Pod Insights The Clark Howard Podcast 06.18.25 Summer Power Bills / Take Your Vacation! About this episode Data centers are creating higher demand for electricity and the cost is falling on consumers. Power bills could reach record highs this summer. Clark has two recommendations to help lower your energy bills. Speaking of summer, have you planned out your vacation days yet? Clark talks about the importance of time away from it all. Home Cooling: Segment 1 Ask Clark: Segment 2 Take Your PTO!: Segment 3 Ask Clark: Segment 4 Mentioned on the show: How To Save Money on Utilities 7 Things Discover Cardholders Can Expect After Capital One Merger My 7 Rules for Using Credit Cards - Clark Howard How Many Credit Cards Is Too Many? How To Prevent, Report and Repair Identity Theft 5 Money Tips To Know Before You Travel Abroad Best Way To Exchange Dollars for Foreign Currency Best Credit Cards With No Foreign Transaction Fees in 2025 10 Clark Howard 'Never, Not Ever' Rules To Protect Your Money 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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1:04 Speaker 02 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. And it's getting hot all around the country. And today, I'm going to talk about cooling your home this summer. And speaking of summer, have you planned out your vacation days yet? I'm going to tell you why it's so important that you go ahead and get vacation on your calendar. Okay, so much talk about all these data centers that are popping up around the United States.
1:47 Speaker 02 And these data centers use mega amounts of electricity. And they're creating a new level of demand. You may not know this, but the demand for electricity in the United States has not gone anywhere in years. Electricity demand really leveled off. And it's because when people replace things, they replace them with things that were more energy efficient. You replaced your air conditioner, more energy efficient. Your clothes dryer, more energy efficient. Pretty much every appliance or electronics item has become more efficient.
2:30 Speaker 02 You look at the label on a TV you're buying or thinking of buying, and it'll tell you how much electricity it'll use in a year. Crazy low, crazy low. So you and I have been doing our part with things that we buy that we use in our home. No more Draculas, really. Those are things that create huge power consumption on our part. But now the data centers are creating a mad rush to generate more electricity. And because consumers really get the short shrift when rates are set on utilities
3:14 Speaker 02 in states that have monopoly power providers, the burden of higher prices as there's more demand being created by these data centers is being put on you and me and not on these industrial users, these data centers. And so they're getting a great deal on kilowatts per kilowatt while you and I get taken advantage of. And we wear that burden in our wallet every month with the power bill we get. So this looks like it's going to be a record-high summer for power bills. I'm sorry, I just gotta say it.
3:59 Speaker 02 Because as the state regulatory bodies, they don't listen to you and me. They only listen to their political contributors, are shifting this cost burden to you and me. We're the ones that are gonna have these higher bills, even using the same amount of power we've used in prior years. So you don't just sit there like a sitting duck. You do the things you need to do to use less energy in your home. And I start with a couple of simple things. One, doing proper insulation in your home.
4:38 Speaker 02 Quick, quick, quick payback on that because most of us don't have proper insulation. And two, put in an automatic thermostat that reduces the amount of cooling you have on when you're not home. Learn your patterns. These smart thermostats are cheap and you reduce what you can use. Now, one thing I will not do, I do not sleep well at night if it's hot in the bedroom. So I run the air conditioning when it's time to sleep, but the rest of the time I keep
5:21 Speaker 02 the thermostat at 78 until bedtime. That's just my thing. Krista?
5:28 Speaker 03 I've also heard that you should, you know, and I think someone commented on this one time on the show, that you have to worry about humidity in certain places too.
5:36 Speaker 02 That's completely true.
5:37 Speaker 03 You know, up in your attic and stuff. So you don't want to keep it too hot.
5:41 Speaker 02 Right, that's true. But dehumidifiers do a great job to soak up that excess moisture.
5:47 Speaker 03 Okay.
5:48 Speaker 02 In a home. So there are ways to mitigate.
5:51 Speaker 03 Okay. Well, speaking of all of this, I have a question for you from Mike in Ohio. He says HVAC companies promote monthly maintenance plans, $10 a month and up. These generally include two annual checkups, one for summer season and one for winter season, plus maybe a few other discounts, et cetera. In my experience, the HVAC companies are using these opportunities to scare you into other high-priced maintenance tasks. Over the past two years, I've been told that I needed anywhere from $4,500 to $5,000 worth of repairs for my 13-year-old air conditioning, or to replace my air conditioning altogether, $11,000 to $17,000 for that. So I had an independent HVAC technician come out for an evaluation.
