/Listener]

No. It just says, have I exhausted all my avenues of dispute other than small claims court? At the peak of the $115 plus an ounce for silver, I could have quadrupled. If these coins were real, who would I submit for the defendant, the bank or the scammers who have taken down their phony spoofed website?

[Clark Howard]

Right. So, George, this one's really messy. Based on what you've learned, you're dealing with people who scammed you. So small claims court is going to do nothing for you. You could get a judgment, but the judgment is essentially unenforceable that you would have against the silver coin scammers.

[Caller/Listener]

I wonder if they're even in the United States.

[Clark Howard]

They may not be. Yeah, but even if they're. If they were in California, maybe a little more help for you. But generally, who knows where they're going to be? So that's not a viable option. I want to suggest something I used to routinely suggest, and that is you file a complaint against the bank with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Under chargeback rules, failure to receive goods and services is a valid reason for a dispute. Now then, this is the gray. Based on your knowledge, the coins are counterfeit. That is the area where the bank's like, hey, we're not getting involved in this, but filing a [e-mail] may get you results. Now, I want to tell you about some new data on filing complaints with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Last data two years ago found that when you filed a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, you had a better than 50% shot that the bank was going to help you out where they had not before. The most recent data I saw is that the success rate in filing that complaint is 5%. Now it's fallen from more than 50% to just 5%. Why? Because the banks no longer fear the regulatory authority of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. But it is the best strategy I know at this point to try to get another look at this from the bank because you're showing I'm not going away. This happened to me. And the particular bank involved has had past regulatory tangles about other things, so they are a little more sensitive to how they might be communicated to by regulators. So I think that's worth a shot. But I'm really, really sorry because I'm sure that's money you could have used in your life. You could have made a big return potentially with that huge spike that happened with Silver. That's now over. And so I wish I had a better answer, but that's the best I got for you.

[Caller/Listener]

All right, Chris in North Carolina says Clark, thank you for all that you do on your show and try to make life a little more affordable for the average person. My family of four, including a two year old and three month old, have benefited tremendously from your advice and analysis. We followed your advice from your newsletter and filed our taxes last week and I was genuinely shocked to see how large our federal return is slated to be. I use the Cash app to file electronically for free, so I was immediately skeptical and thought there might have been an error. I went back and double checked my inputs and then have my wife review my work. Sure enough, our federal return should be $6,624. I'm a bit unsure where to put this money to best use for context. My wife and I are 35 and 33 respectively. We live on $65,000 per year single income household and have about $260,000 in retirement savings and about half of that is in our Roth accounts. We have a six month emergency fund of $24,000 in an easily accessible money market account.

[Clark Howard]

Fantastic.

[Caller/Listener]

Since our first son was born and my wife quit her paying job as a teacher to be a full time stay at home mom, we have been lucky if we can contribute more than $3,000 into each of our Roth IRAs per year. With money being so tight, I know that Roth savings is incredibly valuable so it makes sense to split this between our two Roth accounts and invest there for additional context. Our monthly expenses are stable, but we have a 17 year old Honda that is starting to show its age. Would Roth be best or should we start building up savings for our eventual need to purchase a new to us used SUV or minivan?

[Clark Howard]

Okay. There's so much to unpack. I know first of all how efficiently you're living raising two little children. Incredible. Okay, number one. Number two, how much you are saving in your trend line on saving for the future. Number three, you're driving a 17 year old vehicle with a family that's going to need something bigger eventually than the crv. And then you have this unusually large refund. And we covered this on the podcast just recently that there are certain things in the tax bill that Congress passed last year that are going to lead to surprise larger than normal refunds this year. And it's all about trying to give the economy a little bit of a booster shot. Also means with an even larger federal budget deficit which I got to talk about soon anyway. What would I do? So you're driving a 17 year old vehicle. You're not people who are frivolous and how you spend money. I would like you to you've already got your rainy day account to put this money into the Roth to give that a leg up with years and years and years to grow. And then when the time comes that you need to replace the CRV with a new to you SUV or van, the interest rates on vehicle loans from credit unions have really come down. And so borrowing the money for that purchase will be cheaper than the opportunity cost you would. You would face by not having that money. Have time to grow for retirement tax free and be spent tax free in the Roth. So that's why I would do that is I would go ahead and pop that money into the Roth or I got the really solid rainy day account and continue to grow your money for the long term.

[Caller/Listener]

And the CRV is kind of still a baby, right? Those things can go forever.

