09.05.25 A New Generation Gets Ripped Off / WARNING: Booking Travel

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Clark Howard Show

Episode: “09.05.25 A New Generation Gets Ripped Off / WARNING: Booking Travel”

Date: September 5, 2025

Host: Clark Howard, with Show Producer/Co-host

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Episode Overview

This episode of The Clark Howard Show focuses on two urgent consumer topics:

1. Pump and Dump Scams Targeting a New Generation — Clark explores how classic investment cons have evolved with social media and cryptocurrency, putting younger investors at risk.
2. Critical Warnings on Booking Travel — Clark gives a crucial warning about the financial vulnerability of travel companies and why your choice of payment method could make all the difference if a supplier fails.

Throughout, Clark and his co-host answer a variety of listener questions on everything from home affordability and auto insurance to Airbnb bookings, travel planning, and credit score strategies—always with Clark’s signature, practical advice for protecting your finances.

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Key Topics and Insights

1. Modern “Pump and Dump” Scams (01:05–08:33)

• Classic Scheme, New Medium:

  • Clark recounts the origins of the “pump and dump”—buying worthless company shares and artificially hyping them—and explains how social media has made these schemes both more scalable and harder to police.
  • “Now, two generations later, people are doing the same kind of junk, buying shares in near worthless companies and touting them all over social media, posting all these videos about how great this particular company stock is and is going to the moon.” — Clark Howard (04:49)

• Crypto is the New Frontier:

  • The scam has shifted from phone calls about “hot” stocks in the ’80s to anonymous social media touts of fledgling cryptos and penny stocks.
  • These assets often have “no cred and no value in the marketplace” (06:00).

• Younger Investors Are Most At-Risk:

  • The co-host shares an anecdote about a young worker who saw crypto as a retirement plan but had no idea what an IRA was (06:49–07:42).
  • Clark stresses, “Everybody's looking for the shortcut... people are looking for that shortcut to wealth,” making many especially vulnerable to too-good-to-be-true promises (07:42).

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2. Listener Q&A – Financial and Insurance Advice

Housing Affordability Outlook (08:33–12:37)

• Question: Will housing ever be affordable again, or is homeownership becoming unreachable for most young people?
• Clark’s Answer:
  • Clark provides a cautiously optimistic view:
    • With U.S. population growth slowing and possible declines due to lower immigration, future housing demand may drop, easing prices.
    • “Not only is it not trending higher than inflation, it's going the opposite of inflation... Housing situation will be less negative than you anticipate and more positive than you expect in the years ahead.” (09:20–12:37)

Automaker-Backed Car Insurance (12:37–13:51)

• Question: Are insurance products offered by auto manufacturers (GM, Toyota, Tesla) advantageous compared to traditional ones?
• Clark’s Answer:
  • Too early to tell—these products are in the “pioneering stage.”
  • “You are a pioneer who will either benefit or get slaughtered for the choice you have made. Because... it's just too soon to know if this is positive, consumer-friendly or not.” (12:51)

Umbrella Insurance Denial After DUI (13:51–15:59)

• Question: What options exist for obtaining liability coverage if denied an umbrella policy after a DUI?
• Clark’s Answer:
  • Suggests maximizing property liability limits as a second-best solution.
  • “Congratulations to you on being sober for the last several years.” (14:21–14:28)

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3. Travel Industry Warnings & Booking Tips (18:31–23:31)

• Financial Instability in Travel:

  • Airlines (notably Spirit) and tour operators are experiencing shaky finances—“rocky” is how Clark puts it (18:31).
  • The way you pay matters: only credit cards offer true consumer protections if the supplier fails.
  • Quote: “If they shut down completely, there's money there... and that's the protection you have with credit cards. You pay for an airline ticket with a debit card, you lose your money.” — Clark Howard (20:45)
  • Debit cards, checks, and direct payments have NO consumer protection if the company collapses.

