11.17.25 Charity Season Guidelines / Quick Serve Value Wars

Summary

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The Clark Howard Podcast

Episode: 11.17.25: Charity Season Guidelines / Quick Serve Value Wars
Date: November 17, 2025
Host: Clark Howard

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Episode Overview

This episode, released just before Thanksgiving, focuses on two major themes:

1. Charity Season Guidelines: Clark provides crucial advice on how to give generously but wisely during the peak season for charitable solicitations, protecting listeners from scams and inefficient organizations.
2. Quick Serve Value Wars: Clark explores how consumer trends and shifting appetites are triggering aggressive value deals across fast food, quick-serve, and convenience store food chains, helping listeners dine out frugally.

He also fields listener questions on personal finance topics, from insurance to travel deals, adding practical advice with his signature candor and wit.

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Charity Season: How to Give Wisely

[00:40 – 05:30]

Key Insights

• Peak Charity Season Dangers: The time between now and year-end is when the most—and unfortunately, the worst—charitable solicitations come out.
• Charity Scams: Clark references recent federal action against "Cars R Us," a car donation entity that claimed to help breast cancer but funneled money improperly.
• Mismanagement & Inefficiency: Some real charities poorly manage funds, with up to 90% of money sometimes going to fundraising or administrative costs.
• Pressure Tactics: Clark warns about aggressive phone and especially text solicitations that push "act now" urgency, often mentioning matching donors to incentivize instant giving.
• Clark’s Process for Safe Giving:
  • 1. Give where you know: Donate to organizations you’ve volunteered with or have first-hand knowledge of.
  • 2. Always vet a charity: Don’t give under pressure. Use charity-rating services and guides.
  • 3. Use Team Clark Resources: Clark’s team has a step-by-step online guide to quickly help you assess a charity’s legitimacy and efficiency (“Check here, check here, check here… It takes you not much time at all…” [04:45]).

Notable Quote

“You take your time and you give on your schedule, not theirs.”
— Clark Howard [04:18]

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Listener Q&A — Charitable Giving, Cross-Collateralization, Insurance

[05:30 – 11:00]

Giving to Individuals versus Charities

• Call-in about giving to panhandlers: Clark shares an undercover experiment where he dressed as Santa at a street corner, noting one in seven cars donated money.
• Clark’s Stance:
  “I do not [give]. You just don’t know who’s there that you’re giving money to… So that’s my answer. I don’t give to UFOs asking for money on a sidewalk or in front of a store or whatever because you just don’t know.” [05:43]
• Alternative Suggestions: Buy food or hand out snacks rather than giving cash.

Memorable Moment

• Listener shares a fond story and photo of Clark as a Santa at an animal charity, which adds warmth and levity [06:41].

Other Finance Questions

• Cross-collateralization risk (brokerage/IRA at affiliated banks): Clark says it’s not standard practice for brokerages to seize assets from investment accounts to cover bank account losses, though cross-collateralization can be a risk in banking (08:31).
• Adding Spouse to Insurance: Listener points out that in some cases, adding a spouse can lower your rate, and Clark notes this may vary by state—sometimes a better deal than he thought [09:15].

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Quick Serve Value Wars: Fast Food & Convenience Store Deals

[12:27 – 17:16]

Rising Deals in Fast Food

• McDonald's App Examples: Clark catalogs a cascade of freebies and deals listed immediately upon entering the McDonald’s app: “free apple pie, free hash brown, free breakfast, free 10-piece chicken nugget, on and on and on…” [12:34]
• Why the Deals?: Major fast food and quick-serve chains are seeing customer drop-off and reacting with more aggressive discounts, especially through apps.
• Clark’s Strategy: Download and use each chain’s app to maximize savings.

The Convenience Store Challenge

• Convenience/Gas Store Food Boom: Chains like Wawa, Sheetz, QuickTrip (QT and KQ), Maverik, and Buc-ee’s are now directly competing with fast food by offering larger menus and often better value.
• Competitive Advantage: They can price food lower since their business is subsidized by fuel/convenience sales, not just food.
• Notable Example: Clark's son claims Wawa subs are the best and looks forward to trips east to get them.
• Trend: Local Costcos becoming popular lunch destinations for cheap, satisfying eats.

Notable Quote

“If you are eating out, one of the secret sauces to saving money—everywhere but on the west coast—is going to be at these big convenience store chains … and the food menus are getting larger.”
— Clark Howard [13:59]

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Rapid-Fire Listener Questions: Travel, Insurance, All-Inclusives

[17:16 – End]

Travel Medical Insurance

• Question: Are there places you can safely skip travel medical insurance?
• Clark’s Take: No—coverage is wise everywhere when going out of the US. For frequent travelers, an annual travel medical policy is more cost-effective. Decisions should factor in whether you need medevac coverage, which depends on both destination and local medical facilities [17:46].

