Pod Insights The Clark Howard Podcast 06.11.25 Save More On Home Internet / Seek The Total Price About this episode A CNET survey has found the average consumer is paying close to $200 more per year for internet than a year ago. Today, paying for home internet service no longer has to be expensive. New choices have emerged to help you SAVE MORE. Also, bait & switch junk fees have been rampant - on hotels, tickets, services and more. But new rules are helping to change that in some quarters. Clark shares tips for getting the full price before you make buying decisions. Home Internet Options: Segment 1 Ask Clark: Segment 2 All In Pricing: Segment 3 Ask Clark: Segment 4 Mentioned on the show: Clark's Tips To Save Money on Home Internet in 2025 Airbnb will now show total prices by default What the Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees means for you The 12 Best International Carry-ons, Tested and Reviewed What Is a 403(b) and How Does It Work? 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
Transcript 0:05 Speaker 00 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. Hope you're subscribed to our daily newsletter. If you haven't already checked it out, go to Clark.com/newsletter or newsletters. They both work. Our newsletters, I was reading a story the other day about how much money people spend on newsletters each year, and I don't know what they're doing, because our newsletter, although it's priceless, is also free.
0:43 Speaker 00 So, something that is very pricey and getting much more so is your internet service at your home. It's crazy. I want to talk to you about what's going on in the internet space so you stop having your wallet shredded by some cable monster or monopoly local phone company. Yuck. And later, how annoying is it when you purchase something and you see a price, comparison shopping on the internet, or from a TV ad or an online ad, and you go to buy it and they pull that bait and switch on you.
1:25 Speaker 00 They tell you it's going to be this much, and then it turns out to be this much plus 30%, 50%, whatever. Think about concert tickets. They tell you the price is going to be this, and by the time you're done, the price is almost double. What are you going to do about that? I'm going to tell you the best way for you to actually comparison shop. That's later. But right now, we got to talk internet. The CNET survey found that the average consumer in an apartment or a home is paying just under $200 more
2:02 Speaker 00 Right now for internet per year than you did a year ago. 200 bucks. What's going on here? Here's what's happening. The cable monsters are losing customers. Why? Well, because the prices have gone up so much and now you've got more options. Comcast reported really good profits recently, but also disclosed the number of people buying internet from them is down. So they're chasing the people that are there with higher prices to make up for the people who've said, "Forget you, I'm out of here." And think about it, a lot of us only had for a long time, a choice of only a single
2:46 Speaker 00 provider for internet. That's over because now more and more, we have the choice of the local monopoly phone company, the cable company, and in a lot of midsize and large markets, you now have independent fiber providers running through neighborhoods, putting in direct fiber connections for internet to your home. These no names are offering internet at a much better deal. And Google Fiber, G Fiber, that really was going to do a big thing all over the country and then basically went quiet with the installs they've done, has now started to roll out
3:30 Speaker 00 internet in more and more places at a substantial discount to what you have to pay to the cable monster or the monopoly local phone company. But wait, there's more, much more, because people in rural America who've dealt with flat out lousy internet now have more and more better choices from wireless carriers, particularly Verizon and T-Mobile offering wireless home internet. Unless you're a gamer, it's going to be just fine, fast enough. If you've got none of those things, you've got Starlink available.
4:11 Speaker 00 You know, I know a family that takes trips every summer and they travel with a portable Starlink unit and they've got ultra-high-speed, ultra-reliable internet wherever they are traveling. You've got choices like we've not had in forever. So, don't be somebody who's just being taken advantage of by the cable monster or the monopoly local phone company. No, you've got options, but wait, there's something else as well. You know what else you got working for you? How about this? When you start doing the shopping,
4:53 Speaker 00 you're going to see they're offering other deals to new customers at a fraction of the cost of what you're paying. Or you may be buying more speed than you need and you can lower the price a lot. The one thing you can't do is just sit there and take it and get ripped off. It's your money. I want it in your pocket. I don't want it going to the stockholders of Comcast or Charter or AT&T or any other local monopoly phone company. I want the money in your pocket. How do I feel about that?
5:36 Speaker 01 You're pretty fired up about that one.
5:38 Speaker 00 How long have I been fired up about it?
