Caller/Listener (6:34)

Okay, the first question Today is from JD in California. Clark, you may have heard that AT&T has agreed to pay consumers $177 million to settle a class action lawsu over several data breaches. Coincidentally or maybe not. I recently received an email notifying me that my home Internet would soon go up in price. Could it be that big bad AT and T is forcing consumers to pay for the settlement out of their own pockets. And if so, how do they get away with it?

Clark Howard (7:04)

So first of all, a company that big 177 million would be like, oh, there's a penny down there. Should I, should I pick it up? Wonder the copper might be worth 1.7 cents. Should I pick it up? I mean, it's not even a penny to them. Their revenues are so large that that's irrelevant. It's all part of the inertia strategy. Companies know that most people just keep doing what they're doing because they've been doing it. So much noise in life, so many things going on that they pinch us five bucks here, ten bucks there. It was funny. I was reading this outrage online. All these posts and all this on social media. T Mobile raised some more junk fees starting this month and people were just in an uproar. But the reality is customers, because they're creatures of habit, are just going to keep using T Mobile for their mobile phone service in overwhelming numbers. People. The churn rate on people switching their mobile phone service is about one and a half to 2% of people a month dump it. So companies know that they can push through these increases. And most people just say, oh, well, I'll just pay it. That's not my strategy.

Caller/Listener (8:31)

That's why we have tools@clark.com including our cell phone plan finder. I recently got a friend to switch from one of the big bad cell phone companies to another one.

Clark Howard (8:42)

And now you never hear from them anymore because their phone doesn't work right? No.

Caller/Listener (8:46)

In fact, he was like, I can't believe it. I got my bill this month. It really is just $29 a month for like the full unlimited plan. And I was like, yeah, was paying $90 a month.

Clark Howard (9:00)

90 to 29. That's a little bit of difference.

Caller/Listener (9:03)

Just a little.

Clark Howard (9:03)

Yeah.

Caller/Listener (9:04)

David in California says, have you seen the lines at store pharmacies? I was shock. Closing of Rite Aid stores has affected pharmacy access at the stores that are still available. What do you think will pop up in our economy to fill this void? Perhaps smaller kiosk operations like the drive Thru coffee stands or maybe more Walgreens and CVS pharmacies popping up in other places when you Need a prescription the same day you go to one of these rather than online mail for meds.

Clark Howard (9:32)

Right. So what a great question. And you, you at the very end stated where the problem is. So CVS and Walgreens also closing locations. Rite Aid had been in steep decline for a long time before they finally gave up. And so the number of traditional chain pharmacies has been going steadily down. But there's something that we have not noticed that's been kind of under the radar happening around the country, and that is independent pharmacies have reemerged. It's kind of like you think about with the bookstores, how the big chain bookstores destroyed the corner bookstore and there was like a movie like a generation ago about it.

Caller/Listener (10:16)

You got mail. Thank you and love that movie.

Clark Howard (10:19)

Now the small independently owned bookstores are coming back to life. Not obviously like they were before because people reading electronic books, but the same thing is happening in pharmacy or same day meds. So you don't, I'm telling you, you walk down the street, you don't even notice these independents. So you're driving down the street, you don't really notice them because you think cvs, Walgreens, cvs, Walgreens look wider and the outlets providing prescriptions that are alternative same day keep rising. The warehouse clubs are taking larger and larger market share on the same day prescriptions because they're often 110 the cost of filling a prescription same day. What it is at Walgreens and CVS and Walmart is a big player in the same day market with a huge number of prescriptions at flat rate 4 bucks. So yeah, CVS and Walgreens are not irrelevant, but they are less relevant than they used to be because we now have ultra tiny alternatives and then we have the huge big boxes as alternatives.

Caller/Listener (11:41)

I also, a lot of times my Costco won't have something same day. I've noticed. And so there are some grocery stores near me that I'll price out that will often have.

Clark Howard (11:49)

I'm sorry, I forgot to mention the grocery stores.

