Pod Insights The Clark Howard Podcast 02.26.25 Manage Junk Calls, Texts & Emails / Water Shortage Ingenuity About this episode Remember when Spam was something that just came in a can? Now, it’s an annoyance that shows up on our phones and in our inboxes on a daily basis. Know how to manage these attempts at fraud. Also today, a follow-up on something Spain is doing that shows huge promise for water supplies around the world. SPAM: A Lot!: Segment 1 Ask Clark: Segment 2 Water Supply Solution: Segment 3 Ask Clark: Segment 4 Mentioned on the show: How To Stop Spam Calls for Good How To Stop and Report Spam Emails How To Recognize and Report Spam Text Messages Unwanted Calls | Consumer Advice / Do not call map Capital One Venture X Business: 5 Things To Know Best Travel Credit Cards: Top Rewards Picks for 2025 Why Clark Thinks These Are the Best 2 Travel Rewards Cards Right Now Highest Cash Back Credit Card Calculator Homeowners Insurance Archives - Clark Howard US engineers turn salty seawater into drinking water with new cheap method 401(k) Rollover: How To Roll Over a 401(k) 10 Retirement Rule Changes for 2025 & Beyond How To Save Money on Gas: 23 Ways Clark.com resources Episode transcripts Community. Clark.com / Ask Clark Clark.com daily money newsletter Consumer Action Center Free Helpline: 636-492-5275 Learn more about your ad choices: megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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0:45 Speaker 01 Your sausage McMuffin with egg didn't change. Your receipt did. The sausage McMuffin with egg extra value meal includes a hash brown and a small coffee for just $5. Only at McDonald's for a limited time.
0:57 Speaker 02 Price and participation may vary. Promotion pricing may be lower than meal pricing.
1:05 Speaker 03 It's my pleasure to welcome you here to 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. And remember when SPAM was something that just came in a can? Now, SPAM is a whole different thing than some kind of pseudo ham bacon kind of thing. It's the annoyance that shows up on our phones, in our inboxes on a daily basis. You've got to talk about what you need to be aware of, how you can best manage this stuff. You can't stop it, but you can manage it.
1:47 Speaker 03 And later, I have a follow-up on something I talked about before, about how water supply is becoming a real issue all around the world, in wealthy countries and not wealthy ones, and the promising things that are coming that are going to make water more available, and dare I say, ultimately, more affordable. So let's talk. We are getting hassled all the time with junk phone calls, junk texts, junk emails, and it's because companies that are legit,
2:30 Speaker 03 organizations that are not legit and out and out scamsters know they're trying to get to us any way they can. One of the big changes is the incredible increase in junk phone calls. They just come one after another, after another, after another. The junk texts, obviously, and the pretexters. You know what pretexter is? That's somebody who sends you a text pretending to be your bank, your credit card company, your utility company, Google, you name it. And they're sending you things that look real. Let's start with that.
3:12 Speaker 03 Do not, do not, do not click on links inside texts from who you think is a trusted sender, but very well may not be. I do not click on links because you're opening up your world to what could be a virus loaded on your phone with an email, a virus on your computer. And I've told you before with phone calls, if it's not a family member or friend whose number I recognize, I do not answer the call. I don't answer it.
3:55 Speaker 03 It can later turn out to have been a legitimate call. If it's legit, they'll leave a voicemail if they really need to talk to you. But don't answer that call that comes from who knows where. I mean, it's a plague right now with the junk phone calls, with the scammy texts, and to a lesser extent, the phony emails. I mean, much more the criminals are finding much more effective pathways to mess with us with the junk calls and the junk texts. Do you know why the junk calls are so prevalent?
4:36 Speaker 03 Because now criminals using internet technology can place calls virtually for free from anywhere in the world. And so that's why you can't prevent this stuff. Now, you can, I mean, you can with your cellphone. Limit phones ringing only if it's somebody in your contact list. And that might be of some help. But again, if it's not family or friend, and I recognize the number from family or friend, I don't answer, and I don't answer calls from businesses. Because you never know. If it pops up on caller ID, is this business, that business, or the other business? Is it really them?
5:22 Speaker 03 So what are you seeing more, Krista? Junk phone calls or junk texts?