6:35 Speaker 03 He told me that everything was working fine and I should forego any repairs or replacement at this time. Is this a common practice by HVAC companies? And do you recommend monthly maintenance plans?
6:45 Speaker 02 Okay, so those are two things that I want to deal with separately. The good part of doing the maintenance is that if you don't have a plan like that, you don't have somebody calling you and say, "Hey, it's time for your spring checkup," or, you know, "winter checkup," whatever, you don't get around to it. And you can end up with real inefficiency with your heating and air conditioning systems. So I think that's actually a good idea so that you are pushed to remember. If you're good at remembering otherwise on your own and you'll do it twice a year, fine, you don't need one of these maintenance plans. The second part of this, though, is significant.
7:30 Speaker 02 You've got to be aware. The heating and air conditioning industry is going through what are called rollups. And rollups are happening all over America. So let's say, Krista, you've had your favorite heating and air conditioning company you've used for years and years and years. And the technician comes out and suddenly is aggressive beyond anything you've ever seen before. "You need this, you need that, you need to replace this," whatever. What's going on behind the scenes is big national players are buying up local brand names. And the way they're paying for it is their technicians are being put on commission to
8:15 Speaker 02 sell stuff. And if they don't sell enough stuff, they get fired. So everything has become, in these rollups, about selling up what you want with a heating and air conditioning company. But the cause of the problem with the rollups is you want a local, owned and operated HVAC company, preferably family-owned. Doesn't mean they're automatically going to be good, doesn't mean they're automatically going to be honest. You improve the odds, though, because of the national players behind the curtain. They have created a sales environment rather than a service environment.
8:57 Speaker 02 And that's why people are being pushed to replace things that are still working fine.
9:03 Speaker 03 Okay, and lots of questions about the Capital One-Discover merger. And here's an example of one we've gotten from several people. Richard in New York, "My primary credit cards are Discover and Capital One. With the acquisition of Discover by Capital One, should I get a card from another provider like Chase, Wells Fargo, etc. so I'm not tied to Capital One for all my credit cards?"
9:23 Speaker 02 Yes, you should, but add to the list a local credit union that you are a member of or want to be a member of because credit union cards, if you ever run a balance, tend to offer an interest rate half what the interest rate is from the big brand banks. But yes, with Discover and Capital One getting married, from a direct consumer standpoint, it is a reduction in competition in the market. And also, you don't want to have all your credit card eggs in one basket. So that's why you want to get a card from another issuer, just like your instinct.
10:02 Speaker 02 Behind the scenes, the purchase of Discover by Capital One could create competition with the Visa-MasterCard cartel because Capital One now has a merchant processing backbone that they didn't have before. They were dependent on Visa or MasterCard. So it may ultimately lead to more consumer choice, potentially lower prices for merchants with processing cards. But we'll have to see if the theoretical happens. But the reality right now, the practical, is yes, Richard, you get another card from somebody else.
10:45 Speaker 03 And we have an article at Clark.com called "Seven Things Discover Cardholders Can Expect After the Capital One Mergers." That might be worth a read. This is from Tina in California. "My daughter's best friend is 25 years old and has been living in France for the last several years, finishing her bachelor's and master's degree. She discovered late last year that her dad had opened a credit card in her name and charged over $30,000 paying for trips with his girlfriend and other crazy expenses. She filed a fraud report for the $30,000, but that process doesn't seem to be going anywhere. Not only that, he also applied for unemployment in her name while she was living abroad."
11:24 Speaker 02 Oh, come on. Her dad?
11:26 Speaker 03 Her dad. Unbeknownst to her, the credit card for living expenses, et cetera, her dad gave to her and told her that he was paying for her expenses while at school was in fact, a joint credit card with her name. And he never made payments on that. So altogether, she owes about $50,000. She's just starting her career in hospitality management and is currently making very little. So she is an intern, working mostly for room and board. Is her best option to file for bankruptcy? Or is there another solution to work with the creditors to pay less than is owed?