Caller/Listener (11:52)

Yeah. So maybe check that out too. Okay. Angie in Pennsylvania, speaking of warehouse clubs, has a question for the expert on all warehouse clubs. She says, I have a BJ's membership, I've had it for years. And they just moved their store to a horrible location across town and built it with less parking and gas pumps in the smallest space possible. I hate it in all caps. Costco just built a new store finally which has a great, great space and pumps. It's not open yet. It's the first Costco to open near me. I have the BJ's One plus credit card now and it renews next month. I'd like to move to Costco plus credit card and membership. So how can I go about making the switch? I assume I'll have to cancel the BJ's credit card and apply for the Costco credit card. Help me make the switch to your favorite place on earth. I do not need to keep the BJ's credit card in any form. I already have three other credit cards.

Clark Howard (12:44)

All right, so first of all, a factual correction. My favorite place on earth is wherever I am with my wife. Okay. The second thing is, yes, we do receive our mail at Costco. No, we don't. Anyway, when a Costco comes into a new market, there's usually some incentive on market open or pre open of that store. They'll set up even before the store opens. They'll have like a tent out in front of front with a new member special. And at that time you may get a better deal on the initial sign up for the membership and potentially a better deal on the credit card. And they know that people who carry the Costco card, the Visa card, tend to shop a lot more in the store than people who don't. So you might get the whole shebang before it opens. So look online at Costco. See when that store is going to have pre open and that's when you want to be there to join. As for dumping the BJ's membership and the credit card, this is what I call hopscotching, where you replace one item of credit with another and you end up in the same position for your credit score and credit standing. You'll be just fine doing that switch. There is something that, as much as I Love Costco, that BJ's Wholesale has a big advantage over Costco and over Sam's. They have far more SKUs. You know, they have a lot more variety of items. So you're used to walking into BJ's Wholesale and you can have any of 24 different varieties of toothpaste. You're going to walk into Costco or into a Sam's Club, you're going to probably have four. I mean, it's far, far more limited choice at Costco and Sam's but at a lower price because of the buying power or the leverage they have with the manufacturers. You want to be on a Costco or Sam's Club shelf more than you want to be on a BJ's wholesale shelf.

Caller/Listener (14:55)

Okay, I have a question for you. Yes, a hard one. Someone said to you you have no other choice for the rest of your life. You can only belong to one of the warehouse clubs. What would you choose?

Clark Howard (15:10)

You're really going to do that to me?

Caller/Listener (15:12)

Yeah.

Clark Howard (15:13)

Well, I mean our dog is named Kirkland Signature. I think the answer is obvious. But you know, as I talked about, Sam's has improved so much, much. I mean Sam's was a 98lb weakling competitor and Sam's has leadership now. That's done a great job to make it a more user friendly experience. And I wish that Costco would follow both BJ's wholesale and Sam's with having scanning on your phone, checking out on your phone and not having to get into those long, long lines at a Costco on a weekend that you would just check yourself out and go right out the door. This is not self checkout at a register. This is where you ring yourself up on your phone as you go through the store, pay right there on your phone. You don't even have to show the barcode usually because the AI that knows that you're not shoplifting anything.

Caller/Listener (16:16)

So room for improvement. But your choice is clear.

Clark Howard (16:19)

Yeah, it's Costco.

Caller/Listener (16:20)

Okay.

Clark Howard (16:21)

I mean we had one dog who's passed away named Costco Wholesale. Now we have a dog named Kirkland Signature. I think it's pretty clear. Love that company. By the way, warehouse club sales are up 50% in the last five years. So a portion of that is because of inflation and items in the stores. But most of it is the warehouse clubs are so much cheaper day in and day out than other stores. The three chains that market share at a time of inflation just choking people has moved market share to them and that's why they're worth the big parking lots, they're worth the lines that you now only have to do at Costco. They're worth all that because your money goes so much further. Coming up ahead, that money I just saved you crooks are coming along to steal it in a second. I got a story for you from last night.