5:26 Speaker 04 Phone calls. I get a lot of junk phone calls. Never answer them.
5:31 Speaker 03 Well, if you wouldn't sign up for all those sweepstakes, right?
5:33 Speaker 04 I know it, man. Someday, I'm gonna win. Zach in Texas wrote in to you, Clark, and he said, "I currently have a United Club card for personal use and a United Explorer card for my business. Yes, the fees are outrageous, but I've done the math and I do come out ahead with the miles whenever I travel internationally every two to three years. I've heard you talk about the Capital One Venture X and would like to look into switching if that is in fact a better deal. I'm worried about my credit, however. I have a $50,000 limit on the Club card and $20,000 on the Explorer. How should I go about switching without negatively affecting my 830 credit score?"
6:09 Speaker 03 Right, so Zach, first of all, let's talk about whether you should make this change. You're from Texas. If you're in the Houston metro area, United dominates Houston along with Hobby Southwest. If you are a high-cost business traveler, you're going to tend to fly United. There are business reasons that might make sense for you to continue to have the United cards. On the other hand, if you're at a point in your life that even living, let's say, in the Houston metro area, you're a free agent and you're looking for whoever has the best flight, best experience.
6:50 Speaker 03 If you're flying international every couple of years using points, I assume you're flying front of the plane on those from the way you wrote this. So you in Houston and Dallas have enormous choice in terms of who might have a really great deal on mileage redemptions in the front of the plane. And that's the advantage of, and particularly with United, American, and Delta devaluing their frequent flyer points regularly to where they're just not worth what they were. That's the argument to be made for becoming a free agent with the Capital One Venture X or the Chase Sapphire Reserve or the American Express Platinum that give you the ability,
7:35 Speaker 03 if there's a great redemption on this one or that one, have access to lounges and the rest. Now, let's go to your question about credit. It's all about hopscotching. So you apply for the Venture X card, you're then going to have the $395 annual fee that is very easily rebated to you, I mean, with ease. You end up with basically net zero cost for that card. You'll have access to their own lounges and the Priority Pass network of lounges. And you get 2X points on everything you charge, and then you can use those points transferring to different players.
8:15 Speaker 03 A similar kind of scenario with Capital One and with American Express, you don't get 2X on everything. They tend to be more premium-oriented travelers and experiences with the card versus the Venture X. And if you are no longer loyal to an airline, any of those. But you apply for that card, they're going to give you a credit limit. As long as you're replacing Somewhere close to the 70 grand, there'll be no difference with your great credit score. All right, now, let's say they only give you whatever limit. And you've got these two United cards. You can downgrade your United cards to ones that have no annual fee cards, or puny annual fee cards.
9:00 Speaker 03 Maintain the available credit in your mix. Even if you sparingly, routinely don't use them, you know, use them rarely, you'll still have that credit available as part of your credit standing, your credit history, and your debt ratios.
9:19 Speaker 04 And I just want to mention, we do have a tool at Clark.com, not for travel credit cards right now. We have one if you're looking for a cash back card. And of course, we always say, like, as long as you pay off in full every month. But we do have a tool to see which cash back credit card's best for you, based on what you spend and what your situation is. Laura in Oklahoma says, "I own my home outright and would like to reduce my insurance coverage, but they won't let me. I don't understand why they control how much coverage I have if I own my home free and clear. For example, my personal property is insured for $300,000, but I don't have that much personal property in my home. I don't have any furs or jewelry, but they still require me to carry a certain amount of insurance. If I lost my home, I would not rebuild it to the same size. It's currently 2,500 square feet,
10:03 Speaker 04 and I would rebuild at the size to around 1,800 square feet."
10:07 Speaker 03 Okay, Laura, insurance wars. So, a lot of people are frightfully underinsured to rebuild the home that you have right now. And so insurers are ending up in these push and pull fights with people about, the insured was underinsured, the incident happens, the fire, whatever, the home's destroyed. And then they're fighting about what the insurance company owes. Do they have to pay to rebuild things as they were, even though they knew or should have known that you were underinsured, blah, blah, blah. So insurers now require that you be insured for the real value.