5:40 Speaker 01 Since I've known you.
5:42 Speaker 00 Well, then I was really fired up because in a lot of cases, we had no choice.
5:46 Speaker 01 Right.
5:47 Speaker 00 Today, you may have choice way beyond what you realize that could save you so much money. Oh, and by the way, on the Verizon Wireless and the T-Mobile Home, although I talked about it just for people in rural areas, a lot of people in urban and suburban areas have that as an option. That would be a whole lot cheaper for internet service.
6:11 Speaker 01 All right, we'll go to questions. Jeff in Nebraska wrote this one. "My wife and I just relocated back to Nebraska for family reasons. I'm 57. My wife turns 60 in August and we have 1.6 million in investments between IRAs and Roth IRAs."
6:27 Speaker 00 Congratulations to both of you for... Over the course of your working lifetime, doing such a good job saving money?
6:35 Speaker 01 Most of the balance is in IRAs, approximately 1.3 million. My question is, we purchased a home, we moved back and have a 15-year fixed mortgage of $150,000, currently at 4.75%, and it will increase up to 5.75% in one and a half years. We've currently paused our investment contributions and have been putting the amount we invest towards the mortgage, an extra $2,000 towards principal each month. Am I making the right decision? My wife will work another three years, and I plan on another three to five years. Our current combined income is $160,000 a year.
7:09 Speaker 00 Okay, so Jeff, the big variable I would say I would not continue doing. I would not pay at 4.75% that you've got for the next year and a half. I think you could likely see a superior return putting money into Roth IRAs right now. I think that would be a better choice. You've got the clock ticking. 18 months from now, you're going to have that mortgage step up to 5.75%. That's okay. You're still below market, and we don't know what refinance opportunities might be in a year and a half, and you'll still be working then. So you can't eat your house.
7:54 Speaker 00 So working to pay down a $150,000 balance, which is not an enormous amount versus the amount you've already invested in your future, I'd rather you spend this time moving forward, putting that money into Roth IRAs for each of you, instead of prepaying on the mortgage. Make sure you're maxing out the Roths each year. And then if you have any left over that you can still put towards the mortgage balance, go ahead. But I'd say the higher priority for the long term... Is beefing up that Roth IRA.
8:32 Speaker 01 Drew in Alabama says, I'm seriously considering putting a new motor on my dad's fishing boat. The boat is currently in his name. We've talked about splitting the boat since I'd be spending 15 to 20K on the boat. I think it would be worth about $5,000 as it is and probably about 20 to 25,000 after. The question is, how should we go about that? Retitle in both of our names? Also, what would be the best way to insure it? Both our names on the insurance or just keep it under one? He seems a little reluctant to retitle and says it would be treated as both of ours. I don't think he would do anything nefarious, but I worry about something happening to him or me and worry about legal issues in line of succession.
9:14 Speaker 00 So Drew, you're 100% right in this case and your dad needs to rethink this. It's really easy to retitle the boat and it's not expensive. I don't know what the filing fees would be in Alabama, but I'm sure they're not a lot. When you're going to put this kind of money into this thing and then you would have no rights to it at a later date? Bad idea. It's not a big deal to have both of your names on the boat insurance policy. It's really easy to retitle and just offer to buy your dad lunch after you both go to the title office.
9:53 Speaker 01 Okay. And this one's from Kimberly in Virginia. What do you think of velocity banking? There have been so many YouTube videos about this process of paying off debt and so many young people seem to be trying to use this method of getting debt free. What are your thoughts?
10:09 Speaker 00 Okay. So this is one that we've had different names for going back 20 years. And the pitch is what you do is you have a line of credit.
10:22 Speaker 00 And usually it's designed to be a home equity line of credit. They'll even tell you to pay off your mortgage with the line of credit. And then every paycheck you get goes into this account that operates kind of like a checking account. So every day you get paid, you're reducing the balance on the line of credit, which is a floating interest rate, by the way. So the business models they show and the videos you see online on social media and all that show, you're going to magically be out of debt in a fraction of the time as you would otherwise. Okay, first things first, paying off a mortgage with a floating rate home equity line of credit
11:08 Speaker 00 is normally a bad idea. You're taking a fixed rate and you're turning it into a variable rate with the largest asset that you owe debt on it. Don't like that. Second, it presupposes, and all the modeling they talk about on social media and with videos, is that you're going to pay off your home in a tiny fraction of the time that you would otherwise. On the credit card side, there's some real validity to taking a credit card that may be running an interest rate of 25%. And with a home equity line of credit, it may be an interest rate of effectively right now, 7% to 8%.
