11.10.25 Holiday Travel: Airbnb & VRBO / Honoring Our Veterans

Summary

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Podcast Summary: The Clark Howard Podcast

Episode: 11.10.25 – Holiday Travel: Airbnb & VRBO / Honoring Our Veterans
Date: November 10, 2025
Host: Clark Howard
Guest/Contributor: Krista (Team Clark)

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Episode Overview

This episode of The Clark Howard Podcast focuses on two primary themes: practical advice for holiday travel with special attention to Airbnb and VRBO rentals, and an in-depth segment honoring Veterans Day that explores the unique financial challenges and scams targeting veterans. Throughout, Clark and Krista answer listener questions, offering actionable consumer tips across travel, credit cards, and banking.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Holiday Travel Tips: Airbnb & VRBO

• Rise in Issues with Short-Term Rentals

  • Rentals from Airbnb and VRBO now commonly face trust and accountability problems.
  • Growing occurrence of guests being charged for pre-existing damages and, more worryingly, privacy violations (e.g., hidden cameras).

• Clark’s Car Rental Rule for Rentals

  • Document Everything:

    "When you get to the rental property you're staying in, I want you to shoot video with your phone. Anything's broken, I want you to take an up-close photo of it. It will be timestamped on your phone."
    — Clark Howard [01:15]

  • This protocol, borrowed from car rentals, protects guests from wrongful damage claims and can prove items were missing upon arrival.

• Hidden Cameras — A Disturbing Outlier

  • Clark recounts a New York Times story where a guest found a hidden bathroom camera and could not easily get a refund or see the host punished. Airbnb only acted after media attention.

    "You'd think, as Airbnb's policies are so clear supposedly on this, ... that unit owner would have been kicked out. Neither happened."
    — Clark Howard [03:45]

• Booking Advice: Favor Flexible Policies

  • Avoid non-refundable bookings for both hotels and Airbnbs, especially far in advance.
  • Clark’s hotel rule: never book a non-refundable room unless you are booking same-day.

    "Life happens and things change… Don’t like non-refundable period. Because life’s always happening."
    — Clark Howard [06:22]

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2. Travel Q&A

• Airlines Requiring Credit Card at Boarding (Delta Incident)

  • Listener John asks about Delta denying boarding for not presenting the original purchase card.
  • Clark explains it's tied to fraud prevention (theft rings using stolen cards), mostly on one-way international tickets.
  • Solution: When buying for someone else, provide a card copy and be available for phone verification. Enrolling in frequent flyer programs can reduce suspicion.

    "If you are enrolled in their frequent flyer program, ... then the odds they’re not going to let you fly in a situation like this goes away."
    — Clark Howard [09:22]

• Car Rental Insurance Proof

  • Listener Denisha reports Budget required proof of auto insurance, not just the insurance company name.
  • Clark notes this happened to him at a Budget franchise in Chicago and suspects it’s a location-by-location or franchise-wide trend.

    "They wanted to see proof of an actual policy."
    — Clark Howard [11:08]

• Tips for Affordable Flights to Australia

  • Sheila from Delaware seeks affordable Australia flights; Clark recommends routing via the West Coast for deals, e.g. LA–Sydney for ~$793.

    "...the fare was three times the cost from the East Coast what it was going from Los Angeles."
    — Clark Howard [12:30]

  • Sometimes, exceptional deals do pop up from the East Coast, as with a team member's recent Atlanta–Sydney deal.

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3. Honoring Our Veterans: Advice, Warnings, and Reflections

[Starts ~18:37]

• Clark Advocates National Service

  • Reiterates support for mandatory national or civil service for young adults to foster common purpose and exposure to diverse backgrounds.

  • Reflects on his 21 years in the State Guard and value of learning from people of all walks of life.

    "One of the things we’re missing right now from America is this common purpose, this common thing about what we’re all about and learning about other people, which anybody who’s ever served in the military knows."
    — Clark Howard [18:55]

• Scams Targeting Veterans Leaving Service

  • Warns that veterans transitioning to civilian life are aggressively targeted by scams, especially fraudulent job offers and fake training programs siphoning off veterans’ benefits.

