09.03.25 Clark’s Streaming Service Update / A Senior Facility Payment Warning

Summary

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The Clark Howard Podcast — Sept. 3, 2025

Episode: Clark’s Streaming Service Update / A Senior Facility Payment Warning
Host: Clark Howard

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Episode Overview

Clark Howard dives into two major themes in this episode:

• Cutting Streaming TV Costs: Clark shares his personal journey to save money on live TV streaming—especially around football season—while still getting the channels he wants.
• Senior Care Facility Payment Pitfalls: He delivers an urgent warning to family members and good Samaritans involved in helping loved ones enter senior facilities, detailing predatory practices and what to watch out for. The episode also features rapid-fire Q&A on payment methods, travel savings, consumer protections, electric vehicles, and tips for seniors considering different housing models.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Clark’s Guide to Cheaper Streaming & Football Access

[00:53 – 09:32]

• Streaming Price Creep:
  Clark explains why he gave up on YouTube TV after price hikes—"$83 a month base, so I dumped it." ([00:59])
• Retention Offers & Final Goodbye:
  Briefly benefited from a one-time price rollback, then left for good after the discount ended. Nobody in the household really noticed until football loomed!
• Team Streaming Research:
  Used the streaming guide tool at clark.com to compare channel needs with his wife.
• The Solution:
  Settled on Sling TV at $62/month and paired it with a 50-mile range antenna for local channels and better picture quality on college games.
  • “I’m getting a better picture for the games with the antenna than I can get through Sling TV.” ([02:59])
  • Recommends indoor antennas for free local stations—found more channels than expected.
• NFL Sunday Ticket Withdrawal:
  First season he hasn’t renewed NFL Sunday Ticket:
  • “I have not renewed. For the first time ever, I have not renewed NFL Sunday Ticket. … I'm not having the shakes at all without it.” ([04:14])
• Listener & Co-host Strategies:
  • Co-host: Switched to ESPN standalone for $30/month (includes Disney+ and Hulu), intends to cancel after football season.
  • Clark suggests prepaying for a year if planning to keep long-term—saves two months—otherwise, monthly/cancel strategy is cheaper for purely seasonal needs.
  • Both stress the importance of setting a calendar reminder so you don't forget to cancel.

Notable Quote

• “With any subscription, any streaming, always put on your calendar when to cancel it.” —Clark Howard ([07:24])

Listener Question—Cheapest Football Streaming ([07:30])

• Antenna = Cheapest Route:
  “Again, the antenna is the cheapest show in town.” ([08:13])
• For NFL Sunday Ticket, Clark reveals college students get deep discounts ($109/season vs. $400). If you have a college student in the family, that's the best deal.

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2. Payment Methods: Credit Card vs. ACH for Auto-Pay

[09:42 – 11:40]

• Listener’s cable provider offers a $10/month discount for switching auto-pay from credit card to checking account (ACH).
• Clark’s Take:
  • Take the savings while it lasts, but recognize there is slightly more risk giving direct access to your checking account than using a credit card.
  • Predicts a broader industry move away from credit cards due to high merchant fees: “This is getting serious with merchants of all sizes saying, no, we're not going to be ripped off by the Visa MasterCard cartel anymore.” ([10:52])
• Unique to the US; not common elsewhere.

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3. Smart TV Account Warning Before Donation

[11:41 – 12:46]

• Listener story: After donating a smart TV from a senior memory care facility, the previous owner was billed for Amazon video purchases and a karaoke subscription still tied to her account.
• Clark’s Urgent PSA:
  • Always wipe all smart devices (TVs, Roku, Firestick, etc.) before donating.
    • “If you do not wipe it clean, whoever gets that TV after you donate it suddenly is streaming at your expense.” ([12:49])
  • TVs now function like computers and must be treated with similar security precautions.