11:55 Speaker 02 This is one of the hardest situations for banks to unravel. And it happens a lot more often than you realize. Where a family member, in this case, a dad.
12:08 Speaker 03 It's just unthinkable.
12:11 Speaker 02 And what he did was he impersonated her. It's not a joint account. It is her account that he got an authorized user card. In addition to a card that she is responsible for. So he was very clever in a disgusting kind of way. If the story played out exactly like your friend thinks. Is that she's been using the card. He's been using the card. How in the world can you convince the bank? That you were innocent in this? Because it's your account. You're using it. Your dad's using the authorized user card.
12:55 Speaker 02 A mess, mess, mess. Since she owns the card. The first thing to do is shut that card down. So that her dad can't do anything else to harm her. As to whether bankruptcy is the right thing. We're way far from that. Whether a bankruptcy filing would be appropriate. But she filed a fraud report with whom? With the police? With the bank? Bank's not going to believe her. And do you want to file a police report against your own dad? I mean, this is tough, tough stuff. Without easy answers.
13:36 Speaker 02 But you start with writing a letter to the bank. And if you got the guts, you file a police report. Then you have to be prepared for the bank to write it off. They're already going to ruin your credit, just as it is. A bankruptcy filing ruins your credit. And you see how it plays from here.
13:56 Speaker 03 Freeze her credit, for sure.
13:58 Speaker 02 Freeze her credit.
13:59 Speaker 03 And make sure she uses an email address her dad has no access to. And, and the security questions he wouldn't know about.
14:04 Speaker 02 Cause who knows what else he'll do.
14:06 Speaker 03 Right.
14:06 Speaker 02 Well, her credit's already ruined, so he can't get anything else.
14:09 Speaker 03 But still, I mean, all you need is him to like, you know, buy a car or do something crazy.
14:14 Speaker 02 Which he won't be able, shouldn't be able to now, is her. Uh, this is just messy, messy. But obviously you don't pay money except to the bank, except for the charges you actually did. And I don't have a nice little tidy bow that I can tie right now. Because this is gonna be messy. But the most important thing is don't pay money that you don't owe. And down the road, maybe a bankruptcy filing would be necessary, but likely not. It will end up being a bad debt write-off by the bank and her credit will be harmed for seven years.
14:55 Speaker 03 Man, I hope she files a police report. I hate to say it. I know that would be so hard, but if this is all, it just sounds insane. What a terrible thing to do to your child.
15:04 Speaker 02 Think how many different circumstances we've heard over the years where somebody cosigns for a family member, cosigns for a boyfriend or girlfriend.
15:15 Speaker 03 Yeah.
15:16 Speaker 02 Uh, gives credit to a boyfriend or girlfriend or a family member. And then wonders why it blew up on them. And there are times everything's gonna be fine. But obviously in a case like this, never gonna be fine. Because he did all this with fraud and behind her back. Okay, coming up ahead, we're gonna switch gears. We're gonna go positive, positive.
15:42 Speaker 03 All right.
15:43 Speaker 02 We're gonna talk summer vacation.
15:48 Speaker 00 This episode is brought to you by Indeed. You're ready to level up your business, but the pressure to find the right person to make that happen is intense. Indeed sponsored jobs can help carry the load. It boosts your job post to help it reach quality talent fast. Cut through the chaos with Indeed sponsored jobs. Get a $75 sponsored job credit at indeed.com/podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring now? Then this is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs.
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17:18 Speaker 02 Something I absolutely, absolutely love. Do you know there's never a year, never a year I can recall over the last many decades that I did not take every day of vacation that was allotted to me? I love to work. And when I work, I work hard, to the point, many days of exhaustion. But then, I take my time off. And do I love my time off? Do you know that most Americans now, it's more than a majority, leave vacation unused?
17:57 Speaker 02 It's part of what you get working for an employer. If you have a job with benefits, you get paid vacation. Take the vacation. Take it. Be kind to yourself. I know there are times you feel like, well, I gotta look good for the boss. And then where's the boss? The boss is here, there, somewhere else, having a great time. If you follow your boss on social media, you'll see all the pictures your boss is posting from wherever, while you're still there at the office doing whatever. Don't do that to yourself. Don't do it.