Credit Card Travel Insurance

• Sapphire Reserve Coverage: If you use this premium card to pay for trips, you likely don’t need to buy additional trip insurance. Limits or cumbersome claims are the main caveats [18:59].
• Memorable Clark Comment:
  “The claims process will try your patience … the level of documentation you'll be required to have is ridiculous, but yes, it is to me an equivalent.” [19:18]

All-Inclusive Resorts & Tipping

• Sandals Resorts—Are Tips Included? Officially, yes. But Clark says in practice, many visitors give extra cash tips for standout service (bartenders, housekeepers). Not required but common.
• Clark’s Well-Wishes:
  “Congratulations, 10th anniversary! … I hope you have many, many great years in front of you as a couple.” [20:28]

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Key Takeaways

• Be Vigilant with Charitable Giving: Verify organizations before donating, even in urgent-seeming situations.
• Maximize Eating Out Savings: Use the restaurant and convenience store apps, and consider non-traditional outlets like convenience stores for the best value lunches.
• Travel Insurance: Never skip it when traveling abroad, and use premium card benefits when possible—but be prepared for a paperwork battle if you claim.
• All-Inclusives: Tipping is technically included but small cash tips for exceptional service are courteous and appreciated.

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Noteworthy Quotes

• “You take your time and you give on your schedule, not theirs.” [04:18]
• “One out of every seven cars in that intersection threw money in my bucket.” [06:11]
• “If you are eating out, one of the secret sauces to saving money … is going to be at these big convenience store chains.” [13:59]
• “The claims process will try your patience … the level of documentation you'll be required to have is ridiculous.” [19:18]
• “You just don’t know who’s there that you’re giving money to.” [05:43]

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For detailed guides and Clark’s charity vetting checklist:
Visit Clark.com

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This summary omits advertisements and non-content sections to focus on actionable advice and key information from Clark Howard’s episode.

Transcript

[Commercial Announcer]

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[Clark Howard]

I'm so glad you're with us today 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. All right, here we are right on the edge of Thanksgiving week coming up and we are in the height of the charitable solicitation season because we, the American people are the most generous people on earth. So how do you know that charities are going to use your money in a responsible way? I'm going to tell you what you need to know. Also, there are value deals, value wars happening in the food world that are going to make your wallet smile. I like that. So have you heard recently there was a thing from the feds about one of those charities where you donate your car and supposedly it's going to charitable works and money wouldn't go in there. This one was called Cars R Us K A R S. And they said that the money was going to breast cancer charity. It wasn't. And this is a constant problem. In fact, the problem has layers. You give to a charity or a supposed charity and it turns out the money either is being stolen or the charity, if it is a proper charity, they are not properly handling the money and the money is going to insiders, maybe going to outside fundraising. I mean there are solicitations from charities where 90 plus percent of the money is going to the solicitors, not to the actual stated charity. So this time of year is the Super Bowl, World Series, the Stanley Cup. What about NBA Championship? It's all of them in one for the charitable causes and the fake charitable causes and the sleazy, not very efficient charities, this is when they get all their money. So this is why I want you especially on your guard this time of year. And if you get solicited by phone or it so often happens now by text and they say they create this sense of urgency in the text, hey, we Have a anonymous donor who's tripling all donations today. Please donate right now, right now, right now, right now, right now. It's all about trying to get you to do it that second before you've really thought, hey, is that really a charity? Are they any good with the money? And so where should you donate? My belief, you start with organizations. You have firsthand knowledge of when you're going to donate, organizations you volunteered at, you know, the good works they do, or an organization that you check out before you give. I don't care what sense of urgency they're asking for right that second. You take your time and you give on your schedule, not theirs. And I've got steps you can take to check a charity out two levels. One, are they actually really a charity? Two, the money you give, are they spending it? Well, money's going to the service delivery, not to administrators, giant salaries or administrative costs or fundraising costs. It's actually going to the service Delivery. [e-mail] I've got a simple guide that walks you through. Check here, check here, check here. Takes you not much time at all before you take the money you've worked hard for and you're giving from the goodness of your heart. You want to give it to something that's real and really efficient.

[Caller/Listener]

All right, we'll go to questions. Dan in Missouri says Clark, knowing that you are thoughtful, generous, but very intentional with money, do you give to a person asking for money on the sidewalk or at a highway exit?

