Krista (2:30)

Maybe I'm wrong.

Clark Howard (2:31)

Maybe you're right, pal.

Krista (2:36)

Okay, this first one is from Hines in Florida. Hines says you advised a caller that you can extend Windows 10 security updates for one year by paying the $30 fee. There are two free options. Use Windows Backup to sync your settings to the cloud. But if you don't like this option, you can redeem 1,000 Microsoft Rewards points. Thank you for all you do, but please research your advice as it is read by thousands of people.

Clark Howard (3:01)

Thank you very much. I'm not familiar with Microsoft Rewards points, are you?

Krista (3:06)

No, I don't use any. Like I use Windows, but that's it. Yeah, I don't.

Clark Howard (3:10)

Yeah. So thank you for that. And the first thing, Windows backup to sync your settings. Are you techno enough to explain that?

Krista (3:20)

I don't know. I don't, I don't use it.

Clark Howard (3:23)

Well, see Heinz, this is exactly why we do Clark stings, because we all learn together. We all educate each other. So thank you for that post.

Krista (3:33)

Tammy Nevada says Clark, your response to Roman in New York about getting a Lowe's card approved while his credit was frozen completely, completely floored me. We follow your advice to freeze our credit so as to protect ourselves from bad actors applying for credit in our name. Now even that isn't enough. What if the Roman who applied wasn't the real Roman? Now even freezing our credit isn't good enough. I expected a different reaction from you. What else can we do to protect ourselves from the three headed credit bureau monster?

Clark Howard (4:03)

So Tammy, the truth is, when something freaky like that happens, and the reason you, you didn't hear a stronger reaction from me, I was just, my brain was just like, how did this happen? How in the world did they get this credit card approved on the spot when their credit's frozen? And I, I've been thinking about it since that came up and I was like, could Lowe's be using their credit provider, be using one of the more obscure credit bureaus? And that's come up before with people who go to one of the cell phone providers who use a more obscure credit bureau. And even people with their credit frozen. Criminals will be able to go in and get a new iPhone 17 as if they're them. And all that by impersonating them. So I've not come up with the answer how that happened, but yeah, it does stink. And we can only do so much. And if I could just get people to freeze their credit with the three credit bureaus, it eliminates the overwhelming percent of hazards, but doesn't eliminate every hazard.

Krista (5:12)

Rob in Texas says Clark, you stink worse than a Jerry Jones GM transaction. I listened to your podcast on rising health costs due to Congress's actions. I kept waiting for the punchline of what exactly it was that Congress did to raise health costs, but the punchline or details never came. As an administrator of a small nonprofit health plan, I'm dying to know. Come on, Clark, tell us the rest of the story.

Clark Howard (5:38)

The rest of the story. So what's been going on is Congress ended a lot of the subsidies that exist for individuals who buy health care on the aca, the Affordable Care act exchange in the states. Some states have their own version of it, others use the healthcare.gov. so what happens is when those subsidies end, everybody else ends up with much higher premiums because the premiums get so high that a lot of people who had health coverage don't renew it. And so they go without. Then the remainder. The people that are likely to keep paying is what's known as adverse selection, that the people who have pre existing expensive medical conditions are the ones most likely to continue to buy the individual plans, making the cost of everybody's plans much more expensive. The wider the pool of people who are buying coverage, the lower the premiums end up being for everybody in the pool. So that's where it's really like a Freakonomics kind of thing, that the money spent ends up net costing people less money overall. Even people who don't qualify for any kind of subsidy still end up with a lower premium because of the wider number of people who are insured. Now, having said that, there's a lot wrong with health coverage in the United States, but more it's really about health care in the United States that has our cost of insurance, our cost of care so much, much, much, much, much higher than anywhere else on earth. If you want to sit down sometime, Rob, for about six hours, we could talk about all the layers that need to be addressed with health care in.