    "You have a scam target on you like you cannot imagine… There are so many scams specifically targeting people ending their enlistment period or ending their service in the military."
    — Clark Howard [21:09]

  • Recommends starting retraining at community colleges or state-supported technical colleges for best value and legitimacy.

• Job Search & Identity Theft Risk

  • Warns of scams where “employers” seek personal info for fraud.

    "There are so many, many scams. A lot of them are simple. They’re just trying to get your personal information to engage in some form of identity theft."
    — Clark Howard [22:00]

  • Stresses: Don’t take things at face value, and always verify before sharing sensitive data.

• Resources for Veterans

  • Clark.com features an updated Veterans Guide to support veterans and current service members with benefits info and scam warnings.

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4. Listener Questions: Veterans’ Issues & Banking Trends

• VA Claims and SSN Use
  • Listener PT in California reports that the VA uses SSNs as claim numbers, raising serious privacy concerns.
  • Clark urges veterans to lobby for reform and to establish credit freezes for protection.

    "Why would you hand over the ability to steal somebody’s identity on a silver platter?"
    — Clark Howard [25:03]

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5. Banking: Move Toward Virtual & AI-Powered Tellers

• Listener “Jim in Tennessee” on Video/AI Bank Tellers

  • Relates frustration with credit union replacing in-person tellers with video or AI tellers, leading to inefficiency and loss of personal service.

  • Clark notes it may be more about remote human tellers, efficiency, and pandemic-era changes, but impersonal service is a tradeoff.

    "It is not personal... you lose connection when you do this kind of impersonal thing. But it clearly is where so many things are going."
    — Clark Howard [29:15]

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6. Credit Cards: Cash Back Restrictions

• Decreasing Flexibility with Cash Back Cards
  • Listener Nick in Iowa finds Wells Fargo’s Active Cash card dropped the option for a cash-back check—now only gift cards or travel redemption.
  • Clark agrees this is part of a trend (pioneered by Citi), making redemption more complicated to boost bank profits.

    "They hire MBAs… and they don’t make it easy at all… The curse of the MBA, said by someone who has one."
    — Clark Howard [31:33]

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Memorable Quotes

• "You gotta follow the car rental rule... shoot video with your phone [when you arrive]." — Clark Howard [01:01]
• "Party promoters... having an all-night crazy party in an Airbnb... to the detriment of that landlord and the neighbors." — Clark Howard [02:09]
• "There’s so many scams specifically targeting people ending their enlistment... when you’re looking for a job." — Clark Howard [21:09]
• "Why would you hand over the ability to steal somebody’s identity on a silver platter?" — Clark Howard [25:03]
• "It is not personal... you lose connection when you do this kind of impersonal thing. But it clearly is where so many things are going." — Clark Howard [29:15]
• "They hire MBAs… and they don’t make it easy at all… The curse of the MBA, said by someone who has one." — Clark Howard [31:33]

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Important Timestamps

• Travel Rental Advice / Airbnb-Related Scams: 00:35 – 07:00
• Airline One-Way Ticket Credit Card Verification: 07:35 – 10:32
• Car Rental Insurance Proof: 10:32 – 11:39
• Flights to Australia: 11:39 – 15:15
• Veterans Day, Military Service Reflection, & Scams: 18:37 – 23:58
• VA Privacy Concerns: 23:58 – 26:09
• Virtual/AI Bank Tellers: 26:09 – 30:27
• Credit Card Redemption Trends: 30:27 – 31:50

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Tone & Style

Clark Howard’s signature approachable, practical, and consumer-first voice permeates the episode, balancing empathy (especially for veterans and travelers) with unvarnished warnings, and always with a splash of gentle humor. Krista’s conversational presence helps clarify details and relate listener experiences.

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Summary for Non-Listeners

This episode is rich with actionable travel and financial advice for the holidays and an earnest, warning-filled message for veterans about scams and safe transitions to civilian life. Clark backs up tips with real stories, walks through best practices for protecting yourself as a traveler or consumer, and answers a suite of relevant listener questions—making this episode a comprehensive resource for both seasonal and everyday financial empowerment.