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4. Travel Savings Tip: Always "Reshop" Reservations

[12:46 – 16:12]

• Listener thanks Clark for saving money on a UK trip by following his advice to rebook hotel reservations as prices drop.
• Clark’s Method:
  • “I re-shop my car rentals...the price dropped like a rock for the first rental...Even hotels push so hard—hey, we’ll give you an extra discount if you buy non-refundable. Bad on so many levels. Don't do it. Shop that hotel room again and again.” ([13:41])
• Applies this continuous "reshopping" strategy to airfare, car rentals, and hotels.

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5. Senior Care Facility Payment Dangers

[18:43 – 23:14]

• Clark's Warning:
  • Care facilities often slip legal paperwork into the mountain of forms, getting adult children/relatives/friends to "co-sign" or otherwise become liable for the bills when the original resident can't pay.
    • “They try to get you to sign paperwork that obligates you…that you become legally liable for the bills. It's a despicable practice.” ([19:37])
  • Rule: If you are the helper—not the resident—never sign anything.
• After-Death Debt Collection Scams:
  • If a loved one passes and you never signed liability, you are not responsible for unpaid bills, even if a collection agency tries to say otherwise.
  • “You are not liable for them and you do not let anybody con you into paying one cent. Not one cent.” ([21:46])
• Filial Responsibility Laws:
  • In roughly half of U.S. states, adult children can in rare cases be held responsible for a parent’s Medicaid costs (usually unenforced, but worth checking your state).
    • “Half the nation states have laws...seldom actually enforced...holding adult children responsible.” ([22:18])

Notable Quote

• “When you're there accompanying somebody, never sign anything. Hear me on this, you sign nothing.” —Clark Howard ([19:37])

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6. Senior Living Options & CCRC Insights

[23:14 – 28:46]

• Question: What to look for with continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs)? Fears about being unable to move if the management is poor.
• Clark’s Take:
  • CCRCs often require a large "buy-in" (from ~$300,000 to over $3 million), with promises of escalating care as needs increase.
  • Warning: “If they go bust, you lose all that money and you may not have a place to live anymore.” ([25:13])
  • Some facilities have refundable portions or will refund part to your estate, but not always.
  • Suggests hiring a paid, fiduciary navigator or counselor (not commission-based) to protect your interests.
  • Alternate option: non-buy-in, “rental” style senior housing; higher monthly costs, less risk, easier exit.
  • Note: Some Americans are seeking care abroad for more affordable and personal service.

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7. Rapid-Fire Q&A:

a. Buying from Amazon vs. Direct for Warranty/Returns

• Amazon is no longer as friendly with returns for third-party sellers.
• Consider Amazon for a layer of protection, but read the fine print. Fewer guarantees than in years past.

b. Gifting an Aging Plug-in Hybrid to a Young Relative

• Listener’s Honda Clarity EV range is down; niece can’t charge, would run on gas only.
• Clark’s Advice: Sell it; buy her a vehicle better suited for her needs.

c. Prius Resurgence

• Prius “hot again” due to high gas mileage and lower price than most EVs.

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Notable Quotes

• On auto-pay discount:
  “There's a slightly higher risk of financial shenanigans when you link your checking account…but the risk is low enough that I would take the $10 a month savings for as long as that's something you can do.” —Clark Howard ([10:08])

• On smart TV donation risk:
  “All TVs are pretty much smart now…When you donate a computer, you might drill the hard drive…We don't think about smart TVs now. But they are essentially a computer and important information can be on it. So please wipe it clean.” —Clark Howard ([12:46])

• On rebooking travel:
  “Reshop your hotel…Again and again, refundable room rates, and you'll be amazed if you'll do this consistently how much money you'll save on all three phases of a typical trip.” —Clark Howard ([13:41])

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Memorable Moment

• Clark on watching football with an antenna:
  “I'm getting a better picture for the games with the antenna than I can get through Sling TV.” ([02:59])
• Clark resisting NFL Sunday Ticket:
  “I have not renewed. For the first time ever…I'm not having the shakes at all without NFL Sunday Ticket...” ([04:14])
• Clark’s uncompromising warning to helpers at senior facilities:
  “Never sign anything. Hear me on this: you sign nothing.” ([19:37])