11:52 Speaker 00 And if you stick to paying it off, then you're going to pay the credit card debt off in a much quicker time. That also supposes that you divorce yourself from using credit cards. Because if you keep charging on credit cards and develop new balances on them, you've gotten nowhere. But the big thing is, yes, you are lowering the effective interest rate a great deal on the credit cards, but you now have taken debt against your home. So that is why this is not the slam dunk. You see on social media, propaganda videos, and sites touting the whole idea
12:34 Speaker 00 of taking debt and making it all variable against your home. You're playing a bit with fire. Don't buy in to the one-sided sales pitch about this being the most wonderful thing you could ever do.
12:51 Speaker 00 In rare situations where people change their lifestyle and understand all the risks associated with it, it can work out for you. But that's a lot of ifs, ands, and buts involved in terms of it actually working out in the overriding number of situations it's pitched for. It is not a free lunch. Speaking of something that's not been a free lunch, when you go to buy something and the price you think is not the price you pay, we're going to talk about that straight ahead.
13:30 Speaker 00 There used to be a pretty strictly enforced federal rule about something referred to as bait and switch. The idea of bait and switch that's not enforced anymore is that a business can't bait you with a price, whatever it is, and then when you go to pay, switch you to a higher price. Today bait and switch is so common, we call them junk fees now, and it's all about disclosure. And it drives me bonkers that when you go to shop for something, an airline flight,
14:10 Speaker 00 sports ticket, entertainment ticket, hotel room, I mean, you name it, so many things day after day after day, we shop for, the price turns out not to be the price. You know, I was just talking at the top of the podcast about internet prices, and it was really funny because there was a TV ad I saw that showed an internet service for 30 a month. So like a fish with a hook in the mouth, reeling me in. I go and I shop that $30 a month. What did it turn out to be? 48 a month, once all the junk fees were added in.
14:54 Speaker 00 I mean, come on, come on. That's more than 50% extra in junk fees. And you see it with concerts so badly, where you'll look for tickets for a concert, and it'll say the price is so and so. But I gotta tell you my favorite. Okay, the Live Nation people that control so many venues, and many times their parking, will sell parking for an event, and the parking price will be listed as whatever. But when you go to buy it, the junk fees make the parking potentially twice as much. This is just wrong, right? It's wrong. Fortunately, more and more sites
15:38 Speaker 00 allow you to click a button that'll show you the total price, including junk fees. And by the way, that's my thing. You know, if a hotel wants to invent a fee for a fee on top of a fee, the fee for collecting the fee and on like that. They want to do that, that's fine. As long as they tell me the actual real price of the room when I'm comparison shopping. And so if you go to some of the hotel sites now, they don't automatically display it, but you can click a button. It'll show you including all fees and taxes. That's the right way to comparison shop. And to not do that, not make that available.
16:22 Speaker 00 Think about with the internet junk. You go on the website, and you shop for a plan, and you say, okay, that's the plan I want. Then you put in your address. They have the thing with the appointment and all that. And only then do they show you the real price for a month. That is wrong, wrong, wrong. And so don't let people take advantage of you. And a lot of times it's in our own head that we want to think we're paying less than we really are. We play a game on ourselves. Don't do that. Before you commit to purchase.
16:58 Speaker 00 And as you comparison shop, you want to know what you're actually really gonna pay. So you make a smart decision for your wallet.
17:08 Speaker 01 All right.
17:09 Speaker 00 Can you think of the largest junk fee you've seen lately on something?
17:12 Speaker 01 Oh, gosh. Oh, it was definitely tickets to a show. And I couldn't believe it was like a resale site, one of the big resale sites. And man, it was insane. I didn't buy them because of it. I was like, this is crazy.
17:25 Speaker 00 Was it like double the price with the fees?