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 to make better financial decisions in your life. One decision you might be working on right now is where you're going to lay your head on a pillow through the holiday season. Or maybe you're planning your spring break already. I have some advice for you, especially if you're considering Airbnb or vrbo and later in this episode, tomorrow is Veterans Day. I'm so grateful to those who've served and I have advice and special warnings for you if you served. If you're a family member, a friend, pass warnings on to that veteran. Right now I want to talk about something that I think is really hard right now as a traveler, and that is there's been kind of a breakdown in trust with something that has grown so much and that is Airbnb. And we had, Krista and I had a friendly discussion on another show recently about problems people were having with Airbnb and vrbo. So I can't believe I'm having to make a suggestion to you. When you stay in an Airbnb, most of the market share is Airbnb. But if you are a VRBO instead of an Airbnb, the same rule applies. You gotta follow the car rental rule. Yep. When you get to the rental property you're staying in, I want you to shoot video with your phone. Anything's broken, I want you to take an up close photo of it. It will be timestamped on your phone. Because the same thing that's happening to people with car rentals is now happening with rentals, which is where something may already be damaged or broken when you get there, but you didn't document it. And when you leave, they then bill you for or the damaged item. You can't do anything about. When they try to bill you for a missing item because you didn't know it was there except if you shot the video of the property and they say, well, you know, blah blah, blah, was missing, you Took it. And you can show that video from when you first arrived, and it's not in the video. And I hate this because, you know, when Airbnb started, it was like this wonderful, naive kind of thing. We didn't have professional party promoters pretending when they were renting a place and then having an all night crazy party in an Airbnb to the detriment of that landlord and the neighbors. You know, the whole problem with party houses on Airbnb, I mean, there's a lot of things that go on in the world. And yes, there are times that somebody renting somebody's Airbnb will damage it. So the video is important to protect both sides. But in a New York Times story recently, family was staying in an Airbnb and what did they find in it? Unfortunately, not right when they got there, there was a hidden camera in the bathroom that was watching all the goings on in the bathroom. You'd think, as Airbnb's policies are so clear supposedly on this, that the people would have gotten a refund and that unit owner would have been kicked out. Neither happened. Neither happened. And so this is a problem that I talked about recently with VRBO is that their real bread is buttered by the landlords, the people who list their properties on there, not you and me as transient guests. And so the system, first of all, almost certainly is using AI when complaints are filed instead of humans, is not doing what even the written policies say when very obvious violations occur. That one I can't do anything about, you know, a creepy unit owner or property owner who hides voyeuristic cameras. But that is clearly totally against the rules. And by the way, once New York Times did a story on it, Airbnb rushed to refund the money. But this is the kind of thing you need to know. So does that mean you just stay in hotels? Not necessarily. There are times that it's so cost efficient to have the extra space. And so this is one where the more careful you are. And the thing with the cameras, the I just talked about, that's an outlier. But you documenting, and as we talked about when we last addressed this, don't book properties with very tight cancellation policies. You want to book properties that treat you like you want to be treated with a hotel booking, which is never book a non refundable hotel room. Never book a non refundable hotel room till the day you're going. If there's a cheaper deal and you're booking a hotel the day you're arriving, fine. Non refundable but not in advance. And an Airbnb that says, yeah, you book way ahead, you're stuck. Life happens and things change. Just heard a story from a friend who booked a rental of a car on Priceline with one of their instant deals where you don't know what car rental company or whatever till after you booked and then she couldn't get the time off from work. She lost $300, $300 on that non refundable car rental. Don't like non refundable period. Because life's always happening. Krista.

[Krista]

Okay. John in Arizona says, I recently saw a News story on YouTube from a Philadelphia news station about a couple who were returning home from London Heathrow who were denied boarding by Delta because they did not have the credit card they purchased the ticket with. I found this surprising since what happens if the card had been lost or stolen after you purchased the ticket? Is this an exclusive Delta policy or do other airlines have this policy? I recently flew back from Munich in mid September on United and I did not encounter this.