Krista (7:42)

The U.S. leslie, MD says, I don't think Clark stinks, but I think his indifference to television commercials smells a little inconsistent with his philosophy of not spending more than you can afford. Krista doesn't like watching commercials, and neither do I. Aside from the interruption, I feel like the relentless drumbeat of consumerism is unhealthy. And many of the commercials are inappropriate for children. So that's another strike against them. Even, even if the content isn't appropriate, it certainly teaches them from an early age to buy, buy, buy. I like capitalism too, but there's a fine line between capitalism and being brainwashed into thinking that you can buy happiness. This isn't the good old days when the Muppets were selling coffee. Advertising is sophisticated and psychologically manipulative in ways that have taken on a devious quality. So I'd rather pay for the programs without being programmed.

Clark Howard (8:30)

Thank you very much for that. We've had of things we've talked about just Kind of offhand on the show. This thing about paying for streaming services without commercials and streaming services with commercials has really struck a strong response in people.

Krista (8:50)

We had a lot. I mean I have one more to read, but I got a lot more. Do you want to hear one more?

Clark Howard (8:54)

Sure.

Krista (8:54)

SJ in Utah says Clark stinks on the streaming debate. Ads ruin the value of our limited time. The this is a classic case of Clark being penny wise and pound foolish. He'd rather suffer through ads just like he risked his car to avoid parking fees. He admitted that himself. Lol. And Clark a quick PS as an NFL fanatic myself, I get that live ads are part of the game's rhythm. That's a unique experience, unlike a movie. So that's why I budget for my entertainment. I plan for it so I can enjoy my shows ad free and my football all without being cheap with my time.

Clark Howard (9:29)

So my late mom, who you knew over and over and over again in my life from when I was in junior high forward would say you are and you can hear it in her thick, thick thick southern accent that you are always being penny wise and pound foolish. She would say that to me because I because I had this kind of thing about me being cheap over the years. It was just way I was wired and she just did not get it. And there are times that I am stupid. Like the thing with having six car break ins from trying to avoid paying for parking and parking in marginal areas. That was an if then that took me a long time to get Brad.

Krista (10:21)

In California says I'm not sure if this is an actual Clark stinks or maybe it's just mildly odiferous. Or maybe I'm actually the one who reeks. If I understand you correctly, to put credit freezes on each of your big three files, you have to first create an account at each of the credit bureaus. By doing so and no, don't sign up for the membership locking monitoring options. You will be given several credit reports for free. For example Equifax 6 a year, Experian Unlimited, TransUnion Unlimited. So my question is, why would you want to continue using annualcreditreport.com which limits you to only one a year?

Clark Howard (10:50)

Yeah, if you have by having the registered account you have to set up for your credit freezes. If you have access to a certain number of free credit reports each year, you're fine. Annual Credit Report.com is the website that the three credit bureaus were forced by Congress to set up as a portal for people to get a free report. But I still say I love credit karma so that you have continuous free ability to monitor what's going on with your credit in spite of the fact that they're taking that information, packaging it to sell you off to other people.

Krista (11:30)

Okay. And finally, we're going to go to Andy in Wisconsin. Clark does not stink. But I wanted to say thank you and prove again the difference Clark makes. Back in 2016, my wife and I made the difficult decision to declare chapter 11 after a string of bad decisions topped by our son breaking his femur in a water skiing accident. Our bills were okay. Now I know our bills were insurmountable and we were fighting about money. Our family life was suffering as well as our marriage. We knew we had a long road to travel after the bankruptcy, but it was the right decision. Nine years later, our credit is at 832, which made a refinance of our house an absolute whiz to complete. I know this is not all you and your team, but you certainly were a guiding force in our decisions to be done with debt. And be thankful for what the good Lord has given, what will always have the challenge of making smart decisions and protecting ourselves from scams. But know that you made a huge difference in our lives. Thanks for all you do, Andy.

Clark Howard (12:27)

Andy, thank you for taking the time and posting these kind words. But you know who did the work? You and your wife did the work. You're the ones who rebuilt your financial life in a whole different way. And now you both enjoy freedom from that stress that was leading to the arguments you have financially freed yourself from the shackles of debt. And you're living your life a completely different way. You are the one, you and your wife, who set a new chapter in your life after that. Chapter 11. It's been an absolutely wonderful chapter now and moving forward because your attitudes about money are completely different than they used to be. And again, hope your son had a full and complete recovery from that water skiing accident. Last time I went water skiing, I got injured too.