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Clark’s Streaming Switch & Football Solutions: [00:53 – 09:32]
• Auto-Pay Discount Pros & Cons: [09:42 – 11:40]
• Smart TV Wipe Before Donation: [11:41 – 12:46]
• Travel Booking Tip—Reshop, Reshop, Reshop: [12:46 – 16:12]
• Senior Care Facility Payment Pitfalls: [18:43 – 23:14]
• Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRCs): [23:14 – 28:46]
• Amazon vs Direct for Warranties: [28:46 – 31:05]
• Electric/Hybrid Car Gifting Dilemma: [31:05 – 32:01]
• Prius Resurgence Commentary: [32:01 – 32:36]

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Tone & Style

Clark is conversational, practical, and occasionally wry, staying laser-focused on empowering listeners to make smart money decisions—no matter how big or small. He warns of pitfalls but always points to workable solutions, balancing caution with optimism and resourcefulness.

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Takeaways

• Compare all streaming and bundling options, leverage antennas, and always plan to cancel when the season’s over.
• Never sign as a “helper” for senior facilities; only the resident should sign.
• Always wipe devices before donating.
• Reshop travel bookings until the last minute for savings.
• Take auto-pay discounts if you’re comfortable with a bit more risk.
• Be cautious when locking up large sums in CCRCs—consult paid fiduciaries, and explore all care options.

Clark’s mantra: Save more, spend less, and never get ripped off!

Transcript

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[Clark Howard]

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[Clark Howard]

It's great to have you here on the Clark Howard Show. You know, our mission is to serve you with advice and information that empowers you. So make better financial decisions in your life. And I'm going to begin today's show with an update on how I decided to work out my streaming TV dilemma. I realized I never explained what I did other than firing YouTube TV. And people want to know how did I deal with my addiction to football and lower my bills at the same time. And later is more and more of us are living longer. Paying for nursing home and long term care is going to get even more complicated. If you have a loved one or you're helping a friend try to navigate the system, I've got something so important to warn you about as the helper or as the relative of the individual seeking care. But right now, the streaming update. So back in the spring, YouTube TV, which used to be a screaming deal, became so expensive, basically $83 a month base. So I dumped it. And when I went to dump it, they offered to roll back the price for a period of time. So I said, okay, I'll see what happens. So I went through that period of time and then I dumped them again. And they didn't offer another retention deal. So then got rid of it. And so okay, this is terrible. Maybe because it was summer, nobody noticed, nobody noticed that we had no TV streaming service that was like traditional cable TV, which is kind of what YouTube TV, Hulu Live, Sling and Fubo, they're all these things that kind of are their version of what people used to buy in a cable bundle. And so eventually my wife said weeks after I had disconnected YouTube TV, our YouTube TV's not working. That's because I disconnected it. And she said, well, what are we going to do instead? So I went hunting and we looked at Philo. What I did is I went on our streaming guide [e-mail] and I went through channels with her and said, well, do you need this? Do you need that? And eventually it turned out that the best deal we could do was Sling. And Sling is costing, if I remember right, 62amonth instead of the 83amonth with YouTube TV. And so far so good. I've got my ESPN feeds and I bought a 50 mile range antenna, the TVs. And what I've discovered watching some college games is I'm getting a better picture for the games with the antenna than I can get through Sling tv or in some markets Sling TV doesn't have all the local channels, but you're going to get them with that antenna. And so the antenna sits behind the TVs, you don't see it and it pulls a strong signal. Now the thing I did was I tried just an antenna, didn't pull enough signal. So then I looked at reviews online and I bought 50 mile range indoor antennas that just attached to each TV. And now I'm getting a fine signal of local channels, getting a lot more local channels I even knew existed. Then I've got the Dish Network, you know, the Sling tv, that's DISH Network digitally or streaming. And I've been fine. I have not renewed. For the first time ever, I have not renewed NFL Sunday Ticket. I don't know how long I'm going to be able to hold out. I'm not having the shakes at all without NFL Sunday Ticket. I, it's not bothering me a bit, but maybe I'm going to end up with enough football just with what I have available with my antenna and with what I'm able to get on slang, I think I'll make it. I mean I've, I've been an NFL Sunday Ticket subscriber since the beginning of NFL Sunday Ticket.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host or Guest]

So I just entered an NFL like, I don't know what you call it, it's not a fancy football league. But Joe, super fan of the show, he got me into this thing where every week you pick the winning teams on the NFL games because I wanted to care. I wanted a reason to care about the games. And so you have to be a gambler to care. Yeah.