10:50 Speaker 03 Of a home. We just had an inspection that I've got to appeal all kinds of things. They said that my roof needed to be replaced, even though my roof is six years old. They thought it was over 25, things like that. Insurers are doing wellness checks on homes. My insurer gives a wellness score. They only gave my home a seven out of 10 wellness score and gave me this list of things I gotta do. And if I don't, they're gonna cancel me, right? And so, the insurance battle is not at claim time, it's before claim time. And insurers are setting tougher and tougher conditions.
11:29 Speaker 03 Your insurer requires a ratio of insuring your personal property in relation to the value of the home. They extrapolate how much of that you have to buy. So Laura, if you're fed up with them, you want to get quotes from other homeowners insurers. You might go to an independent agent to get quotes from other insurers. And see if there's somebody who will sell you homeowner's insurance that's more along the lines of what you're looking for versus what your current insurer is requiring.
12:01 Speaker 04 Joseph in Georgia says, Clark, I recently received a solicitation in the mail sponsored by Southwest Airlines to purchase trip insurance through a third-party company. It requires an annual fee and supposedly covers all sorts of travel emergencies, both domestic and foreign, that are not usually covered by regular medical insurance plans.
12:19 Speaker 03 Oh, okay.
12:19 Speaker 04 Such as emergency medical evacuation via air ambulance, airline tickets home for self and traveling companions, a certified nurse to escort you home after hospitalization, et cetera. Coverage only kicks in after admittance to a hospital, at which time you contact this company to open a case. They have a global response center available 24/7, 365 days a year. The price for one year is quoted at $259 for a member and family. Can you shed some light on the reliability of this company and others like it?
12:49 Speaker 03 Yeah, Joseph, my goodness. You go and read reviews. You said Southwest. So they're getting a commission.
12:57 Speaker 04 Correct, yeah.
12:58 Speaker 03 They're getting a commission for every one of these that somebody signs up with. It's very common that airlines have these joint marketing offers. So you go read reviews and you'll be stunned at people who are so polarized. These policies tend after the fact when somebody's used them. To get a five star review and a one star review. There seems to be nothing in between the fives and the ones. And the reason is the terms and conditions for activating the policy and being able to use it are so strict. Like you mentioned, this is one that you have to be hospitalized first for it to kick in.
13:40 Speaker 03 Well, what if the injuries you have or whatever are such that you need medevac right away from the point where the injury occurred? Then it's not covered. I mean, you know, so these policies are so arcane and not what the brochure brags about, about you got this, this, this, and this, where you have to look at are the terms and conditions and read closely the reviews to see what are the gotchas you might have with this one that Southwest was pitching or another airline or whoever it is who's pitching these policies. These are not traditional travel policies.
14:20 Speaker 03 These are known generally as medevac policies that they provide in the event of a horrific accident, injury, or illness that is life threatening that they get you out of there to a trusted and respected medical facility that is best able to treat the condition or at the appropriate time gets you back to your home. So know that it sounds great. Think about it. If they're doing it for $259 a year, the possibility is remote, but then when it happens, the expenses are enormous. You can see why they don't want to pay when something might happen.
15:01 Speaker 03 Coming up ahead, something that most of us in the U.S. are steadily paying more money for, water. There are things happening on the waterfront that are really good developments and they're not pie in the sky things either. I want to talk about how we're going to solve our national water shortage.
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15:36 Speaker 02 Pricing participation may vary. Promotion pricing may be lower than meal pricing.
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17:39 Speaker 03 Water is something that is precious and used to be really abundant. And now, over and over again, we talk about the water shortages. For those of you who are not familiar with what's been going on in California, where California was in a severe, extreme, whatever the highest thing is for drought, and then they had unprecedented amount of rainfall, and then they went back into drought. Now they've had enormous rainfall in parts of California that now have taken them out of drought status, but then other parts still are in it. This has got so much coverage because California has so much population.
18:21 Speaker 04 And the wildfires.
18:22 Speaker 03 Wildfires too.
18:23 Speaker 04 I did want to mention, while you're talking about this, we have had people ask about your daughter Steffi, who lives in LA, and if she was okay with the wildfires.