Krista (13:24)

Isn't the femur supposed to be the most painful break you can have? I think so.

Clark Howard (13:29)

Don't know, but I've not gotten on water skis since. Yeah, it's probably not my best idea anyway. Coming up ahead, an idea that we hope never comes but eventually always does. That's a recession. How are you going to recession proof yourself moving forward? That's what I got coming for you. And again, thank you to everybody who posted a Clark Stings. I really appreciate your feedback because we get set in our ways we got set in our habits and you help me expand my thoughts and rethink things so much when you take the time.

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Clark Howard (16:23)

So the joke is economists have predicted 12 of the last two recessions that their economic models will be too pessimistic. They don't understand the flexibility and creativity of capitalism, and that it is true there are times that the trends look like they're Slowing, but that somehow we come out of it and avoid a recession. That's happened a a lot over the decades. But recessions are a normal part of capitalism. You go through periods of overly exuberant expansion followed by accumulations of debt and then and other external factors will lead to a recession, which is basically the economy goes into the dumps. And there was a new report in the last couple of weeks from Moody's and their chief economist, who's very well respected, said that 22 states in the country are already in a recession or close to one. And I looked at the map and it's scattered all over the country. There are various factors that have already put some state economies in into recession, others on the bubble, and a little bit more than half the states right now are still growing economically. Those 22 though that account for a huge percent of the nation's population are really in a slowdown or a full onset of what would normally be classically for a country considered to be a recession. So I want you to think about doing what I think is so important and that's hope for the best, but prepare for the worst inside the four walls of your own financial life that you think through. Okay, if I walked in one day and unexpectedly was laid off from my place of work, or out of nowhere the company I work for went bust and then I got not even my current paycheck showing up, what do I do? Where am I financially? And this is a a good time with getting these warning signals that don't necessarily mean that we're going to have a full blown national recession, but we could and the factors that show we are more likely to have one than not are pretty clear if we don't have one. And you use this early warning as a time to get your finances ship shape, awesome. Because you're going to be better off even if we don't have a recession. But you'll be preparing yourself if we do have one. And you have to be prepared to live with disruption financially in your own life. So what are the things you should do? They're obvious as could be. It's just, will you do them? Number one, Americans are carrying a very high level of debt right now. In a lot of states it's at record levels and inflation adjusted. This isn't because we've had a lot of inflation. So if I'm talking to you and you're carrying a lot of debt and by debt that matters, it's anything that would be considered to be lifestyle debt, which is credit cards, personal Loans pay in fours and I'm going to make you cringe. Vehicle loans, those are all lifestyle kind of loans because yeah, you have to have a vehicle to get to and from work. But did you really need that newer vehicle? Did you need the fancier vehicle? That's why that's a lifestyle thing. A mortgage that's not considered to be lifestyle. Think about the debts you have. Do you have a plan to curtail the amount of debt you have in your life? Do you, do you have a plan to pay off the debt you have in your life? We have a simple tool on clark.com under our calculators that if you resolve, you're going to pay down your debt and you're going to set a time goal. Maybe may take years, may take months. Whatever it is, you can play with the parameters and see how long it'll take. You paying X number of dollars per month to be out of debt or the reverse. I want to be out of debt in this amount of time. How much am I going to have to pay every month at the interest rates I'm paying? I want you thinking about it. I want you doing what people don't find comfortable to do. Which if you're carrying a lot of debt, you write it down. I love not a computer screen for this. I like pencil and paper so it's staring you right in the face. I owe this much to blah blah, blah, Visa. I owe this much to this MasterCard. And these are the interest rates on them. Look at those numbers because that's how reality sets in. If all you do is get electronic statements and you see what your minimum payment is and you're paying that, that is set up for you to be in debt for ever on your electronic or paper statement. It'll show how much you have to pay per month to be debt free. And I Forget if it's 30 months, 36, whatever. And those numbers will stare you in the face if you look at them. But the point is to tackle it, to figure out what the situation is and take it on. And maybe you are somebody who needs a budget. I love YNAB because it forces people that are carrying a lot of debt to really think through what they're spending because the debt results from what you spend, right? So that's number one, number two. And you can't do everything all at once. But number two is what kind of reserves do you have? If out of nowhere you got laid off, what are you going to live on? Have you thought about that? What's your plan? B, what are you going to do if a meteor of financial problems lands on you? How are you going to handle it? So you face it now, prepare now. You improve your finances now, and the net result is you're in a better position, better situation, no matter what, recession or not. Okay, I ready to coach the team.