[Clark Howard]

Okay.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host or Guest]

And then each week like there's like, I don't know how many people in there you, you can win, like more than you put in for the whole season each week if you get the games, the most games. Right. So we'll see. But what I did, I canceled my YouTube TV because I do not watch it.

[Clark Howard]

And you canceled yours also.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host or Guest]

I did. And I signed up with ESPN standalone service, which is, oh, 29amonth or 30. Yeah, $30 a month.

[Clark Howard]

And for a year you get Disney plus and basically Hulu included.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host or Guest]

Yeah.

[Clark Howard]

And after that, you'll pay who knows what.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host or Guest]

I won't.

[Clark Howard]

You're out. I won't.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host or Guest]

So we'll see what else is available then, I guess. But. And I may cancel it after football season because I won't watch it because.

[Clark Howard]

Football is your life.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host or Guest]

Football is not my life, but I enjoy a college football Saturday.

[Clark Howard]

So you got a better deal if you don't think you're gonna cancel the new ESPN bundle, which is a new standalone thing, if you pay a year up front, which is 299 versus 29.99amonth. And so that means you're getting two months free out of 12. But doing what you're doing, if you're only doing it for football season, canceling at the end of the season would be a much cheaper option.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host or Guest]

Yeah, okay. And of course, because I'm a flake, I need to put on my calendar.

[Clark Howard]

When to cancel it 100% with any subscription, any streaming, always.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host or Guest]

All right, we'll go to questions. James in Georgia says, hey, Clark, I love football as much as you do.

[Clark Howard]

Football is my life.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host or Guest]

And my wife loves you more than we love football. We listen to the radio where you do segments, too. And every weekday morning, Tishley hears both your segments and I wake up to see your face every Saturday morning while she catches up on your podcast from the week. She works hard to keep us a Clark approved on a Clark approved budget. So we don't pay for TV except during football season. As much as it pained her last year, we subscribed to YouTube TV for five months because it was the best deal she could find for the NFL Ticket and Red Zone. Help me out this year. What is the cheapest way to watch as many NFL games as possible without breaking the bank? Keep up the amazing work and go Falcons.

[Clark Howard]

So again, the Antenna is the cheapest.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host or Guest]

Show in town, but they want Sunday Ticket. Let's answer that one.

[Clark Howard]

Well, yeah, NFL Sunday Ticket.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host or Guest]

There's the Amazon prime deal still around. Remember you did that one year, like, if you're a prime member.

[Clark Howard]

Yeah, if you're a prime member, then you get just the games that Amazon carries. You know, you look. I saw an article in USA Today showing if you wanted to watch all the games from your favorite team, how many different streaming services you would have to subscribe to over the course of a season to watch all of them. Now, the greatest way to get NFL Sunday ticket is enroll full time in college. Then you get it for the season for $109 instead of. Is it 400 now? Something like that.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host or Guest]

So if you had a college student that you had a college student, they might share their.

[Clark Howard]

You could. If you had a college student, which.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host or Guest]

You happen to have, interestingly enough.

[Clark Howard]

Yeah, but he won't share his NFL Sunday ticket with me. Are you kidding? If Grant gets the $109 student deal, he's never giving me the username and password because only one person can watch at a time. But yeah, you got a college student, you can rent one from a friend. That's the cheapest way to get NFL Sunday ticket.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host or Guest]

I've got a college student you can rent who doesn't watch the NFL. Actually, he doesn't know. Mark in West Virginia says, my cable provider is recommending a $10 a month discount if I change my auto pay from credit card to checking account. This seems like a huge savings. What's the catch? Would you recommend it? For context, they offer a $5 a month discount of paying by a debit card and no discount of paying with a credit card.