18:32 Speaker 03 Well, that is very, very thoughtful. So Steffi had a go-bag packed with key documents, her passport, all that kind of stuff, medicines in it, and was given an evacuation order once. And then later it was rescinded. She never even had to spend a night away from her rental apartment. Now the danger in her area obviously doesn't exist anymore. Thank you for checking in on her. It was so disruptive for so many people. And then you have the people with the tragic loss of their homes, even more tragic people who lost their lives in the fires.
19:14 Speaker 03 And so talking about water sounds so trite, following Krista just mentioned. The other thing I'd say about human nature that's wonderful. Steffi had 14 people unsolicited, reach out to her and say, "Hey, if you need a place to live, come stay with us." 14 different times, people messaged her with that. We hear about the bad in people, we forget the good in them as well. So, water is a question mark so many places in the world, and what's different is now the developed world is seeing reliability issues with available water becoming more
19:59 Speaker 03 and more common. And I talked last year about breakthroughs in Spain with being able to take seawater and much more affordably without enormous energy consumption, be able to make drinkable water from seawater, which is something people have been able to do for a long time, but it's crazy expensive water and a lot of places taste really terrible for desalinated water. But this is a breakthrough kind of thing happening right before our eyes, but the kind of stuff that we're just never going to pay attention to because, I mean, unless we're directly affected by the water shortage, we're not really thinking about it.
20:43 Speaker 03 Well, now, I read an article in an engineering publication, trade publication, that researchers at the University of Michigan and Rice University have made key advancements to make desalination much, much, much cheaper and getting it down to a point that it's affordable for everyday use. You think about how much exposure to the sea we have, we have these massive coastlines, and being able to solve any potential water shortage with affordable water from the sea,
21:22 Speaker 03 and to tell you that I have zero aptitude for engineering wouldn't encompass it. And I was reading this thing and reading about how this process works, and I have this color graph here explaining how the whole process works, and it's like, "Engineering for Dummies."
21:44 Speaker 03 I cannot explain this process at all that they've developed at University of Michigan and at Rice, but the point is, this is one we're gonna fix. You know, there are a lot of problems that we have as a society and people treat them as it's the end of the road, it's the end of the line, it's a dead end. And then there will be things that are very promising that turn out to not work out. This one, these things are happening with water and we are, as with so many other things, human beings adapt, human beings overcome.
22:22 Speaker 03 And we are gonna do that with having safe, reliable, affordable water supplies. And the developments come from the developed countries, but they end up helping people eventually all over the world. And I am an incurable optimist, but I do believe in my heart and my soul and my head, that we do solve problems that seem intractable, that seem unsolvable.
22:50 Speaker 04 All right, we'll go to questions.
22:52 Speaker 03 You wanna, you wanna explain this?
22:53 Speaker 04 No, no way. Michael in Florida says, "I'm 43 years old and make approximately $125,000 per year. About 12 years ago, I was on your podcast, then making $50,000 a year, and I received some great advice on saving through my company's 401K."
23:10 Speaker 03 That's a pretty good trend line, 50,000 to 125.
23:13 Speaker 04 Yep. "Since then, I have grown it from roughly 60K to 260K. Two years ago, I left my old company and I started at a new place that does not offer a 401K, but has a simple IRA plan through Charles Schwab, since it's a much smaller firm, in which I have approximately $45,000. I recently found out I can transfer my old 401K that I have through an insurance company to my new simple IRA after the two-year wait period. I believe the fees are fairly low on the insurance company's account, and the Schwab account may be slightly better, but mostly I would like to consolidate. Would it be best to transfer or leave as-is or in separate accounts? I'm not sure if there's any downside to doing this. I'm pretty sure I've listened to every single podcast since my first call-in."
23:58 Speaker 03 Wow.
23:59 Speaker 04 "I have opened a Roth account for myself, as well as 529 plans for both my children when they were born, they're now 10 and 7, that are doing exceptionally well, thanks to the podcast and your advice."