• Google Flights Tip:

  • New filter lets you automatically exclude “basic economy” fares, which Clark urges listeners to avoid as they’re often a bait-and-switch tactic (22:45).

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4. European Travel Advice and Airbnb Tips (23:31–28:59)

• Traveling Trio to France—Hotel & Airbnb Options:

  • Family rooms (three- or four-person) are common in European hotels; try these or Airbnb for small groups.
  • Watch out for heat: Many accommodations lack robust air conditioning—“Read reviews to see if the AC actually works.” — Clark Howard (25:28)
  • On river cruises, triple cabins are rare to nonexistent; stick to Southern France with Airbnb or similar for groups.

• Airbnb Booking Warning:

  • Book only properties with a liberal, customer-friendly cancellation policy. Many Airbnbs go non-refundable immediately—even for far-off dates.

• Experiences Recommendation:

  • The co-host raves about unique Airbnb “experiences” in France, such as croissant-making classes with a former Ritz pastry chef (27:17).

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5. Credit Score and Payment Tactics (28:59–30:58)

• Airline Ticket “Hack” for Credit Scores:
  • Listener asks about buying/then canceling an airline ticket to “show card activity.”
  • Clark says it’s unnecessary: “As long as you're showing activity on a card of any kind, $5 whatever... that's all you gotta do.” (29:48)
  • Maintaining a low balance and steady activity is sufficient for excellent scores.

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6. Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) Pitfalls (30:58–31:40)

• Industry Insider’s Caution:
  • Hotel employee warns that high-end hotels are pushing “pay in four” BNPL plans and marketing them to the young.
• Clark’s Take:
  • The popularity of BNPL signals financial distress; default rates are high, and missed payments negatively affect credit scores.
  • “Pay in four is like a plague spreading through the economy... Even though it's tempting, don't do it.” (31:27–31:40)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Everybody's looking for the shortcut... People are looking for that shortcut to wealth.” — Clark Howard (07:42)
• “Your money's gone. We've had this in the cruise industry again and again... You pay for an airline ticket with a debit card, you lose your money.” — Clark Howard (20:45)
• “In Europe, hotels... almost all sell what they refer to as a family room. And a family room is a three or four person room. And it is just a common tradition.” — Clark Howard (24:15)
• “Pay in four is like a plague spreading through the economy. And even though it's tempting, don't do it.” — Clark Howard (31:40)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

| Segment | Start Time |
|---------|-----------|
| Modern Pump and Dump Scams | 01:05 |
| Younger Investors and Crypto Risk | 06:49 |
| Housing Affordability Q&A | 08:33 |
| Automaker Insurance Q&A | 12:37 |
| Umbrella Policy Alternatives | 13:51 |
| Booking Travel Safely (Credit Card Warning) | 18:31 |
| Google Flights/Basic Economy Warning | 22:45 |
| France Trip Planning (Hotels, Airbnb) | 23:31 |
| Airbnb Cancellation Advice | 28:01 |
| Credit Card Activity & Score Advice | 28:59 |
| BNPL (Buy Now, Pay Later) Industry Warning | 30:58 |

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Tone & Approach

Clark Howard and his team maintain their trademark practical, conversational tone, blending urgency with optimism and a bit of humor. They’re always candid, sometimes emphatic, never preachy—and remain relentlessly focused on real-world, actionable consumer guidance.

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Summary

This episode delivers clear warnings to listeners about old scams evolving for the digital age, the pitfalls awaiting unwary investors and travelers, and the importance of smart payment choices. With pointed listener Q&A and hard-won practical tips, Clark equips listeners to resist hype, protect assets, and spend wisely in a rapidly changing economy.