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Caller/Listener (19:01)

In Tulum.

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Clark Howard (19:23)

So last night I get a frantic message from my middle brother. He says, middleman older I'm the baby. So Neil sends me this message. He needs me to call him right away because friend of he and his wife's got a message that she was being arrested for failure to show up for jury duty. And I cut my brother off immediately. Then we talked about other things. I said, you text him right now, tell him this is a scam, been around for a while, don't fall for it. In fact, a lot of court systems now have on their web pages notice usually highlighted in red type saying this is a scam. We're not coming after you this way. Don't believe anybody who says you have to pay a fine right now or else. And what the criminals do is they keep morphing how they steal. A lot of these are foreign criminal rings who have been able to trade in personal information. They know so much about us. This individual my brother was talking about who's being contacted supposedly about not showing up for jury duty. They knew the criminals knew current address, prior address, all kinds of information. And we're really telling such a good tale that it suddenly has credibility. And these scams operate on fear, immediacy and the get out of jail Free card going to ruin your life unless you do something right now. And that right now is going to be giving us access to your checking account or personal information or whatever. I mean, this is the common method of operation of these scams, again, overwhelmingly originating outside the United States, beyond the reach of our law enforcement, and stealing billions of dollars, billions from people of all ages, all levels of sophistication. And by the way, one of the hottest targets right now with high success rates are people in their 20s and 30s who are so used to doing everything online that you're more likely to get taken by letting your guard down from a scamster who's contacting you online. But the big money comes from people that are older because they've got more money. And remember, I said the method of operation is fairly consistent. But what is different is what's the ruse? And right now, the hot one is where you're getting a letter, a physical letter in the mail, official government business, from the U.S. supreme Court. It's a dupe of the Supreme Court letterhead telling you you're in trouble and you're going to have to pay all this money because you owe money back to. One of the common scam letters with the Supreme Court letterhead is you owe money or improper receipt of money from Social Security and people because of the way the scams have thought through. And how much, because of all the identity theft stuff, how much the scammers know in personal information about us. It has enhanced cred. Wall Street Journal says more than a billion dollars has been stolen by Chinese criminals that they know of. And listen to this one. $15 billion has been stolen by criminals, Cambodia and crypto scams. $15 billion. I know we're a huge economy, but if it's your money that makes up part of that 1 billion the Chinese have stolen, the 15 billion the Cambodians have stolen. I mean, when it's your money, it is real and it hurts. And with the crypto ones, so many people have stolen people's life savings. All right, so there's something available now all over America that is the gateway for these gangs to steal money. And it's not the fault of the operators or owners of the ATMs or the retailers that house them in their stores. But you need to know the crypto ATMs are how the criminals, particularly in foreign countries, steal money from us without a trace. And these crypto ATMs, you go to them and they're. Many of them are reverse ATMs. You put in US dollars, you put in many times, you'll put in a particular code and then you have transmitted money that's untraceable to a criminal here in the US or anywhere in the world. Anytime anybody says you need to pay them by any payment app like Venmo Cash App or Big bad Zell. Did I mention PayPal? Anytime they say you need to go to one of these reverse ATMs that you're putting in your real US money. Anytime you're being told you need to send a wire right now, any of these right nows, the sense of urgency, that's what I need in your head. I don't care what they say. I don't care how they tell you you're being thrown in jail and they're throwing away the key. Remember, that's all part of creating the fear. Followed by the urgency, followed by you running and throwing money, your hard earned money to a crook that is unrecoverable. You think I'm a little frustrated by this?

Caller/Listener (25:45)

Oh, it's crazy. I actually got the jury one after I had missed jury duty because I had a missed flight and I flight canceled.

Clark Howard (25:53)

We don't have handcuffs here to put on.