24:09 Speaker 03 Well, first of all, Michael, thanks to you taking stuff and putting it in action. You've got two kids. A lot of people hear something about somebody saving money so well and having so much money put aside. You've got, between the SML and your 401k, you've got over $300,000 you've saved already. And you should be really proud of what you've done. And you're raising two kids. You've got all the expenses with them. You're putting money aside in their 529s. You've got a Roth. You've got all this stuff going on. Now, an insurance company provided 401k like you had at your old employer,
24:51 Speaker 03 odds are it will have very, very, very high embedded costs. To this day, have not seen an insurance company provided 401k that didn't have very, very high expenses in it. So you need to know what administrative fees you're paying, what expense ratios you're paying on the investments you're in in that 401k. And I would be shocked if it was not many times more expensive than the investment costs you have in that SML IRA at Schwab, which then solves another problem. If I'm right that the expenses are really high, then you have a double incentive to migrate the money
25:35 Speaker 03 from the insurance company 401k into your SML IRA that you have at Schwab. And one change with many of these plans, SMLs, SEPs, that kind of stuff, you now have access to Roth versions of those instead of just traditional.
25:54 Speaker 04 Sarah Lee in Texas says, "I have a Sam's Club credit card that gets me 5% cash back on gas purchases. I have a Walmart Plus account that lets me buy gas through their app for a 10 cents off per gallon discount, or cash back, I don't recall. Can I buy gas at Sam's with my Walmart Plus app? I checked, and I can use the Walmart Plus app to scan the code on the pump at Sam's, then pay with my Sam's MasterCard through the app and get both 5% off per gallon and 10 cents off per gallon?"
26:23 Speaker 03 All right, so. This is not the first rodeo we've been asked about this. And there's even been a debate online about this. I would tell you, be a guinea pig. Try to double stack here, stack as they call it. See if you get both discounts. And if you do, let us know. Most people say they did not get both discounts.
26:46 Speaker 04 The 10 cents per app doesn't end up applying.
26:49 Speaker 03 Yeah, so you get the 5% off on the gasoline using the Sam's Club MasterCard, but you don't get the additional 10 cents per gallon that you get with the Walmart Plus app. And I should, I've not mentioned, and I should mention, that I would make fun of Costco with their credit card for so long about, here's Sam's Club paying 5% cash back on gasoline. Costco's only paying 4. Well, so Costco and their credit card issuer, Citibank, have made a change.
27:27 Speaker 03 And if you fill up at Costco's gas pumps, you get the 5% cash back instead of 4% cash back. So everywhere else you buy with a Costco card, you get the 4%. But if it is at their own pumps, then you go to 5.
27:45 Speaker 04 You also get 4% on electric vehicle charging with that card.
27:49 Speaker 03 Oh, really?
27:49 Speaker 04 Yes, you do. John in Kentucky says, remember when gas was always 10 cents between grades and they all went up proportionally? Why is it that it's 50 cents more or more between grades? And if 87 goes down, there really is no movement with the other grades, making this spread higher for a while.
28:06 Speaker 03 John, thank you for asking this. The reason, first of all, the difference between making the different grades is not that huge at wholesale for the oil companies refining the higher grades. But it's a marketing thing. And the oil companies learned that people who buy a higher grade either are luxury vehicle drivers or people that are not. Not that price sensitive. So it no longer has any relationship to the cost for the oil company or the operator, the gas station. If it's an oil company branded station, the prices at the pumps, as a general rule,
28:50 Speaker 03 almost always are set by the oil company itself, not by the station you're at. With independent retailers of gasoline, they know that people only follow the price on the regular gasoline price. They don't follow the price that much on mid-grade or on premium. So that's why you have the price discrimination, because you tend to have a less price sensitive buyer buying the higher grades. And it's worked for the gasoline retailers to charge those giant markups on the higher grade of gasoline, the mid-grade and the premium, than the markup they can get away
29:34 Speaker 03 with in the marketplace on regular. So it's all just what the customer will pay is why the price points are what they are. And thank you so much for joining us today. I hope that the rest of your day is just outstanding. Know that we have for you today, every weekday except holidays, we have free one-on-one advice available to you. And all you gotta do is go to clark.com/cac and you'll see how to get that free advice. The hours available, it's 30 hours each week that we provide that free one-on-one advice
30:17 Speaker 03 and guidance, and hope that we are able to empower you more that way as well. What we're all about is your empowerment with knowledge so you can save more, spend less, and avoid getting ripped off. Have a great rest of your day.
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