Transcript

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[Clark Howard]

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[Clark Howard]

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[Clark Howard]

I'm so glad you're with us here on the Clark Howard Show. You know, our mission is to serve you with advice and information that empowers you so you make better financial decisions in your life. And I'm sorry to say, no Clark Stinks today. I know it's Friday, but we're skipping a week because there's only two podcasts this week because Monday was Labor Day and I celebrated my labor over the year by taking the day off. So we'll be back with Clark Stinks next Friday. I just had too many things I wanted to talk about to get to and to get to your questions. So that's why no Clark Stinks today. And I do want to address something that is ripping a new generation of people off. It's something that is an odd name, but it's called the Pump and Dump and I'm going to talk about that straight ahead. And also coming up later, a lot of people in the travel business are on really, really rocky financial circumstances. And so you need to be so cautious how you book travel right now, how you pay for it, because the risk that your money will take the trip but you don't get to it's coming up later. So pump and Dump is a phrase that goes back to the 1960s. It was a hot, hot thing through the 80s. And what it was was there would be what were known as touts A crook, a crooked individual organization, would look for a failed company that was a public listing, what used to be known as a pink sheet company. It's a company that was registered as able to sell stock to the public, but had essentially failed and was sitting there as a zombie. So what the con artists would do is they would start calling people, they buy up shares in this worthless enterprise, and then they'd have telemarketers calling people on the phone pretending to be stockbrokers. There was even a few rogue registered stock brokerages that made their money cheating people with these failed companies. And they'd call up and they say, hey, I got a hot stock tip for you. And I remember I would get these calls heavily in the 1980s from brokerages trying to get me to buy shares in these companies that have a hot new breakthrough, hot new invention, hot new whatever, and they'd run the value of the stock up that they bought for basically nothing. And once they had sold off the shares they had to the people they conned, they were gone. And turned out the value of these shares was worthless and people got wiped out. Very labor intensive. Hurt a lot of people, but nothing like fast forward now, two generations later, almost two generations later, what's been happening today with almost no expense, where people are doing the same kind of junk, buying shares in near worthless companies and then touting them at no cost to them all over social media, posting all these videos on YouTube and wherever about how great this particular company stock is and is going to the moon. And the values run up. And remember they bought the shares when they were basically worthless. And then when the value runs up from all the touting online and on social media, they sell out and you have the value of what you paid way too much money for collapse back to zero. It's the same scam forwarded to a new era. It's happening with near worthless stocks and with a lot of the new wannabe cryptos that people are touting online that they bought really cheaply. They sell them to you and then you find out later, hard expense, hard lesson. You lost the money because that crypto had no cred and no value in the marketplace. Just remember this weird phrase from 50 years ago, pump and dump. They pump them up and then they dump the shares. And I want you to think about that so that you remember when, when you see on social media, when you see a video saying, this is your dare to be rich opportunity in this stock of a failing enterprise or failed enterprise or some crypto that's going to Be the next. They're always the crypto. They're always the next bitcoin, right?

[Clark Howard Show Producer/Co-host]

Oh, I had someone at my house doing work recently and he was pretty young and he was telling me that he had all this retirement savings. He was like, he'd saved $100,000 already in retirement. And I was like, fantastic. And then as we talked more, I don't know how much he'd saved, but he had, I mean, I don't know how many times x 10 x it whatever. Maybe he saved $10,000 and it was all in different cryptocurrencies around in like South America and other places. And he's like, yeah, in October I might, maybe I'll sell some. Because some big thing was going to happen in October. I mean, he's naming all these names and stuff. And I said, what about, you know, an ira? And he said, what's that? And I just wanted to pass out. I wanted to pass out.

[Clark Howard]

Everybody's looking for the shortcut. And so these, the, the people touting garbage have a ready, willing and listening audience because people are looking for that shortcut to wealth. They're looking for. When you say to somebody, well, you know, if you have a diversified portfolio in Roth IRA or a 401k or whatever, you should earn somewhere over the years 8 to 10% a year. And they're like, why would I do that? I mean, this crypto, I'm earning 7% a day. I mean, why would I, why would I only want to earn 8% a year when I can earn 7% a day? Compounded. Yeah, let me tell you, that doesn't work out.