[Clark Howard]

17. It's no longer a baby. It's not even an awkward teenager. It's, it's a full adult now. So.

[Caller/Listener]

Okay.

[Clark Howard]

Is something that the clock's ticking on.

[Caller/Listener]

Yeah.

[Clark Howard]

Because you're talking about one From Think about 2009. That's a long, long, long time ago.

[Caller/Listener]

Joe in Texas says it seems like more and more apps are activating Face ID to log in. While I have no problem using it for fun apps, I'm wary to activate it for banking apps. Is Face ID considered safer than inputting a username and password?

[Clark Howard]

Yes. Pass keys are awesome and that's the term the industry uses for it. And step by step, the big technology companies are cooperating on eliminating future use of passwords because passwords are just nothing but a problem. And so pass keys, it's just an industry term for validating you are who you say you are in a way that seems to be superior, usually involving biometrics. You'll see more and more things where you log in using your phone to log into something on your computer that is a pass key where you're using your face or using your fingerprint in order to gain access. And so this is safer than passwords and I would feel good about using it for a banking app or something like that rather than using a traditional password. Coming up ahead, you know how people always say they don't make things like they used to? True. And why did this used to last this long and now it lasts this short? We're going to address that straight ahead and why simple often is better this

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[Charles Schwab Ad]

We all have moments when we could have done better. Like cutting your own hair. Yikes. Or forgetting sunscreen so now you look like a tomato.

[Clark Howard]

Ouch.

[Charles Schwab Ad]

Coulda done better. Same goes for where you invest. Level up and invest smarter with Schwab. Get market insights, education and human help when you need it. Learn [e-mail]

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We all have moments when we could have done better. Like cutting your own hair. Yikes. Or forgetting sunscreen so now you look like a tomato.

[Clark Howard]

Or ouch.

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Could have done better. Same goes for where you invest. Level up and invest smarter with Schwab. Get market insights, education and human help when you need it. Learn [e-mail]

[Don McDonald]

youm 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.

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[Don McDonald]

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[Clark Howard]

had a really fancy dryer. The thing was so trouble prone from the very beginning and eventually I was like enough. I did what I recommend you do when you're looking at buying appliances. Nobody does more research on reliability and dependability of appliances than Consumer Reports. So I go and I look at Consumer Reports and I figure out that actually what's going to work best is, is to buy just a simple what people consider to be ugly dryer. So I buy the ugly dryer and it's just so basic. Like something from 15 years ago, doesn't have all kinds of fancy doodads, doesn't have a fancy color. It's a plain dull white dryer. What does it do? It works. The old fancy one that costs so much money never really worked. The one we replaced it with was, gosh, I think it was $400 and something dollars right in there. And it works flawlessly with appliances. I've talked about this before when we've had questions about refrigerators and things like this. High volume, simpler appliances are superior generally for reliability than the new fancy decorative looking things. You know, what do you want your dishwasher to do? Clean your dishes? What do you want the washer to do? Wash your clothes. What do you want the dryer to do? Dry your clothes. Do you want them to be designer pieces? Well, you go into an appliance store, you go into a Home Depot or Lowe's. Everything is about getting these ultra fancy looking appliances that have more controls than they probably needed to launch an Apollo spaceship long ago. I mean, it's crazy. And so simple. Works better. I want to give an example of something that has been bugging me a lot. Average cost of a new vehicle in the United States, 50,000 plus dollars. $50,000. And we have such an Extreme shortage in the United States of more affordable vehicles. And what happens as the manufacturers of vehicles, in order to run up the price, put more and more gadgets on them, more and more frills, they become less reliable. They become far less reliable because it's so hard for all these different gadgets to work and you're increasing the possibility of them breaking down and you're making things more expensive. I want to give an example that I haven't talked about in probably seven or eight years. I want to talk about Dacha. Anybody know what Dacha is? Dacha is a discount vehicle brand and they build vehicles that are simple. They build vehicles that are not state of the art anything, just vehicles that have proven components on them that are fully depreciated out, meaning that they're cheaper to manufacture, the R and D to develop them, already done. They just work. And I pulled up what it costs for these simple dacha models. So translated into US dollars. Here's a 15,001, here's a 19,001. 23,000. Oh, here's the most expensive, $32,000. I mean, think about that. These are sold all over Europe, very affordable vehicles. And I see them, I have the privilege of traveling frequently to Europe and I see the daches all over the place. And again, they just work. We have gotten away from that with too much pizzazz and not enough just fundamentals of things that do their job.