[Clark Howard]

Okay, so thanks for bringing this up. And this is something that happens haphazardly with airlines, but there's something that's happened at Delta because there have been multiple media reports about people being forced to buy new tickets by Delta when they're returning from somewhere, particularly overseas. And it's because of theft rings using stolen credit card numbers for one way airline tickets. As best I know, whenever this has happened, it's involved a one way ticket. And again, all the incidents I've read about in recent months have involved Delta. So let's say I buy a ticket for one of my kids or they buy a ticket for me. Wouldn't that be wonderful? Anyway, I've used my credit card. You're going to be shocked what you're supposed to do. You're supposed to give the person you buy a ticket for. If it's a one way, you're supposed to send them a copy of the card itself and know that the possibility exists. And I wouldn't even say probability with Delta, but that seems to be who the possibility has been with lately, that on the day they're flying on a one way ticket that you're available for a phone call to verify with Delta that it is actually a valid ticket, it was not a stolen credit card, it's your card. Blah blah blah blah blah. Now something else you should do because this is a Delta problem, join Even if you never intend to fly Delta again, join their Sky Miles program. Airlines fraud systems tend to pop up when somebody's flying as a UFO passenger. But if you are enrolled in their frequent flyer program, they know your address, they know your date of birth, they've got all that already in their database from the frequent flyer program. Then the odds that they're going to not let you fly in a situation like this goes away. And I've not heard of this on any one way tickets in the United States. On Delta, I've only read about it happening overseas and there are foreign airlines that have done this for years.

[Krista]

Denisha in Kentucky says when renting a car from Budget at the Las Vegas airport recently, we declined their insurance as usual. However, after they requested proof of our personal auto insurance or we would have to purchase theirs, we didn't have the insurance card but were able to log in online and provide the policy number. I've never had this happen before as they've always just asked for the name of the insurance company. Is this becoming a standard practice?

[Clark Howard]

So it's funny, we were just talking about Delta. Now I'll say this happened to me with Budget at Midway Field in Chicago. Same thing. They wanted proof of my auto insurance policy and I had to pull it up, you know, my app on my phone and show my policy to the person at the counter. So I don't know again if this is a budget Only thing that budget. A lot of the locations are franchises. Don't know if it's something that budget is doing or if it's budget franchises where it's not just enough to say my insurance is with that. They want to see proof of an actual policy.

[Krista]

Sheila in Delaware says my daughter is studying abroad for the spring semester in Sydney, Australia. We would like to visit her but it seems quite expensive for a week long trip at this point. We have her brother working on his master's so unfortunately we can't say money is no object. We're also looking to retire in about three years so we're diligent on that as well. So is there any way to go to Australia from the east coast for a reasonable amount? Thanks for all you do. I appreciate all your great advice. Also thank you for being so kind.

[Clark Howard]

Well, thank you for that. Okay, so I went straight to my tool book which is what? Looking, looking at fairs from the west coast. Oh yeah, because you said east coast. So immediately I go west coast and I just pulled up on Google flights. United is showing from LA non stop to Sydney 793 round trip. That's not even the cheapest fare. It says goes down to 744 from the west coast to Australia. It's so cheap now booked in advance for you to buy a ticket east coast to west coast and then take a flight overseas. East coast fares to across the Pacific are so crazy high that when Lane and I went to Australia early this year, the fare was, get this, it was three times the cost from the east coast what it was going from Los Angeles. And so it was perfect for us. We actually have daughter who lives in Los Angeles. We visited her for a day and then we went on to Australia at one third the cost. So at, you know, 700 and something round trip, I think you're fine. And that's not just a fluke like I'm looking random travel period In February, United793. I don't know who the 744 is. Qantas 856, American 857. So the fares, when you consider you're Talking about a 16 hour flight, those are pretty good round trip fares.

[Krista]

And if your dates are flexible, how much did Sally pay to go to Brisbane? Round trip? Something around trip out of.