17:27 Speaker 01 It was like 40, 30 to 40% more, I think. Yeah. Okay. Mike in Georgia says, what is your recommendation for a carry on that is allowed in Europe? My US carry on recently cost me big money in Europe.
17:41 Speaker 00 Oh, boy, Mike. This is, this is a stinker. Okay. So the European carry on dimensions are different. And airlines see you as when you walk up as an American, they're like, boy, this is gonna be a good day for us. And we don't care it's gonna be a bad day for you. So first of all, most carry ons in the United States, 22 inches high. The European limit is roughly converted from centimeters is 21.7 inches. Believe it or not, there are airlines that will clobber you for you being .3 of an inch too tall on the carry on. How about that?
18:25 Speaker 00 So now there are a number of luggage sites that tell you European carry on ready. And usually they'll list the, the height as 20 inches, even though 21.7, you got the wheels to account for and all that. The other thing with the European rules is the width of the bag has to be smaller. I'm trying to remember what that width is because it is smaller. Okay. So US width is usually nine inches. Europe, it's 7.8 inches. So they can get you for that. But wait, there's more fun.
19:05 Speaker 00 Some airlines in Europe don't follow the European standard and they enforce a smaller one. So when my wife and I were flying on Ryanair, we prepared for it and we just paid upfront when we bought our tickets to check a carry-on bag. I know it's completely against my rules to ever check a bag, but it was so much cheaper than being hit with an 100 euro charge at the airport for that bag. I think it cost us around 20 euro to prepay for the bag and send it as a checked bag,
19:46 Speaker 00 which was funny because they charge more for a carry-on of regulation size at Ryanair than they did for their regulation than it was to check a bigger bag.
20:00 Speaker 01 So do you have any suggestions for what bag or where would you shop if you were going to buy a European-sized bag?
20:06 Speaker 00 So you can't, the problem is you got the gotcha. I mean, the largest airline in Europe, one of the largest in the world now, is Ryanair and they don't follow the standard. So you gotta check the rules before you go for the airline you're flying. If you're flying an airline that follows the European standard, not hard to buy one of those. Amazon sells a massive amount of European standard carry-on bags because Amazon's so big in Europe as well and you can buy them at the Amazon US website.
20:40 Speaker 01 Where's the last place you bought a piece of luggage?
20:42 Speaker 00 Oh, Costco. I bought their, the one they're selling, it's not a Kirkland Signature, but it's one that's been a great carry-on because my Sam's Club member's marked bag split.
20:55 Speaker 01 Oh.
20:56 Speaker 00 Yeah, it actually, it actually broke.
20:59 Speaker 01 Wow.
21:00 Speaker 00 It's got a big slit in it, it's guaranteed for life. So all I gotta do, I gotta get online with Sam's Club and get whatever they're gonna do, a new one or a credit. But I guess I haven't pulled it out from under the bed and done the thing with Sam's because this Costco one, we posted on Clark Deals a while back, is so good. I bought it when it was 69 at Costco on special. Now it's 89.
21:29 Speaker 01 But it's not European sized, right?
21:31 Speaker 00 Oh, no, it's too big for Europe.
21:32 Speaker 01 But they could have some on their website. Maybe, maybe check out the warehouse.
21:35 Speaker 00 Costco doesn't sell any European size, but I, I promise you, Amazon, Scott, they got a lot that you can buy that's the European size regulation.
21:46 Speaker 01 All right. Martha in Oregon, this question is kinda like one you took recently, but, but there's definitely a difference. So I'm gonna read it. We're planning on taking our family to Hawaii in June of 2026 for our 40th wedding anniversary.
21:58 Speaker 00 Well, congratulations to you.
21:59 Speaker 01 So nice. Congratulations.
22:01 Speaker 00 That's really great.
22:02 Speaker 01 I'm planning on using our Alaska Airlines miles. We live in Portland, Oregon, to get free tickets to Kauai for the two of us. When is the best time to use the miles for tickets? As soon as the dates open with the airline website, I would believe that would be July of this year, 11 months out, or watch for a couple of months to get the best deal on the number of miles needed. Does that change very often? Also, this is what's different. We would like to treat ourselves to first class if possible. Is it better to get coach tickets with miles than upgrade with money to get first class, if that's possible, or buy tickets with money, then use miles to upgrade? I checked and to get first class with miles was 250,000 miles per person.