[Clark Howard Show Producer/Co-host]

All right, we'll go to questions now. Andrew in Iowa says I'm 23 and I want to buy a house someday, but it just seems unrealistic. The more I've thought about homeownership being unaffordable, the more I'm curious if that will ever correct itself. Each year inflation is normally 2 to 3% and housing appreciation is 4 to 5%. That is the recipe that slow of slow fading of affordability, is it not? Statistics seem to back this up. The average first time homebuyer was 28 in the early 90s, but is 38 now right. Unless we see a drastic increase in housing supply in the years to come, that trend will only slowly worsen and we may someday enter the a future of homeownership being mostly for the wealthy or retired. This future seems depressing. Please tell me I'm wrong.

[Clark Howard]

So I don't want to say you're wrong, but I think you're too pessimistic. There are other factors at work, one that we never talk about on the podcast, and that's, you look at the demographic trend line in the United States and we actually are staring down having a declining population in the United States. We as a society seem to have made a decision that we don't want people immigrating to the United States. And all our population growth in recent times has been from immigration. So what's actually going to happen is housing demand overall will decline in the United States because of a declining population. In addition, as housing supply does increase, and it will increase, then we're going to get the supply into sync with the demand that's out there. That's why you've been hearing me saying there are several factors why you've been hearing me say that the past of these accelerated increases in home value are not the future. We all assume that what's happened in the past is what's going to happen in the future. And that is not where we're headed with housing. We already have seen roughly half of major housing markets in the United States have home values declining over the last two years. And so not only is it not trending higher than inflation, it's going the opposite of inflation. So we're not at a point where housing will become, oh, wow, houses are a deal again, but they are going to become more affordable versus hours, work. Plus, I'm expecting that we're going to see lower than anticipated mortgage rates in 26, and I had predicted that in 24 for this year. And there are times this year that rates have trended down. They've been up and down like ocean waves. But I think the trend next year will be more a buyer's friend. We're not going to see rates and the ones, twos, threes and low fours again, but I think it's realistic to expect we will see mortgage rates back in the fives in 26. That. That is not a stretch. That's not my imagination. So, yeah, I think you will see the average age of a buyer come down a little from 38. But there's another factor, too. We are an aging Society. And 38 is now, I think, the average age of an American, which is much older than the average age used to be. So everything has shifted older. But I do think the housing situation will be less negative than what you anticipate and more positive than what you expect in the years ahead.

[Clark Howard Show Producer/Co-host]

Barry in Florida says, what is your opinion of car insurance offered by the auto manufacturers such as GM and Toyota. Do they?

[Clark Howard]

And Tesla in many states.

[Clark Howard Show Producer/Co-host]

Do they have any advantages with dealer repair shops? Reviews seem mixed.

[Clark Howard]

Yeah. So this is one that is at a pioneering stage. And the people buying insurance from an automaker are. You're kind of like an early adopter. You're an experimental kind of person and it's too hard to know yet if this is going to be a positive consumer friendly trend or not. So if you are a more adventurous sort. Barry and you're getting a better deal, that's the only reason I do it. You're getting a better deal buying from what would be an insurgent in the automobile insurance business and you're willing to give it a try. You are a pioneer who will either benefit or get slaughtered for the choice you have made. Because it's just, you said the reviews are mix. It's just too soon to know if this is positive, consumer friendly or not.

[Clark Howard Show Producer/Co-host]

Tim in Florida says, I listen to your podcast regularly and it's helped me tremendously. I recently bought a second home in another state near our grandchildren where we plan to spend several months a year. I'm worried about liability related to the second home after hearing about it on your show. I went to get an umbrella policy but I was denied because of an at fault accident and lawsuit settlement stemming from a DUI a few years back. I had a problem but I have been sober for three years now. It's awesome.

[Clark Howard]

Congratulations on that.

[Clark Howard Show Producer/Co-host]

Really want to protect myself and my assets for my family. Any other ideas since I cannot get an umbrella policy?