[Clark Howard]

So same kind of thing.

[Krista]

Yeah. And that was from Atlanta. That was a.

[Clark Howard]

That was from Atlanta. That was from the east coast.

[Krista]

Yeah. So those deals do pop up.

[Clark Howard]

So that is an exception to my three times price rule. Sally, who is a brilliant woman, found a fair that was straight through to Australia. And I don't know, did you say Sydney? Because I was so busy jumping on for Sally.

[Krista]

That was Brisbane. No, no, this was Sydney.

[Clark Howard]

Yes, this was Sydney. So Brisbane normally is cheaper if you're going to sightsee multiple places. Melbourne tends to be more expensive than both of them. I don't know why often, but it can vary by trip. But man, I so want to live in Australia. I just so want to live there. But it takes two and my wife is like, y' all go visit, don't want to live there.

[Krista]

It's tough when your kids live on the other side of the world.

[Clark Howard]

Yeah, that's what airplanes are for.793 round trip. They come over, they have fun, then they come back.

[Krista]

No, I don't know about that one. That would be a tough one for me too.

[Clark Howard]

Really?

[Krista]

Yeah. Especially if one day I have grandchildren. Forget about it. Maybe for a year.

[Clark Howard]

Okay. How much guilt are you trying to pile up? I'm not at all.

[Krista]

I'm not at all.

[Clark Howard]

But you, you know, we were just our three year old grandkids birthday.

[Krista]

Oh. See precious moments like that.

[Clark Howard]

It was, it was fun. Yeah. So, okay.

[Krista]

And his name is Clark.

[Clark Howard]

No, his name is Max.

[Krista]

Oh, Max. That was Max's birthday.

[Clark Howard]

Max's birthday. Clark. Six.

[Krista]

Clark is six. My gosh.

[Clark Howard]

Can't believe that you just made yourself sound old. I can't believe he's already three years old.

[Krista]

I say it all the time. I know.

[Clark Howard]

Coming up ahead, I want to talk about tomorrow. An important day to me. Veterans Day. And there's something I want you to know. If you are a veteran or you have family members or friends who are.

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[Clark Howard]

You know, think about today. So few Americans as they grow up, even begin to think about serving in the military. And I remember every time over the years I've talked about why I believe there should be mandatory national service for people at 18 years old, that people should be required to serve in the US Military for two years or serve in some other civil kind of capacity for two years to serve the nation. Have I gotten blowback like you cannot imagine every time I've said that? But I feel like one of the things we're missing right now from America is this common purpose, this common thing about what we're all about and learning about other people, which anybody who's ever served in the military knows. And I've had the privilege of having served and I'm retired now, but in the State Guard for 21 years, two months. And how much I learned from my fellow soldiers, you know, about their lives, about people from completely different walks of life. We really don't get exposed like that anymore and we don't sacrifice widespread for our country. So I've said it there. I've said it day before Veterans Day. I want to tell you, if you are a veteran, you know, someone who is in your family or friends that we have just updated as we do every fall, our Veterans Guide, our military guide for active duty personnel and others. But I want to say something to you. If you are done with your time in the military, you have a scam target on you like you cannot imagine. When you were going from the kind of closed environment of military culture and you're going out looking for a job as a civilian. And if you entered the military out of high school, out of some trade school, or out of college, and you've been in the military any number of years, you're disconnected so much from how things work in the civilian world. And there are so many scams specifically targeting people ending their enlistment period or ending their service in the military, retiring from it when you're looking for a job. So be really, really careful with training opportunities. A lot of scammy kind of schools will Try to get you to sign up and sign over your benefits or a program that's not very good. You really need to take your time when you're looking at any training opportunity to know it's on the up and up. And my default is for you to look at community colleges and state supported technical colleges is where you first look for that bridge training for the field that you think you want to go into as a civilian. In addition, when you're looking for jobs, know that something that you know in the military, things are just straight up. This is how it works, this is what you do, this is the procedure. It isn't like that at all when you're looking for a job as a civilian. There are so many, many scams. A lot of them are simple. They're just trying to get your personal information to engage in some form of identity theft. Steal money from your checking account, get a hold of your credit card numbers, or being able by obtaining falsely your Social Security number, pretending to be an employer, engaging in identity theft. So not everybody out there is a scamster. Not everything out there is crooked. But you've got to not take things at face value when you're looking for a job, having come out of that controlled environment you were in in the military. And again, plain and simple, thank you so much for your service to this great country.