[Clark Howard]

So here's the catch. Everybody's trying to wean people off of using credit cards. And so for now, they'll offer you a $10 monthly discount if you link it to a checking account and have them automatically through ACH grab the money. So for now it will save you the 120 a year. @ some point, they won't let people pay by credit card at all or they may surcharge credit cards. So I would say you grab the money you can get for now. And there is a slightly higher risk of financial shenanigans when you link your checking account than when you link a credit card. But the risk is low enough that I would take the $10 a month savings for as long as that's something you can do. But this is getting serious with merchants of all sizes saying, no, we're not going to be ripped off by the Visa MasterCard cartel anymore. And so we're going to either charge people more if they use a card or give them a discount if they don't use a card, which is what's happening in this case because the credit card merchant fees are out of control because of the price fixing and collusion in the United States. And by the way, this doesn't happen elsewhere in the world. This is a US unique problem.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host or Guest]

Dan in Minnesota wrote in with this. Thanks for all the great work you do. You saved me a few hundred pounds on summer travel in the UK this year by reminding me to reshop my hotel reservations prior to departure. We raised a pint to you at a London pub and thanks. Recently our family donated items that belonged to Claudette, a family member who had been living at a senior memory care facility. One of the items was a smart TV. A few months later, Claudette incurred about $50 in Amazon fees for various movie rentals and a monthly subscription to a karaoke channel.

[Clark Howard]

Really? We discovered you don't want to hear me sing karaoke?

[Clark Howard Show Co-host or Guest]

Me either, unfortunately. I wish we discovered that the donated television had an Amazon prime app that was still registered to Claudette's Amazon account. We are chalking up the fees as an oversight. Hopefully the new person using the TV enjoyed the movies and the karaoke. But please remind your listeners to deactivate any account logins to smart TV apps before doning an old television 100%.

[Clark Howard]

This happens over and over again embedded in brand name TVs like a Samsung or an LG or a Vizio or it happens with things like Roku, an Amazon Fire tv, anything like that. If you do not wipe it clean, whoever gets that TV after you donate it suddenly is streaming at your expense. And this is something I'm hearing more and more of because when you donate an old TV you don't think to wipe it clean. When you donate a computer, you might drill the hard drive or whatever you do, you certainly going to wipe it clean. But we don't think about smart TVs now. And all TVs are pretty much smart now. We don't think about them being essentially a computer and important information can be on it. So please wipe it clean. On the first thing you said about reshopping your hotel. This is something I do for air flights, car rentals and hotels every single trip. And I know it seems like a lot of busy work, but I even I think we posted a video on social media of me on a flight a couple of weeks ago and I was going to two different cities on that trip and on my flight I had access to free wi fi and I reshot my car rentals. I was getting the first one in just two hours and the car rental price dropped like a rock for the first rental and then I went oh well I need another car two days from now. Let me reshop it. The car rental fell in half in price by shopping same day I got a much cheaper deal. So everybody's pushing you now to prepay or do non refundable flights Hotel rooms, car rentals with an airline flight. Don't buy basic economy where you're stuck. Buy regular economy where you have the ability to at least get a credit at no cost, changing to a cheaper flight or even rebooking cheaper on the flight you're already on. Reshop your hotel Hotels push so hard. Hey, we'll give you an extra 10 discount if you buy the hotel room. Non refundable bad on so many levels. Don't do it. Shop that hotel room again and again refundable room rates and you'll be amazed if you'll do this consistently how much money you'll save on all three phases of a typical trip by air car rental, flight, hotel and coming up ahead, there's something you got to know that is a plague hitting people around the country and it's when you're being a good Samaritan or a good relative helping a friend or family member shop for a place to move when they need some form of assistance and care. Most often it can be skilled nursing, memory care or assisted living, there's something you gotta know hey, it's Ryan Reynolds.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host or Guest]