[Clark Howard]

Yeah. So the umbrella policy sits as a liability shield over everything in your life and so an insurer for a period of time that varies by insurer, maybe three to five years. You've been three. So maybe five years will not issue an umbrella because of the risk they fear because of a prior dui. So what you can do is the the second best option available to you is to buy a lot of liability coverage. The max and insurer will sell you on that home. You have that second home. So instead of buying what would be like standard off the shelf amount of liability coverage, you ask the company or if you're dealing with an agent, if you can increase the liability coverage for that residence. So it wouldn't cover and apply to an event where you're driving and found it at fault, but it would at least cover that property. And that's the best suggestion I have at this point. Again, congratulations to you on being sober for the last several years. Coming up ahead. I've got a warning for you. Booking Travel At a time of instability in the travel industry, there's stuff you gotta know now, not later to protect your wallet.

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[Clark Howard]

Spirit Airlines in the news again, out of money concerns, if they will survive at all. And so they're in the news constantly. It gives me an opportunity to say they're not the only one. There are others in the travel industry, all phases of the travel industry that are suffering rocky finances and how you pay becomes very important. In fact, we had a question that really made me want to explain this more fully, because we had a question on the podcast about a month ago from someone who a travel supplier was offering a cheaper deal for a tour if somebody paid them directly. Buy check. And it was not about the merchant fees on a credit card. Let me tell you, because what happens when I'm a travel supplier, airline, cruise line, tour operator, whoever, when I take credit cards, my merchant processor requires holdbacks based on risk that they assess for that travel provider. In the case of Spirit, they are paying big holdbacks to their credit card company, meaning that the money part of the money that you pay for your ticket is not going to Spirit. It's being held by the bank that processes their credit cards. So if they shut down completely, there's money there. When people paid back credit card, file claims and say, hey, I didn't get to fly. Where's my money? And that's the protection you have with credit cards. And that's why when a tour operator. Because tour operators are notorious. Even if they've been in business decades and have a great reputation behind the scenes, they may be a wounded duck financially. And they're living off the advance payments that people make to them. And then they fail. And you're like, where's my money? Your money's gone. We've had this in the cruise industry again and again and again, where cruise lines have gone bust and people who paid with a debit card lose their money. You pay for an airline ticket with a debit card, you lose your money. You pay for a tour with a debit card, you lose your money just like you would with a check. You have no consumer protections for your money. When you pay with a debit card, period with a credit card, you have a lot of protections dating all the way back to the late 1960s when Congress wasn't bought and paid for by big companies and lobbyists. It matters how you pay. And as to whether you buy a ticket on an organization that has questionable outlook on their future, I look at it as like a junk bond. If I get a much, much cheaper deal, I'll take my chances. But I've already paid my credit card, so I have that. I may suffer disruption, but my money eventually should be okay. And by the way, people who travel a lot tend to have the credit cards that provide travel disruption protection in the event that a flight doesn't go for a number of different circumstances, not just because the travel provider is in financial trouble. Oh, one other thing I wanted to tell you. I've been meaning to mention this for weeks. Google Flights, which I really like for you to use for flight search, has added something I've been making noises about for two years. They finally added it where you can when you do flight comparison costs airline to airline to airline, you can click a button and it will not search for basic economy for reasons I've talked about repeatedly and I won't repeat again right now, don't buy basic economy fares. The airlines use them as just an advertising tool and make them such a miserable experience for you just so that you'll think they have a cheaper fare than they do. And then you get there and they tell you, well, we don't do this, we don't do this, we don't do that, we don't do the other. But we have this other fare that we charge a little more. With Google flights now, you don't get in that bait and switch with the airlines, you're able to see the real fares, not the trash fares that they're trying to use to lure you in and then charge you more. You start at the real fares in your search.