Krista (23:30)

I love it. Yeah. Coach Clark Kelly in Massachusetts says, I read that FICO is now licensing credit scores directly to lenders as of October. My main concern is security. If I have my credit reports frozen at all three bureaus, does this mean people can still check my credit anyway, credit score anyway, and attempt to borrow using my identity? Or are there any additional protective measures we should take? We'd love to hear your thoughts on this change and what it means for us.

Clark Howard (23:57)

Kelly, thank you for this question. So what we've got going on is behind the curtain. There's a huge donnybrook of a fight going on with Equifax, TransUnion and Experian and with FICO. And the three credit bureaus formed a cartel called Vantage. And so Vantage is an attempt of the three credit bureaus to squeeze FICO out of existence and own not just credit reporting, but credit scoring. So so far, lenders have stayed very heavily using the FICO model. They're comfortable with it. There's a lot more data behind it. They feel like it's a better predictor. And so market share has stayed with fico. So the credit bureaus have been trying to get new regulations and laws passed that will create market share for the three credit bureaus that they have not won in the marketplace. So there's this big fight going on where credit bureaus would pay for credit scores from fico, then turn around and sell them to. This is all about mortgage lending is where this fight has been. And FICO was like, well, they're trying to play dirty pool with us and get Washington to do their dirty work for them. So we're gonna take them on and we're going to sell scores direct to people instead of selling them to them wholesale that they then mark up. So it has nobody at all in this, not in Washington, not with the credit bureaus, not with fico. Nobody's thinking about you and me again, we're just data points. So I've been noodling this and trying to figure out is this going to create a additional identity theft vulnerability. And I haven't found one yet. And I don't know how this is going to play, but I'm watching it like a hawk. And Kelly, if This civil war going on between the credit bureaus on one side and FICO on the other because they were all together and now they're fighting. If it ends up causing collateral damage for us, I'm going to be all over it and what you and I might be able to do about it. But right now I'm just watching and when I know something, I'm going to let you know. That was a lot of explanation, wasn't it? Did you had we talked about all that.

Krista (26:33)

We have not.

Clark Howard (26:34)

Yeah.

Krista (26:35)

Kathy in Montana says, I'm thinking about ordering medications from a Canadian online pharmacy for the first time, but the website doesn't offer a credit card option. Instead, I would need to use the electronic check. Is that safe?

Clark Howard (26:48)

Not necessarily. Now, Kathy, you're in Montana and historically people in the Canadian border states who bought from Canadian pharmacies for decades and decades generally this is for name brand prescriptions you need, not for generics, have driven across the border to a pharmacy near the border. I don't know where in Montana you are, how far you are from a Canadian town that would have a Canadian pharmacy, but normally that's how people in the northern border states have obtained Canadian drugs. There is risk, though, doing business with an online Canadian pharmacy like you're talking about since they will not take credit cards you don't have. When you use a credit card for a foreign transaction, you don't. Depending on your issuer, you may or may not have really good protections with that credit card. In this case, you don't even have a may or may not. You send them the electronic money. It's fully at risk.

Krista (27:58)

So what would you do? Like would you definitely check all the options here like Cost Plus. Right. And Amazon Pharmacy. Right.