[Clark Howard]

I do not. I do not. And I'll take you in the Wayback Machine. And if you're familiar with my TV work, if you're in a market where I'm on tv, this is something that I believe in so much that I put on a Santa suit and had hidden camera crew and I stood at a busy corner and I held a bucket. Never spoke a word. The bucket said Homeless families fund. And we were running account. We had. We had an intern running count. One out of every seven cars in that intersection threw money in my bucket. Now, I would say thank you when people gave money, but I never said why I was there or anything like that. I just stood there in the Santa suit. I was not a very convincing Santa. Did you ever see pictures of me as Santa?

[Caller/Listener]

You were Santa at a charity for animals one time. And I have a picture of you holding my cat and my daughter when she was little as a Santa, I thought you looked good.

[Clark Howard]

Okay.

[Caller/Listener]

I believed it.

[Clark Howard]

All right. Thank you. But anyway, people going back to the thing, the generous thing, and the time of year. Think about one in seven people just throwing money in. So it was to make a point that you don't know who's, who's there that you're giving money to. So what did we do? We donated the money to a legitimate charity when we were done. So it did not go in my pocket. But the point was made. And so that's my answer. I don't give to UFOs asking for money on a sidewalk or in front of a store or whatever because you just don't know.

[Caller/Listener]

What I do sometimes is if I'm in front of a, like a food store, I'm picking up like say subs or some burrito or something. I might buy the person a burrito.

[Clark Howard]

Oh, so I thought this was about charitable solicitation. But if you. Okay, so you take people who are just asking for money. Yeah, I don't give.

[Caller/Listener]

Okay.

[Clark Howard]

And two of my kids always have snacks in the car and they give snacks to somebody. That's a good idea. So a lot of times people will say they're hungry. So if they are like you did give them food.

[Caller/Listener]

David in Minnesota says, is money in a brokerage account or IRA subject to cross collateral collateralization? Say that three times from an affiliated bank. For example, if my Charles Schwab bank debit card is hacked or if a check is forged resulting in my checking account being overdrawn, can Schwab seize money from my Schwab brokerage account or IRA to make up for the shortfall?

[Clark Howard]

Not anything I've ever seen allows a brokerage operation to seize money from their co owned bank operation. If there's anything like that. That's pretty diabolical. I've never heard of it. But I'm so glad you mentioned cross collateralization because it is a huge problem in the banking business.

[Caller/Listener]

Paul in California says a few days ago, Leslie asked if adding her new spouse to her homeowner's insurance would raise her premium. I believe you told her it would probably would not affect the premium. With several companies, the premium would actually be reduced. As with auto insurance, when you marry, your claims history usually gets better. Both are staying home more.

[Clark Howard]

Paul, thank you very much for that. And that's an interesting behavioral thing that the insurer thinks that you are a lower risk if you're married than if you're single. And if that gets you a lower rate, that's great. I just thought of it as a good thing to add and as a neutral event. You're saying it's better than that and I appreciate that. Do you know what? That would depend on what states regulate insurance and it could be in one state that would be common in another state. Not. But what a. What a neat thing to add that it was better than I said talking about something that's better that's been really bad and that is so many restaurants are hurting and they are having. Well, it's not good. That's not good for them. But consumers have been like on a boycott and now they're looking for ways to save money and they're finding them.

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[Clark Howard]

Value wars are upon us that's right. More and more and more deals, okay, in the McDonald's app. I gotta tell you, this is funny because McDonald's has had a really hard time of late that people are basically not going nearly as often as they used to. And if I go to the app right at the top it says free apple pie, free hash brown, free breakfast, free 10 piece chicken nugget, on and on and on with deal after deal in the app. And that's just right at the top. Then it goes into bonuses. Then if I go to the regular menu to order, it has special deals. It's oh, you know, they've always had the extra value meals, which to me are not a value because I don't eat french fries. But then They've got the McValue menu and then within the McValue menu they have deals on the deals. And this is not just a McDonald's story. This is happening throughout with fast food, quick serve and what do they call it, family style dining or whatever that the first three levels of food, from fast food up, they're really feeling the pressure. People are saying who may have been going regularly or going irregularly or not at all. And the restaurants are having to come up with deals. I talked not that long ago about how important the apps are and how I've got apps for all these different places because you need to use them in order to get a lot of the savings. But if you are eating out, one of the secret sauces to saving money everywhere but on the west coast is going to be at these big convenience store chains that are selling more and more food, competing with the fast foods and the quick serves. And the food menus are getting larger. The big fight right now going on among the convenience store chains was pizza and now it's sub sandwiches or hoagies or whatever you like to call them, whatever part of the country you're in. And they are putting intense pressure on price points for the fast food places. Because think about this. If I'm a fast food place or I'm a quick serve place, I've got all the rent, I've got all of it. Because the whole business I'm in is selling food. But if I'm a convenience store, convenience store, gas station like Wawa Sheets, either of the quick trips, the one that begins with the K, the one that begins with the Q is Maverick. There's all these chains and if I forgot one, and then there's Bucky's, which is in a class by itself. But these places are providing Lower price points on the food because the building's already there. They're already selling the gas, they're already selling all the convenience store items. And then on top of it, they're now offering restaurants or whatever you call fast food, whatever. And my son is convinced that the best sub sandwich you can get in the world, the best hoagie anywhere, is at Wawa. And he cannot wait to be somewhere where there's a Wawa to get one. If you are in the west and you've never been to Wawa, when you come back east, well, if you like subs, you gotta try one. But the price wars are sticking with us. And the choices you have are so varied. And in a lot of markets now, you know where a very busy lunch place is, Costco. People come into Costco not to shop, just to have lunch.