[Krista]

And Christo and I think our guide is very helpful. At clark.com we try to provide information for veterans on how to save on.

[Clark Howard]

Benefits of and current service members. It's, it's really, really important to me. It was important to me before I served because I come from a family of military tradition and person after person served in the military and I'm from an immigrant family, but as soon as my family got here, served In World War I, Korea, Vietnam, you know, Desert Storm, Desert Shield, all that. So I mean this is something that my family, we do and so it's something I'm aware of. But so many families. There is nobody in the family line in recent generations that has served or will serve.

[Krista]

It's all voluntary now, right? Yeah. Okay. Well, PT in California served. PT wrote him with this. I recently separated from the military and made a VA claim. I was surprised to find my claim number was identical to my Social Security number. Apparently this is common practice for new claims in their system in the VA mailings. It's right there on the paper. And when making a call, the only way to get assistance is by sharing your Social Security number over the phone. Isn't there a better way how can we get the VA to change this practice that puts my personal information in jeopardy.

[Clark Howard]

So what a great question. I mean, remember when we were part of that whole thing years and years ago trying to get Congress to change medical record numbers to unique numbers and you know, Medicare to a unique medical record number and it just took forever. They did it. Congress did it first for private health plans because private health plans, your number for your insurance was your Social Security number. How dumb.

[Krista]

Driver's licenses used to all have all.

[Clark Howard]

Had Social Security numbers on them. Yeah. And so direct bridge to identity theft. So then they did it first for private, then they did it for Medicare. I didn't know until you said right now that the VA is still using Social Security numbers and that's bonkers. And I wonder why veterans groups have not lobbied to get that change in place. If you are a member of any of the veterans associations, I would contact them, you're a member and say, hey, what can we do to get this changed? Because that's just wrong. Why would you hand over the ability to steal somebody's identity on a silver platter? And if you haven't done so already, freeze your credit files, Set up credit freeze because that protects you from a lot of what the criminals are going to try to do with that Social Security number of yours.

[Krista]

Jim in Tennessee says, is this the future of banking? Unlike yourself, who hasn't seen the inside of a bank since Jesse James. Just kidding. I visit our credit union a couple of times a month with business that requires in person interaction with a teller. The credit union, which has over 20 locations and is expanding, has removed their in house tellers, replacing them with video tellers. There are three video screens, one that's usually out of order and all banking now requires you to talk to Max Headroom at some office in Cyberland. That's a throwback reference I have found.

[Clark Howard]

I never saw Max Headroom.

[Krista]

You didn't.

[Clark Howard]

I know what that reference means.

[Krista]

I have found this usually takes about twice as long as when they had in person tellers. There are generally four or more employees holding down the front counter. But for most business you have to talk to Max before they can assist. The credit union has installed the video tellers at Drive Ups about three years before the inside video tellers. Should you get in the wrong line, just use the ATM. You could be waiting for 10 minutes or more for the person in the car in front of you to talk to the teller, the virtual teller, while you sit locked in by other cars in line. I would switch, but Our last community bank just got bought out, so all that's left are regional and the big, bad monster mega banks that still have humans behind a fancy, overpriced counter. Is this the future? Or should I join Zuckerberg's metaverse and never leave my living room again?

[Clark Howard]

Yeah, join Zuckerberg. Okay, so the credit union my wife uses, which is a different one than I use, although she's also a member of Navy Federal, like I am, the one that she principally uses, went to this system five years ago during COVID and they use this as you referred to a Max Headroom kind of thing, where the tellers are working. In her credit union's case, from their homes. They don't commute to work anymore. And right from their home, they're able to see you deposit. Let's say you're depositing a check or you want to cash a check or whatever. They see you put it in the machine, they see the image of it, and the money spits out. So that's a human.