[Clark Howard Show Producer/Co-host]

All right, we have some travel questions. This person called themselves France in Pennsylvania, I think because they're traveling to France. Two friends and I are starting to plan a trip to France for 2026. We can only travel in the summer as one person is on a schedule, and we must book far in advance for work schedules. Of the other two of us, we are considering either a few days in Paris and a few days someplace else, perhaps in the south, or a few days in Paris followed by a river cruise if we can find something affordable. The problem is that either way, we would like to put all three of us in a room to make this affordable. Are there any hotels or hotel chains or cruise companies that you could recommend? And yes, I'm absorbing all of your information on travel insurance and Travel issues in general. Thank you.

[Clark Howard]

Thank you. France. All right. Or should I say frost France? So the hotel thing is easy in Europe because hotels in Europe routinely have rooms that are about the size of a closet, but they almost all sell what they refer to as a family room. And a family room is a three or four person room. And it is just a common tradition in Europe that hotels sell a family room. Krista would also say, but why aren't you going to mention Airbnb? Okay, Krista, I will mention Airbnb.

[Clark Howard Show Producer/Co-host]

I didn't say anything.

[Clark Howard]

Yeah, but I, I knew you would say it eventually. So in Europe, a lot of people traveling as a family or as multiple friends like you are find that the most affordable thing is booking an Airbnb. And you're going. You said summer, is that right? Paris will be hot in the summer and stuffy. A lot of Airbnbs don't have air conditioning.

[Clark Howard Show Producer/Co-host]

Or hotels, too.

[Clark Howard]

Hotels, too. You got to be very, very careful and read reviews if the air conditioning is any good or not, because summers used to be a lot milder in Europe. The air conditioning that was installed on premises at hotels and apartments tends to be so pitiful. And I'll get up on the bed and I'll be feeling the vent and I'm like, it says the air's on and you're kind of feeling just a hint of a little teeny bit of airflow as you're sitting there just dying with sweat dripping down. So read reviews to see if the AC actually works. Now on the riverboats, most riverboat companies, river cruises, they don't have three person cabins because the narrowness of the river passages they go in. The cabins tend to be smaller than on a lot of cruise ships and you can only have two people in a room. In fact, the biggest player, Viking, prohibits. Don't they prohibit three person.

[Clark Howard Show Producer/Co-host]

Don't have three person.

[Clark Howard]

Yeah, so you may not.

[Clark Howard Show Producer/Co-host]

And if you're in a three person, it might feel like you're in a game of Twister.

[Clark Howard]

It will be very, very, very, very tight in a three person cabin on a riverboat river cruise. So you might want to do the south of France this time with the three of you. Where again, you could do the Airbnb. Now with the Airbnb, be very careful about when the booking becomes non refundable. Biggest problems we hear and complaints. We hear that a lot of Airbnb's go non refundable the second you book, no matter how far in advance you book. Look for ones that have a Customer friendly cancellation policy.

[Clark Howard Show Producer/Co-host]

And also, I just want to mention I love Airbnb experiences. There are small experiences for groups instead of doing the big tours, if you guys want to do anything. And I've had two great experiences on different trips in France because I'm spoiled and have been lucky enough to go there a couple of times. And, and croissant making classes. And so in the south of France, we did one on a rooftop with this woman who used to be the pastry maker for, like, the Ritz in Paris, and she has her own apartment overlooking the sea, and she taught us to make croissants. It was so affordable and such a cool experience that I love their experiences.

[Clark Howard]

So, you know, with food, the only part of it I like is the eating part.

[Clark Howard Show Producer/Co-host]

Yes.

[Clark Howard]

I don't even have curiosity about how food becomes food.

[Clark Howard Show Producer/Co-host]

All right.

[Clark Howard]

It's true.

[Clark Howard Show Producer/Co-host]

Speaking of Airbnb, Lydia in Colorado says, Clark, you're the best. You've said you only book refundable hotels. What about VRBO or Airbnb? We prefer this over hotel, but most are not fully refundable.