[Caller/Listener]

Oh yeah. Go to a Costco in Hawaii.

[Clark Howard]

Oh, well, yeah, yeah. Same $50 hot dog and drink on Kauai or Maui Big Island.

[Caller/Listener]

Okay. Christopher in Arizona says, I've heard you recommend taking out medical insurance when taking trips to foreign countries so that one medical emergency doesn't land you hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. Are there any popular travel locations where I wouldn't need to get it?

[Clark Howard]

No, I'd say the need for the medical insurance when you travel overseas is the same worldwide. But if Christopher, you travel frequently, buy an annual travel medical policy. It's much cheaper than buying per individual trip and you have to decide with the medical. Are you just interested in medical cost reimbursement or what makes them more expensive? Is if you also want medevac. And medevac most often becomes that does become applicable more based on geography, where you're traveling and the caliber and quality of medical facilities that might be where you might get injured or ill, where you might need a medevac. A medevac is crazy expensive.

[Caller/Listener]

Tom in Nevada says, my wife and I take quite a few cruises each year, probably about 6 to 8. We always get travel insurance, but we also have the Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card which looks like it has a very robust travel insurance protection plan. Is it really necessary to buy additional travel service beyond what the Sapphire Reserve covers?

[Clark Howard]

No. Sapphire Reserve is a worthy and adequate replacement for traditional trip insurance when you're booking with it. Now, is the claims process any friendlier than it is with any trip insurance policy you'd buy independently? No. The claims process will try your patience with any of the credit card based included trip insurance policies or when you buy a standalone one. The claims thing is exhausting the level of documentation you'll be required to have is ridiculous, but yes, it is to me an equivalent. And with the credit card insurance, the one thing you have to look at is there's a cap on how much, how expensive a trip can be. They will only pay up to a certain level, so you'd have to. In the case of the Chase Sapphire Reserve, it would have to be a really, really expensive cruise you're going on before you'd outrun the limit on the coverage they offer.

[Caller/Listener]

Mac in Alabama says Clark. I love all your travel advice, but I've never heard you talk about Sandals Resorts or similar all inclusives. What are your thoughts? My wife and I have one booked for our 10 year anniversary. More specifically, they say the tipping is included. Is that really true or is there some other unwritten tipping policy?

[Clark Howard]

Okay, so Mac, first of all, congratulations 10th anniversary. That's great. Second, I don't talk a lot about all inclusives and they vary. What you should know is they vary a lot in quality. Sandals Resorts tend to be crowd pleasers. You should have a good time on the tipping included. Okay, so what really goes on? Let's say you have a favorite bartender on the trip. Even though tipping's included, you may find that you want to slip them some cash. You may have a housekeeper who's really awesome to you through your stay at Sandals Resort. You might decide to give that person some money. Do you have to? No. But it is. People who go to all inclusives regularly do tend to do some ad hoc tipping in cash only. Besides, whatever is automatically included in the cost of your stay at a Sandals Resort. And again, have a great, great, great time and hope you have many, many great years in front of you as a couple. And with that, thank you so much for joining us today. I hope your week forward is absolutely phenomenal. Know that we serve you every possible way we can, including social media so that you can be informed whatever way works best for you and for your wallet. So you're empowered with knowledge so you can save more, spend less and avoid getting ripped off ever. Great rest of your day. Hey, Ryan Reynolds here wishing you a very happy half off holiday because right now Mint Mobile is offering you the gift of 50% off unlimited.

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[Clark Howard]

So that means half day, you know.

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