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[Clark Howard]

Something that I've given warnings about for so long I don't even know how long it's been. It is dishonest. People at care facilities for senior citizens where you as an individual, maybe just a friend of the individual, have been helping them find the place they should go. And most often it will be an adult child or an adult daughter in law or son in law who's helping a relative find a placement that's appropriate. And then you find the place you want to go to, you want them to live in. And there's a whole bunch of paperwork, a flurry of paperwork. And you need to know that over and over and over again without realizing it. You as the person who's the shepherd, helping the individual find the place, taking them there, looking through the paperwork and then they'll ask you to sign something. Remember, you're not the person who's moving in, you're just the person who is with them. They try to get you to sign paperwork that obligates you when that individual can no longer afford their stay that you become legally liable for the bills. It's despicable practice. So when you're there accompanying somebody, never sign anything. Hear me on this, you sign nothing. Now I want to deal with consequences also is occurring and this one I've addressed based on questions we've gotten from People. So you have a relative or you're the person listed on paperwork as the person to contact if something happens. You're a non relative, but you're listed on the paperwork and that individual passes away or moves out of that facility for whatever reason. And then you start getting contacted by a collection agency trying to get you as a family member or as that loving, caring friend to pay their bills and dunning you, telling you you are legally liable for them. Now this is for somebody who signed nothing. You are not responsible for those bills. You are not liable for them and you do not let anybody con you into paying one sent. You hear me on this? Not one cent. You don't let them con you. Now there's another thing that confuses people. There are about things. About half the nation states have laws on the books that are seldom actually enforced. That if you have a parent, you're an adult child, you have a parent who has lived in a facility and they are impoverished and the parent ends up on the state Medicaid program. There are laws on the books in a number of states, again seldom enforced, that going back to English common law, hold you responsible as an adult child, or if there's multiple children, you're all held liable for the state's costs for the Medicaid coverage that the state provided for your parents. Late parents care in a facility, a nursing home, whatever. Now it is theoretically possible and you can look up on a search whatever your search engine use or AI tool, you can see whether the state that your parent resides in has a law in the books holding adult children responsible. You also research are they actually enforcing it? That's the one circumstance where it could be a legitimate demand of money from an adult child for the care of a parent. When you have pulled on the parent has needed state resources to pay for their care. That's a lot to spit out, isn't it?

[Clark Howard Show Co-host or Guest]

So much to navigate, um, navigating this with my parents right now. So there's a lot I'm learning and I'm going to try to share a lot of what I'm learning on clark.com soon.

[Clark Howard]

So that's awesome.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host or Guest]

And then we'll do some on the podcast too. Irene in Alabama says Clark, can you talk about what to look for in senior housing options? I want to live around other active seniors where I can have community and support as I grow older. But I hesitate getting stuck in a ccrc, unable to move if it's not private, properly managed.

[Clark Howard]

You and I, we've talked so much with each other. About ccrcs.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host or Guest]

Continuing care retirement community.

[Clark Howard]

Yeah. I have a relative that I recently helped move into a ccrc. You have been doing a lot of that for a relative and continuing care retirement community. The way it tends to work is they're geared towards more affluent senior citizens and you move into an amenities oriented facility, campus, if you will, that tends to have on it semi independent living and mid rise or your own townhouse kind of thing. Cottage. Yeah. And then when you need it on the campus they will have assisted living, nursing care or memory care.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host or Guest]

And then memory. Yeah.

[Clark Howard]

The biggest ones have all three of the more acute care kind of facilities you have to buy in.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host or Guest]

Don't. Not always.

[Clark Howard]

Well, that's what I'm going to get to.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host or Guest]

Okay.

[Clark Howard]

The, the business model geared towards more affluent people is you buy in at a most common figure of somewhere around a million dollars to buy in. Depending on the facility. It could be much more than that. I was talking to a friend or less talking to a friend who a relative just spent $3.1 million. Yeah. Buying into a CCRC and I know.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host or Guest]

Someone who spent 300,000.