Caller/Listener (25:56)

And I almost fell for it. But when I the number, you know, they said they were sheriff from my local department, local county, the whole thing. This was a few years ago. I looked it up because I was like, this just doesn't feel right. And I figured out it was a scam. But it was, you know, it was close. I mean, it sounded legit, especially because I knew I had Miss Jury duty and I've been trying to call them. So. Okay.

Clark Howard (26:19)

And I worked for you did serve.

Caller/Listener (26:21)

I did serve. And I've got.

Clark Howard (26:22)

They made sure you were in a really tough case.

Caller/Listener (26:24)

Yeah. And I've just been called again. Yeah. Superior Court again.

Clark Howard (26:29)

I don't know.

Caller/Listener (26:30)

Patrick in North Carolina says this is a strange off the wall question. I was looking at moving to Panama in retirement.

Clark Howard (26:37)

Panama.

Caller/Listener (26:38)

This is several years off. I understand you can't use regular Medicare there, but you can use some advantage plans there. I know you don't like these disadvantage plans, as you call them. What's your opinion on that? Also, what happens if I move back? Can I go back to regular Medicare?

Clark Howard (26:55)

So, all right, let's deal with the questions in reverse. Except in a tiny number of states, Patrick. I think maybe four or six states. Once you go into a Medicare disadvantage plan, you cannot go back fully into traditional Medicare because you won't be able to buy. Except the small number of states that have consumer protections. You won't be able to buy what's known as a medigap, which is absolutely 100% necessary with traditional Medicare. You can only get that when you first become Medicare eligible to get a medigap policy for most of us in most of America. So the problem with a disadvantaged plan is that let's say you go into one because they'll cover you in foreign countries and then the following year they say, yeah, we were just kidding, we don't cover that anymore. By the way, that's what people are experiencing right now with disadvantage plans for 26 is a lot of the insurers saying, yeah, we used to offer this, we used to offer that, we're not doing that anymore. And then there you are, you are stuck, although you're stuck generally only within the world of going from one disadvantage plan to another. But you again, can't go back to real Medicare. And real Medicare is overwhelmingly superior to any disadvantage plan. If you get sick, as long as you're healthy, disadvantage plans are fine. But when you get sick, that's when you would really wish in. Your life could easily depend on having access to the best facilities, best providers, most up to date treatments that you're not going to have, and most disadvantaged plans. So what do you do if you go like. Panama is right now one of the most popular places in the world for Americans to move either pre retirement or in retirement. This is country specific, but in Panama there are local policies that Americans and Canadians buy in Panama that provide care. And Panama is one of the places in Panama City where people buy plans directly from one of the first tier hospitals that are kind of like prepaid hospitalization plans. The care is obviously much cheaper there, but if you have no coverage, it's real money coming out of your pocket. Which is why people buy a Panamanian insurance policy or will buy one of the more narrow ones, that is for one of the hospitals there. But every country that Americans migrate to around the world, there are expat groups that help each other that you can find online. They could be in social media kind of environments like Facebook, but more often Reddit is a really popular place now where you find Reddit groups devoted to guiding each other for Americans that are relocating to somewhere else in the world.

Caller/Listener (30:20)

Bill in Connecticut says, I received a card inviting me to the travel and adventure show in my suburban town. It said, join us for a fun filled travel cruise and adventure showcase. This feels more like a timeshare pitch than a travel show.

Clark Howard (30:34)

I bet they said, but we're not a timeshare.

Caller/Listener (30:36)

First there's no date listed, you have to call. Secondly, it says in exchange for your time and opinion you get a four night cruise from a major cruise line or two round trip airline tickets and two nights at a Marriott, Hilton or Hyatt hotel. It also says this is not a timeshare or real estate solicitation. I haven't heard of this. What's the catch here?

Clark Howard (30:55)

Odds are overwhelming that this is a new category that is called a vacation club where you pay thousands of dollars for supposedly the ability to travel around the world nearly for free. And this is so close to scam. It's like you're flying right next to scam is a word. A lot of these do turn out to be criminal enterprise. They turn out completely to be consistent. Others just a bad deal. And the reality you will likely never get anything of real value given to you at any of these presentations, any of these shows. So I would say you said what's the catch? That's the catch. Nobody's giving you a free trip just for showing up. Not a real free trip.