18:41 Speaker 02 If you're a longtime listener or viewer of our YouTube show, you know that you hear me harangue you every summer to take vacation. The days are long, the weather's better. Enjoy it. Take time for yourself. And today, that's harder because of this thing in my hand, these phones. Because what happens? The vibration or chirp from your phone. It'll be a text from work while you're on vacation, or an email from work while you're on vacation.
19:24 Speaker 02 You have the right, when you're on vacation, to do one of those vacation responders on your work email and say that you're on vacation and you'll see the email on such and such a date when you're done. And I know it's easier said than done. If you have a boss who doesn't respect your time off, how you handle somebody sending an urgent text to you? The sky is falling. Let me tell you something. The work's still gonna be there when you come back from your time off.
20:05 Speaker 02 But it takes like, for most people, three to four days to breathe deep.
20:14 Speaker 02 To relax, to get to where you decompress and separate from the normal pace of your life. You deserve it. You've worked hard. Take your time off. And while you're doing that for summer, I'm gonna tell you right now, go ahead and get vacation on the calendar for the period from Thanksgiving to New Year's Eve, so that you don't have vacation that goes unused and unloved in your life.
20:49 Speaker 03 All right, I gotta go catch a flight, so you're gonna have to read your own questions.
20:53 Speaker 02 I'm good. All right, let me read the first question.
20:55 Speaker 03 All right. Actually, it's about vacation. This is a follow-up from Ken in Washington. I wrote in a couple of years ago about my company switching to quote-unquote unlimited PTO, and you gave some great thoughts on what to expect. When we made the switch, our company froze our PTO balance. It's holding it until we leave service, retire, quit, get laid off, etc. It will get paid out at whatever your wage is when you leave, so it grows with my salary.
21:22 Speaker 02 So froze the PTO?
21:24 Speaker 03 The PTO that he had before they went to unlimited. So he had accumulated days, and those days are in a bank kind of waiting there until he leaves the company. Well, you know what I mean?
21:37 Speaker 02 I know what you mean.
21:38 Speaker 03 They're banked. So, he says, "It will get paid out at whatever your wage is when you leave, so it grows with my salary. I'm lucky to have a high salary, and my balance as well was over 300 hours, which means I have 20K plus sitting there."
21:51 Speaker 02 Wow, wow.
21:53 Speaker 03 "Any thoughts on what I should do? Leave it as a rainy day fund if I ever get laid off? Tell my employer I want to quit and be rehired to cash it out? Is there a risk of losing this if my company files for bankruptcy?"
22:03 Speaker 02 Yes.
22:04 Speaker 03 "Not expecting this, but you never know. We don't need the money, but I also don't want to put it at risk by leaving it for years and years."
22:10 Speaker 02 So Ken, I mean, we can't predict everything, and if there's any reason you suspect that the company is financially unstable, then you'd have to do something radical, like even consider looking for a new job somewhere else if you get the sense that the company's unstable. But if it's stable, then this is kind of like a method of forced savings. And what you've not said that I understood from what you wrote... The 300-plus hours, is it at the time you leave whatever your current salary is?
22:48 Speaker 03 Yeah, that's what he's saying. It grows with your salary.
22:50 Speaker 02 Yeah, then, then I would leave that there unless and until you get the sense that your employer is not stable, or you reach a point you don't want to work for them anymore, then you'll get the money at that point that you leave. It's actually really generous of them that they're paying you for that PTO. I've never been a fan of the replacement of sick leave and vacation with PTO. I've talked about that before, so I won't belabor the point now, but that's never been something that I've been ecstatic about.
23:29 Speaker 03 Trudy in North Carolina says, "I've been saving my United points to enable my husband and I to get a discount on our trip to Europe in July. Viking," so going on Viking cruise, "Viking said they cannot bump us up since the flights were on a promotional fare." So they must have booked their flights with Viking.
23:44 Speaker 02 Through Viking.
23:45 Speaker 03 "United says they can't do it since the flight is operated by Lufthansa. Lufthansa says they can't do it since our flight is booked by United. Also, I asked about changing our flights to go through Denver, Chicago to bypass Newark. Sure, United said, but it would cost us about $300 each. We were hoping to bypass Newark due to the problems there."