[Clark Howard]

That's right. It's all over the board. These CCRCs, if they go bust, you lose all that money and you may not have a place to live anymore.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host or Guest]

And the money, depending on how much you put in in the plan at the ccrc if you leave you can get up to like some 80, 80 back or 50 or 0%. If you pay a lower fee you might. And your or your estate gets it.

[Clark Howard]

In other words, these are very complicated and it's why you want to pay someone who is an expert at this to find the appropriate facility. But this again only is for people that are very wealthy. Because if you take everything you've got and you put it into the buy into one of these CCRCs and the place goes bust. The experience again and again and again. All your money's gone that you, all your life savings, whatever you made from selling your house, all that and then you're. Where are you going to go next? The alternative that your relatives are doing is they're going in a place geared towards the middle class that there's no buy in.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host or Guest]

Well, it's definitely. You have to have a lot of monthly income to do a place like they're looking at. So there's different levels, but this one has pretty much all the amenities of the beautiful ccrcs we've toured as well. But you have a high monthly rent to be in this facility. But it's like you're renting, you can get out at any time. You, you pay like basically one month down to get in on the rent, but then the rent might include a couple of meals a day and so.

[Clark Howard]

And, and a lot of the amenities and classes and exercise and that sort of thing included in them. So this is an area that is very hard to navigate. And that's why I like for you to hire a navigator to help you. Now, the navigators come in two flavors, ones that you pay, who operate as a fiduciary, who are working legally, fully for you. Then there are others that will navigate for you for free, but they work based on commission from the facilities. And so you have that inherent conflict of interest. You have to have the most Florence Nightingale kind of person who's not charging you a fee, who is not just recommending the place that pays them the highest commission.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host or Guest]

And there are lots of people out there who, who are legitimate, who care. But yeah, just like any other thing you might have, say you get a real estate agent, you know, do they want to steer you to the most expensive house or the house that's right for you?

[Clark Howard]

Right. And so this is an area that the financial decision you make at that point can be critical. And that's why you need to be really, really careful. And I hope that we did a good job, Irene, answering your question. And one thing, a lot of Americans who don't have large resources available are actually going outside the United States for senior care. There's a big movement of people to various countries, Mexico and other places in Central America, where your dollar goes so much further. And the care in many cases is more personal than it's going to be in the United States because the forever labor shortages for this kind of care.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host or Guest]

In the U.S. carrie in Idaho says, I recently decided to purchase a medical vibration platform to help with osteoporosis, muscle tightness, lymphatic drainage, etc. The brand that was recommended by two friends who own them didn't have the most amazing reviews online customer service issues, but it does say it has a lifetime warranty. Since it's about a $400 purchase, I don't want to throw money away. My question, which would offer more consumer protection, buying directly from the company or buying through Amazon? And would this answer be true for most purchases?

[Clark Howard]

So Amazon used to be the automatic answer that Amazon was there for you when you bought something. But Amazon is not as helpful as they used to be with third party sellers, which almost everything on Amazon now is a third party seller. So if the reviews online for customer service are mediocre. I would read what Amazon says, where you purchase it, what they say about how returns are done, that sort of thing. But if Amazon's kind of non committal about it and you do want to buy this brand, I would definitely buy it through Amazon instead of from the company itself because then you do have a chance, which you're saying there's a.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host or Guest]

Chance, there's a chance that you may.

[Clark Howard]

Get an additional layer of help in the event that that you do have a problem with the product and the company itself is not helping you as their warranty says they would and should.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host or Guest]

And just hate to be negative, but we had someone who wrote in about refrigerator she bought on Amazon. She works with autistic, it turns out adults. We thought it was children on the show and she went back to Amazon and they're not helping her because the. I think the company offered a replacement fridge but like she couldn't choose the color, which, you know, and some other things. So Amazon kind of told her to pound sand.