Caller/Listener (32:00)

Susan in New York says I'm a New York State employee which qualified me for PSLF Public Service Loan forgiveness on student loans. It existed way before President Biden's attempts at forgiving loans. I have satisfied the 10 years in repayment qualification and I have had two of the four loans forgiven so far. The last two qualify in the spring of 26. My problem is that I have auto pay from my checking account monthly and and the company kept taking payment money after one loan was effectively forgiven, leaving a credit balance on the loan account of $372 and change. It has been six months since this happened and every time I email them about applying this credit to the two outstanding loans I get a response usually a week or 10 days later that says basically they'll do it when they get around to it. It is infuriating. I email every month. I know it's not a huge sum, but I would like them to either cut me a check or apply it to the other loans. I plan to discontinue the auto pay before the forgiveness on the final two and try to avoid this issue next spring. I didn't have this problem when the first loan was forgiven. I just don't know where to bring this problem. Who should I email next? Is there a rule that says they can hold my money for a period of time?

Clark Howard (33:09)

No.

Caller/Listener (33:09)

Thanks for all you do. I've been listening to you forever and I locked mine and my kids Sims last week. Smiley face.

Clark Howard (33:16)

Good for you doing that. All right. So this goes way beyond federal student loans. Anytime you have automatic payment set up with a provider, number one example I'll tell you we've heard over the years is any fitness center or gym membership, you discontinue that membership and more often than not, they keep taking the money out of your account month after month after month. After you have properly canceled your membership, you lease a car or you have an auto loan on a vehicle. In both of those cases, you pay off the loan. Let's say you trade in a vehicle and you still owe on it and the dealer as part of the deal pays the vehicle off. There can be problems with that, by the way. Anyway, the lender, the bank often continues to auto debit the account long after the auto loan has been paid off, the vehicle traded in, the lease done. You want to always remember this two months out from the end of a loan, a lease, whatever. In this case student loans, you discontinue auto pay like you said, you're going to do with the remaining two loans once they have met the 10 year requirement for the remainder being loan forgiven. Because once the financial institution has your money, the bank has your money, the loan servicer has your money. Getting it back out of their bureaucracy, either because of dishonesty or incompetence, is extremely hard. Now, if you notice a debit within the first 10 days, 10 banking days, which is two weeks, you should be able to get a reversal through your own credit union or bank. And that's what you want to do. You want to dispute that debit and try to get that money reclaimed. Once it goes past that you're in hassle land getting the money back. They don't ever intend likely to give you that money back from the student loan servicer. The place you go is the student Loan advocate office in the US Department of Education. That is where you're going to be able to hopefully apply pressure. There's an ombudsman thing there to apply pressure to the loan servicer to get you your money back. But as far as their intention of giving you the money back, the middle Tuesday of never maybe, and gosh, what a negative way to end. But I think with a positive message. And that is it is you and me that have to discontinue those auto pays with anything we're doing when we're not going to do business with whoever it is or we've met our obligation with whoever it is. But you do it before and then remember, you've got to manually make that last payment or two to fulfill your obligation. So you're done with them and they're done with being able to access money from you. So thank you so much for being with us today. I hope that you have a great rest of your day today. Know that we're here to serve you all week long, 24 hours a day@clark.com clarkdew so you're empowered with knowledge so you can save more, spend less and avoid getting ripped off. Remember Friday, my favorite podcast of the week and YouTube show when we have Fart Stinks. Hey, Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. Now I don't know if you've heard, but Mint's Premium Wireless is $15 a month. But I'd like to offer one other perk. We have no stores. That means no small talk. Crazy weather we're having. No, it's not.

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Clark Howard (37:34)

It is an introvert's dream. Give it a try@minmobile.com switch upfront.

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