[Caller/Listener]

It's so funny, I just saw John Mulaney, the comedian, and he did this whole thing about how he went to like Lowe's or somewhere and he said, give me the most expensive washer dryer you have. Like the best one. I just want the best one. And he. And how frustrated he is because the dryer goes for like two hours and the stuff's still wet.

[Clark Howard]

Still wet, yeah.

[Caller/Listener]

And he's just like annoyed. And he watched it the whole time. One time he's like, I watched the whole cycle just to see if something was happening. Was it pausing what was going on? And no, it was just not doing its job.

[Clark Howard]

Do you have a fancy dancing one off on a pedestal and all that?

[Caller/Listener]

I have like the front loaded ones. They're 10 years old, but they work. I don't know. They're not. I don't know if they were fancy back then. I bought them on like Facebook Marketplace.

[Clark Howard]

Oh, you bought them used?

[Caller/Listener]

I did.

[Clark Howard]

Oh, I like that.

[Caller/Listener]

Okay, questions for you. This one's from Clint in New York. We just moved our Internet service from the cable company to T Mobile. I learned about their plan from your newsletter. We were thrilled. Our Internet bill went from $90 to $50 per month. So thank you, Clark, for the advice. What I did not anticipate was the difficulty in canceling our cable service. The cable Internet service.

[Clark Howard]

This is one of the big. So go ahead and name them Spectrum.

[Caller/Listener]

This cannot be done online and only by calling and speaking with a live representative. I was asked question after question and finally told her I was only going to give her one more minute. She said it would take at least five more minutes. I hu. In my opinion, this was completely unprofessional and there's no way I would ever do business with this company again. Any idea on how I can expedite the canceling of my service?

[Clark Howard]

Right. So the two cable monsters, which are Comcast and Charter, they both use these different names. Comcast calls theirs Xfinity now and Charter calls their Spectrum because their brand names have become so negative in the marketplace that they came up with new names. They're both losing subscribers and they are facing something they never were wired for, and that's competition. And by the way, the T mobile thing is 50amonth if you're a non T mobile subscriber, 35 if you have certain voice line plans with them and it's a deal. The other one is they own Met Mobile. And if you're not a subscriber for T Mobile, for cell phone service, getting the home Internet from Met Mobile is cheaper than getting the same service from their parent T Mobile.

[Caller/Listener]

And that's M I N T Mobile.

[Clark Howard]

Because my enunciation is so poor, Right?

[Caller/Listener]

Well, you say it. Some people think you're saying M e n T, but it's M I n t. Yeah.

[Clark Howard]

Sorry.

[Caller/Listener]

It's okay. I just wanted to clarify.

[Clark Howard]

All right, so online and on YouTube, there is post after post and video after video on YouTube. How to cancel your Charter service. I mean, this is the craziest thing, but they go to war with you when you try to cancel. You have got to put up with the endless retention specialist stall to get done with them. Otherwise they're just going to keep billing you and then you're double paying for Internet. So there's even. I'm trying to remember this was a Post or a YouTube video. How to cancel Charter Spectrum in 14 minutes or less. I mean, really, really. So understand the game. They are going to slow walk you. They're going to offer you all kinds of things that they didn't offer you before to try to get you not to dump their uneconomic Non economic, they're overpriced, monopoly minded Internet service in an era that now has more and more emerging competition. And you just got to put up with the hassle and make sure you have recorded the name of who the retention specialist was, the date and time you spoke to them, so that if they don't cancel, even though you've gone through the whole shebang to cancel, you've got documentation of when you did it and who you talk to.

[Caller/Listener]

My friend just called his Internet company and got it down to $50 and they swapped it out for a newer, better tow and we had to go return the old equipment. And he had never done this before. And I was like, you don't understand. We have got to make sure we're taking pictures of returning the equipment, the whole thing. I mean, I went crazy. And we got a receipt that listed the equipment that was returned. And I questioned the guy like I was a detective and they're trying to charge for not returning the equipment. So we have all this stuff. But I was just like, I knew it.

[Clark Howard]

All right, so. And we're not talking about charter.

[Caller/Listener]

No, no.