22:40 Speaker 00 What?
22:41 Speaker 01 We don't have that many. And also, it seems crazy. Doesn't that equate to $2,500?
22:47 Speaker 00 Oh, my goodness. Oh, my goodness. That's a lot of money.
22:51 Speaker 01 And miles.
22:51 Speaker 00 From Portland to Kauai? Right?
22:55 Speaker 01 Yes.
22:56 Speaker 00 A six hour flight? Oh, man. Okay, all right, so here's how I would handle it. I would when bookings open up in July, I would book in coach using points. Cause Alaska, as I recall, they're not going to charge you a fee if you later redeposit, change the booking, whatever. And just keep watching and from time to time, there'll be sales even on Alaska in the front of the plane. And when a deal comes along, you just rebook in first class on Alaska. But that's just way too many points to have to use for a six hour flight.
23:39 Speaker 00 And it's not a lie flat bed on Alaska, unless they're using some of the old Hawaiian Airlines planes. It's going to be a regular domestic first class seat. It isn't worth that much money, I can assure you. So July of this year, book seats for June of next year in coach. Bide your time, keep checking. I'd set it to where once a month you check and see if the points redemption required for the front of the plane have come down enough that it makes it worth it for you to move to first instead of coach. I'd rather you use the difference in equivalent money you're having to pay to stay in a nicer
24:24 Speaker 00 place in Kauai when you're there. But one other thing, if you do the coach booking, wait on doing the upgrade to first class, even if it means you potentially miss the upgrade to first class using money, to give it time to see what kind of deals pop up using points in the front of the plane.
24:48 Speaker 01 All right. And Rhonda in Texas says, I have a traditional 403B. After listening to your podcast, I'll be switching to a Roth 403B. I've been in a traditional for 23 years and it's my understanding that I would have to pay the taxes upfront. Is it possible to slowly make the transition so I don't have a huge tax bill? And if the answer is yes, can you give me some guidelines for the transition?
25:11 Speaker 00 Okay, Rhonda, first of all, you don't have to move any of the prior 23 years money out of the traditional into the Roth. You can do that and you can do it gradually so that you don't kill yourself with tax bills over time. It's just going forward. At least start by building up some money in the Roth version of the 403B. With the money you have, I don't know how good the 403B is you have. I want you to go to the website just as part of this whole process and I want you to look at 403BYs.org.
25:53 Speaker 00 403BYs is an advocacy site for people who have 403Bs. 403BYs.org, not .com. When you go to that website, they teach you what you need to know about 403Bs so that your money is going towards your retirement instead of lining some insurance company's pockets or salespeople's pockets. Very important distinction and difference with a typical 403B versus a typical 401K. So you may have an option, now I'm going to get in the weeds a little bit, you may have
26:36 Speaker 00 the option with your existing 403B to port it out to a much cheaper plan than where you are, which will save you a lot of money over time anyway, versus migrating the money from a traditional 403B to a Roth. The expense ratios, the expense costs buried in that 403B, very important. As to whether you transition over the years from the traditional to the Roth, that depends if it's going to pinch your current living standards, lifestyle. If you can afford to gradually move money by paying the tax from the traditional to
27:21 Speaker 00 the Roth, great, but not at the cost
27:26 Speaker 00 Of your life that you're living every day, working for a nonprofit and a 403B, working as a teacher, whatever it is, you tend to make a lower than average income in the United States. So your tax rate would be very low percent tax rate. And that's why in dribs and drabs, year by year, moving money would be an efficient thing for you to do, moving it from traditional to Roth, not all at once, a gradual thing. And I want to thank you Rhonda, everyone else, for the questions you submit, you the listener, you
28:07 Speaker 00 the viewer of our YouTube show, thanks for joining us. And I hope that today you learn something that will be useful to you in your own life. Maybe I gave you a kick in the pants to do something for your wallet you haven't been doing. The whole purpose of what we're about is you taking more control of the financial side of your life so that you save more, spend less, and avoid getting ripped off. And I hope you tune in on Friday for our latest edition of Clark Stinks.
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