Clark Howard (28:06)

Costco's so big and in Montana. But sometimes with the brand name prescriptions that account for it's a little under 20% of prescriptions in the United States are brand name. There's no generic for them. Those are the ones that there's a massive price difference in Canada versus in the United States. I was thinking while I was talking about that, did you mention the. The brand name companies having discount vouchers not mention that? No. So you should look online and see if there's a coupon benefit for the brand name prescription drug you're trying to buy in Canada. They would lower the price substantially. Buying it in the United States with the drug manufacturer coupon that you may be eligible for, discount program you may be eligible for. But if you're close enough to the Canadian border, I'D go do some sightseeing, drive up there and buy it in person. If your option as an alternative is sending them a electronic payment, I don't.

Krista (29:15)

Like one that takes credit cards. Hopefully true. Okay, back to credit reports and credit scores. So many questions have been coming in around that topic. Mark in California says on a recent show you mentioned you really like the service provided by Credit Karma and you recommended it to viewers. I was wondering what are your thoughts on Credit Karma versus the free reports that you get from your credit card company or banks? I get them in all of my banks now and my thoughts are since these are already provided, I'm not going to sell my info to another third party company like Credit Karma. Are there some extra benefits that I'm not seeing or missing? And P S thanks for the tips on rebooking hotel rooms. I recently rebooked my trip to Japan and I saved over 400.

Clark Howard (29:58)

400 bucks back in your pocket. Oh man, I don't know why the hotels haven't put out a contract on my life. You will save so much money. Not every trip, not every time, but most of the time. If you book a hotel that you can cancel without any fee and then reshop it three weeks or less before you're going, most of the time, at least 80, 90% of the time you'll find a cheaper rate when you go to rebook. If it's not cheaper, you keep what you booked long before. So your point is extremely valid. We now have access to our credit scores so many different places. A lot of the credit card companies make it handy and available to us and so having the Credit Karma dashboard. The advantage of it. You stated the disadvantage already. Now somebody else has your information to sell off. But here's the advantage. Credit Karma. Let's say your credit score is trending down and you can't figure out why. Credit Karma walks you through the things that are doing that and the steps you can take that will get that score back up. You also have basic credit monitoring included with it. So if anybody starts doing anything funny out there, you're gonna have early warning. You have to take action to see what is going on in what's available from your credit card companies, banks, whatever to provide your score, maybe score plus report. But Credit Karma because they're tipping you off and they're actively notifying you, I think it still has an advantage. But if you're really good about monitoring your stuff that's already available to you for free and things you already have like credit cards and banking relationships. Don't bother with credit karma. You're just fine. And thanks for reiterating that tip about reshopping hotels and Japan. Tourism by Americans is at all time record highs in Japan. Why? Because Japan is a bargain right now for us. Your dollar stretches so far in yen and I've been to Japan half a dozen times and it's not near enough. That country brings me so much joy when I'm there. It is such a wonderful tourist destination and there have been a lot of fares lately to Japan from the eastern half of the country to Japan for about 700 something round trip. Not any right now, consistently in that kind of price range from the western half of the country. And I promise Japan won't disappoint. It will bring you true joy going and experiencing it. And I hope you had some great joy today on Halloween. Those of you who watch our YouTube show. Sorry about the goofiness at the beginning with my improvised Halloween costume, but I hope your day is full of great treats that when I think what would be my favorite treats on Halloween is seeing all the people in their fun costumes. It's just absolutely something that I love and I'd be remiss if I didn't say happy birthday, Krista.

Krista (33:36)

Thank you.

Clark Howard (33:37)

How does it feel to be 37?

Krista (33:39)

Oh, I wouldn't know anymore.

Clark Howard (33:42)

But I hope that your birthday today has been just great.

Krista (33:47)

How could it not be when I get to work with you?

Clark Howard (33:49)

Oh, man. Oh, what a bunch of hooey.

Krista (33:53)

It's very true. Not hooey. That's the truth.

Clark Howard (33:56)

All right, well, I hope it. I hope the rest of your birthday.

Krista (34:00)

Thank you.

Clark Howard (34:00)

Is really Rosie special. And happy birthday to my sister too. Hear that? The next chapter of Audi performance is here. The all new Audi Q5. The all new A5 and Q7. Each one a statement. Performance never goes out of style.