[Krista]

And then this sounds like this credit union is using an AI assistant, like, fake human, when he's saying.

[Clark Howard]

I couldn't tell for sure if this was.

[Krista]

I'm assuming only because of the whole Max Headroom thing that it takes so long, but I could be wrong.

[Clark Howard]

It could be either. I mean, but the reason that the credit union explained that they kept it after Covid was that it meant that you can have a problem where one branch, the tellers are twiddling their thumbs with nothing to do, and the next one, they've got a long line that this gives them. I'm just telling what. What the credit union said. It gives them the ability to even out the workflow so that nobody waits as long. But it is not personal. Looking at somebody on a screen, there's nothing like it. When you. You think about. Our staff is scattered around America. Actually, a couple overseas too, right? No, no, everybody's in the US Now. Okay. Anyway, so often we just see each other on computer screens until we get together for company meeting or one of our retreats that we do somewhere in the world, and we call them staff trip. And it's such a great thing when they're all together and they really connect each other. And so that's the problem. You lose connection when you do this kind of impersonal thing. But it clearly is where so many things are going.

[Krista]

It sounds to me, though, like Jim's credit union, they just don't have a great system. And so I do believe these things will improve over time, like Lanes maybe does have a better system. So hopefully I do think it's the future. I think things are going this way. You know, people want to work virtually or whatever, but I do like the, I like the idea of having the person at least on the other screen.

[Clark Howard]

But when the AI is. If it is AI, and when the AI is really stupid, all it does is waste your time as a customer.

[Krista]

Nick in Iowa says, hey Clark, I really appreciate all the information on your websites regarding getting the best cash back credit cards. I've had the Wells Fargo Active Cash card now for a few years. It's been a good with the ability to get your cash back, it's been a good card for all of my general spending. Wells Fargo has just taken away the ability to get your cash back as a check and it seems they want you to either use it for travel or redeem it as a gift card. Is this a new trend in cash back credit cards that they're not allowing you to redeem your points or rewards for a check? Maybe that's something you could add to your credit card reviews for those of us who are looking to get money sent back to us rather than having them redeemed for travel or gift cards.

[Clark Howard]

Thank you for your question. Because Wells is following Citi, Citi did this, where Citi has Double Cash and Wells is called Active Cash. So think about that word cash. But they don't actually offer you a way to get cash. You have to go through these processes you jump through and they don't make it easy at all. And it was the reason I was picking on Citi Double Cash when they went to this change a couple of years ago. And once a month Citi tries to convince me to take all these points from the Double Cash and convert them into gift cards. And occasionally I'll bite. What's the one that I do with the Citi Double Cash when they offer bonus Apple money? Because everybody in my family but me is Apple everything. MacBooks, iPads, iPhones. And so I'm able to get 10% off by converting the Double Cash to the Apple gift cards when they're sold at a discount. And that's how I think I would approach the Wells Fargo thing, is that you wait to do a conversion when there's a deal that's like, hey, that's worth doing and you grab the money that way. But the whole idea of what Citi did and what now apparently Wells has done is that the whole plan was this was the simple way that you just use the card, no annual fee, and you get your 2% cash back. But now not so simple. But that's what banks do. They hire MBAs and the MBAs come up with crazy, crazy things. Hey, we'll squeeze out another one. 8 of a percent of profit if we do this instead of that and make life more complicated for the customer. The curse of the mba said by someone who has one. Anyway, thank you so much for joining us today and we'll be at your service again on Wednesday. I want you to know that we are available to serve you with one on one free advice if you have a question, a problem, got something you haven't figured out and you want some direct one on one guidance? It's a free service we've offered now for GOSH, 30. That's a long time. Almost 33 years, almost a third of a century that we've offered one on one free advice and guidance. You see how to do that by going to click Clark. Com cac. It's all part of what we do to empower you so you can save more, spend less and avoid getting ripped off. Have a great afternoon or evening.