[Clark Howard]

Right. So I had returned equipment I was given. I asked for a receipt at the store, took a picture of the seat because I lose everything. So I had in my phone, sure enough, I got a bill in the mail from collections for $400 for failing to return equipment. Then I had to go through the whole thing and thank goodness I had the receipt that I had turned the equipment in. It is war.

[Caller/Listener]

Yeah.

[Clark Howard]

Customer no service war.

[Caller/Listener]

Yeah.

[Clark Howard]

When you deal with the cable monster and you got to be prepared. And as I always say, when I pick on Comcast or Charter, either of you are welcome to come on the podcast and state why I'm wrong.

[Caller/Listener]

Okay. Robert in Texas says I recently paid off my balance, which was over $8,000 on my credit card. The next day I received an email from the bank saying they have reduced my credit limit. $640. I've never been late with a payment. Their email says our decision was based in whole or in part on information obtained by one of the credit bureaus. Why would they reduce my credit limit so drastically?

[Clark Howard]

Robert, they have to tell you what credit bureau they relied on.

[Caller/Listener]

They did. I have it here.

[Clark Howard]

Okay, so you immediately Equifax. You immediately need to look at a copy of your Equifax credit report. They should have told you in the notice that that is available to you for free instant access. You'll be able to see if there's something on There. If you don't have a Credit Karma account set up yet, set up a free Credit Karma account. Look at what they've got there on you with TransUnion and Equifax experience. Not a participant there. Look for what it is that may have triggered this. So a couple of possibilities. A lot of banks are terrified right now with delinquencies rising, and they could have just used some factor in your credit report because they get to choose if they want to extend your credit or not at the bank. They don't have to give you a valid reason, but there may have been something that had them nervous from your report or they've made a mistake. If you go through your Equifax credit report, you find nothing there. You then want to contact this bank back and say, hey, you said you did this relying on an Equifax credit report. I've got my report, it's perfect. My credit score is blah, blah, blah. If everything's solid or you may find there is a problem there you didn't know about and then you got to work on whatever that problem is with your credit report. This is again why you want to have credit cards from two or more issuers, at least two different issuers. Having two cards with the same company, it doesn't help you. That's no diversification. If they get nervous about you and they cut your limit, they're going to cut it on everything you got with them. That's why you need to be with more than one issuer.

[Caller/Listener]

And Jeanette in Iowa says, I'm very hesitant to set up Venmo, but multiple family members are requesting this for payment. I still use checks or cash. Do I give in?

[Clark Howard]

If you want to be generous. Oh, man. Last time I said this, we got some real strong negative feedback. If you want to continue to be generous and you're talking about giving to younger family members, they don't even know what to do with a check if you give it to them. You think I'm kidding? Maybe they don't. And cash, they're allergic to cash. It's weird, right? So having a Venmo account or Cash app account is okay. I just would not want you to have it tied in. Jeanette, with your regular bank account because of issues, if somebody were to hack into or get into your Venmo account, if it's tied into your principal account, it could cause a real problem for you. What I prefer is that you open an online account that you only put in the money that you're going to generously provide to relatives. It's just things change over time. The way people do things changes over time. Countries are eliminating paper checks. We'll get there. The number of paper checks written in the United States has collapsed and they're very seldom used because there's a lot of fraud risk involved with checks. So I think you could say here's cash or nothing, but giving people checks, I wouldn't do it. It's too risky. Yes, there are risks, as I just stated with Venmo or Cash app, but they are much less than what you face with physical checks. Yeah, it's just what it is. My mother in law used to give checks to her grandkids. She doesn't anymore because they would go uncashed. She would give them to various of her grandkids and they were just the kids didn't know what to do with them. They'd go in a drawer and so she now has a Venmo account and sends them money that way. And they're all thrilled to get money that way. And that's it for us today. I hope you have had a really enjoyable time with us on our YouTube show or this podcast today and that you learned something useful to you in your own life that you can act on in your own life. And coming up on Friday is when we have Clark Stinks. If you're new to our YouTube show or podcast, Clark Stinks is something we've done for the last 30 years where I get direct feedback from you. If you feel that I'm giving bad advice, bad opinions, incomplete information, or I'm just plain dumb. And it's really useful for me to expand my pool of knowledge and to improve the quality of the information that I give out. So you ever hear something from me, see me say something you're not comfortable with, please take the time to post it on clarkstonxlark.com clarksthinx Everything we do, every way we reach you, is all about giving you knowledge that you can act on that empowers you so you can save more, spend less, and avoid getting ripped off. See you Friday.