[Clark Howard]

Yeah, I mean Amazon is not who they were before. They're not in the hungry, help the customer, we don't care if we make money kind of phase. Now they're all about using their market share as muscle. And that's just the fact.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host or Guest]

Ray in California says I own a 2016 Honda Clarity. Is that right?

[Clark Howard]

Yep.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host or Guest]

Whose EV mileage range has reduced from its original 42 miles to a current 32 mile range.

[Clark Howard]

Sounds like a Leaf. Nissan Leaf.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host or Guest]

Fearing a further range reduction, I'm considering selling the car valued at approximately $17,000.

[Clark Howard]

What?

[Clark Howard Show Co-host or Guest]

I know that's high, but also I'm considering giving the car to my 18 year old niece. No, the car is in very good condition, but my niece would not have access to electric charging and would be only able to use the gas option to run the vehicle. Would this be a good use of this hybrid or would we be better off selling and buying her a vehicle that better fits her needs?

[Clark Howard]

It's the second one. Sell it and use the money to buy something else for your niece.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host or Guest]

Okay. That's a simple thing.

[Clark Howard]

Yeah.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host or Guest]

Also they say the car is paid off and I've already replaced it with a 2025 Prius.

[Clark Howard]

It's funny how the Prius was kind of given up for dead for a while. Prius is hot again. Do you know that it's extremely hard to find a Prius available to buy in the United States right now?

[Clark Howard Show Co-host or Guest]

Wow.

[Clark Howard]

People are really into buying them again because they average, I think like 56 miles a gallon or something. So it's half of what a typical electric vehicle equivalent would be. But it's also cheaper than the typical electric vehicle. So.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host or Guest]

I have some bad news. I stink. Everyone's going to be upset. But Friday, we're not going to do a Clark stinks because.

[Clark Howard]

Well, there's a. You blame yourself.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host or Guest]

It's okay. I made the decision because. No, you made the right decision on Monday.

[Clark Howard]

Yeah.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host or Guest]

And there's so many questions that we need to get to, so.

[Clark Howard]

Yeah. So since Monday, Labor Day, I was goofing off. We did. You weren't goofing off. I was goofing.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host or Guest]

I goofed off.

[Clark Howard]

Sure. So I took Labor Day off. So that means what we sacrificed was Clark Stings. So basically, Friday is Monday. In this case, they were doing a normal. Okay, a normal podcast, not Clark Stakes.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host or Guest]

But we'll be back the following week with.

[Clark Howard]

With the Clark with Clark stinks. So, I mean, they're gonna pile up. Krista, what are you gonna do?

[Clark Howard Show Co-host or Guest]

I mean, I know, but the questions have been piling up because we do a higher percentage of Clark stinks than we ever did in terms of content. Since you went to three days a week.

[Clark Howard]

You never let me get past my guilt.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host or Guest]

No, I'm not. I think it's great that you did that. I want you to enjoy your life and have balance. I think it' wonderful that you're doing the podcast. For sure. You're projecting. That's called projection.

[Clark Howard]

Oh, so work life balance is. Is out of style right now. You know that.

[Clark Howard Show Co-host or Guest]

No, it's not.

[Clark Howard]

According to corporate America, they're only looking for people who want to spend 168 hours a week being committed to the employer that it's like their revenge for what they feel like they got taken advantage of with remote work the last few years. But any. I digress. Friday normal podcast following Friday, back to Clarkston's and know what we're all about. We're about you learning ways to save more, spend less, and avoid getting ripped off. And see you on Friday.

[Commercial Voice]

Mike and Alyssa are always trying to outdo each other. When Alyssa got a small water bottle, Mike showed up with a 4 liter jug. When Mike started gardening, Alyssa started beekeeping.

[Clark Howard]

Oh, come on.

[Commercial Voice]

They called a truce for their holiday and used Expedia trip planner to collaborate on all the details of their trip. Once there, Mike still did more laps around the pool.

[Clark Howard]

Whatever.

[Commercial Voice]

You were made to outdo your holidays. We were made to help organize the competition. Expedia made to travel.