[Clark Howard]

Well, it's like we just talked about that before. You. You have to really look to find an Airbnb or VRBO that has a liberal policy on cancellation. We had booked one in the Hawaiian Islands. We booked a vrbo and I booked one specifically that had the right to get all my money back up to two weeks before travel. Most hosts are at least a month before travel, but this one was two weeks, so that's why I went with that one. And then it turned out that three months out, I knew we weren't going to use that VRBO and I canceled it. It did take a while to get my refund, but I did get it back.

[Clark Howard Show Producer/Co-host]

Jamie in Pennsylvania says Clark, I was curious what you thought about purchasing an airline ticket with your credit card and then canceling the flight within 24 hours for the sole purpose of improving your credit score. I have one credit card and a credit score of 825, and it's been around that number for a long time. The only big purchase I put on my credit card are airline tickets for travel only. I never really have a balance of more than 30% of my credit limit, but once in a while, I do. I do make a lot of small purchases of my credit card, generally under $5 each. So it dawned on me that if someone with bad credit wanted to improve his credit score, he could probably do so by buying an airline ticket and cancel it within 24 hours so he'll get A refund. This is generally something you would not want to do in a regular store because there's no guarantee they will actually refund the money, especially if they don't accept returns. So I was wondering what your thoughts.

[Clark Howard]

Were so they don't need to do that. And congratulations to you. You say 8 25. Wow. I mean you're golden above 800. The percent of the population has a score. 825 or above is so close to zero. I wonder if it's a fraction of 1% at that point. I mean that is an excellent credit score. You would be commended for how you've handled your money and your credit. Nobody needs to do the buy an airline ticket and within 24 hours cancel it. It's not necessary as long as you're showing activity on a card of any kind, $5 whatever that showing activity and that's all you got to do. It doesn't have to be a transaction based thing like charging something, refunding it, charging it, refunding it. They're going to do just fine with their score. If they use a card, keep the balance on it very low and pay it in full when the bill comes, they'll be great. They'll really see an enormous increase in credit score within a year.

[Clark Howard Show Producer/Co-host]

And now I'm just going to throw this in from Scott in North Carolina. Clark, I've spent 30 years working in the hotel industry in all phases of the business. I saw something this morning that made me queasy. Luxury and resort hotels are trying to enter the buy now, pay later space and owners are being encouraged to do this because this is how a new generation wants to pay. That's in quotes. I know your listeners already know better, but it's worth the warning. Never, never, not ever. I'm ashamed of my industry today. Thanks for all you and your team do.

[Clark Howard]

Scott. Thank you. And the pay in for the buy now, pay later business. Its success of late in the United States with, with a lot of adoption of it by people in their 20s and 30s heavily and to a lesser extent people 40 and beyond is a sign of how stretched and stressed people are about money. And paying for is not working out. If it was working out, there wouldn't be so many people. Such a high percent of people doing pay in four that are defaulting on their payments now. Think about it. Pay in four, buy now, pay later. You have to make four payments over a relatively short period of time. People are charging and within weeks they're not able to make a payment that tells you that it should not be used because all it does is put people in more jeopardy. And now that paying for is being reported on credit reports more and more, the default on it is going to be brutal for credit scores and credit standing. So thank you Scott for mentioning this is paying for is like a plague spreading through the economy. And even though it's tempting, don't do it. Do this though, when you want to really take care of your wallet, you check out what we got for you all weekend long. We are here for you. And if you're not a subscriber to our newsletters, well, why don't you check them out? Because they're free. And unlike other companies getting sued right now, we make it just as easy to can our newsletters is to sign up for them. If you sign up and you're like, yeah, Clark hyped this thing, I don't like it and you want to get out, we make it just as easy for you to say I'm out of here. But generally we find that people really enjoy our newsletters. They have what's known as a very, very high open rate, like unprecedented open rate that people enjoy the content. So go to clark.com newsletter or newsletters. Both work and you can see what you can sign up for and give it a try. Because the whole idea is to empower you with knowledge so you can save more and spend less and avoid getting ripped off and have a great, great weekend.