24:04 Speaker 02 Let me first tell you a couple of things about Newark. I just flew into Newark just days ago, and the Newark situation is improving significantly. One, there's been so much national focus on it. Two, the runway construction that was going on was completed ahead of time, and so Newark is back at full runway capacity. Three, people are, if you're booking a ticket, this is not for you, Trudy, but for people booking a trip... Know that airfares to Newark are now much cheaper than they are to LaGuardia and Kennedy
24:46 Speaker 02 because people are booking away from Newark. So what have I been doing? I've been booking flights into Newark to save the money. Hazard versus opportunity. Also, the FAA has forced flight reductions into and out of Newark to deal with the air traffic control issues. So I, barring storms, I'm much more comfortable, obviously, booking flights into Newark, and I would not feel the necessity to rebook through Denver or Chicago. Now, let's go to the heart of your original question, upgrades.
25:26 Speaker 02 Once you book your airfare through a cruise line, you are their prisoner. And all the normal privileges you'd have, you lost your autonomy. In addition, the cruise line's booking whoever they got the best deal on. So it was a United code share on Lufthansa, and now you can't do your upgrade. It means you're going to have to take another trip and use your United mileage plus points for an upgrade on it where you book your own ticket. I don't like booking airfare through a cruise line because the idea of it is that, well,
26:08 Speaker 02 they'll hold the ship for us if the flight's messed up. Cruise lines don't. They may get you to the next port, but you've still missed that first part of the cruise. When you're going to Europe, you want to arrive a minimum two days before your cruise. When you're going domestic, one day before your cruise to build in time to deal for mechanical issues, weather delays, whatever it is. And I always want you to buy your own air travel so that you are in charge. There are times, though, a lot of the higher-end cruise lines like Viking Give you the airfare.
26:47 Speaker 02 And if you take their free airfare, no, you may not be happy with the schedule they come up for you. You may not be happy with changes that they make, but that will be your choice. In a case where I don't know if the promotional fare meant it was free or just greatly reduced.
27:06 Speaker 03 All right. And then Ruby in Georgia is going on a fun trip too. And this is a question we get a lot from anyone leaving the country. I'm taking a trip to Greece for the first time and I want to know about currency exchange. Where's the best place to go to convert US dollars to euros? Should I do it here in the States or wait until I get to Greece?
27:22 Speaker 02 Okay, there's a never, never, never, not ever rule. Never do currency exchange for a trip to a foreign country in the United States. We do not have a competitive foreign exchange market in the United States. Our exchange rates, if you go to a bank here and you exchange currency, you get ripped off like nowhere else on earth that I've ever found. When you land in Greece, that's when you get your euro. And before you go, Ruby, make sure you have an ATM card from a financial institution where you pay no junk fees for using an ATM.
28:07 Speaker 02 You will get a great exchange rate. You'll be able to land, pop in your ATM card in the airport, get your euro and you'll be good to go. Now here's something else. In Greece, it used to be that people paid a lot in cash, like so much of the rest of Europe. You'll find that overwhelmingly you're doing tap to pay with a credit card or with your iPhone or Android. You want to make sure you have a card before you go that is one that has no foreign currency junk fees. We have a list at Clark.com of several of the cards you can get before your trip
28:49 Speaker 02 where you'll be able to use your credit card with no foreign currency junk. Another thing, more and more around the world, they will try to trick you when you go to use your card, and as a courtesy, they will clear the purchase in dollars. Always say no. You want to use your card, it'll be on the terminal. You want it to clear in local currency, in your case, Euro, because otherwise you may face a 10% junk fee for having the item as a courtesy cleared in dollars instead of Euro. Let the currency exchange happen with your fee-free credit card. That was a lot to say.
29:33 Speaker 03 That was a lot. And this is the end of the show, which normally you would bring up, but I just want to bring up that our next show in two days is on a very special day. It's a milestone birthday for you.
29:44 Speaker 02 I'm going to be 70.
29:46 Speaker 03 And so I hope everyone will tune in for that show. I want you to do something you haven't done in a long time on Friday. I want you to tell people your amazing story of how you ended up where you are today, because it's real. If you've never heard it, even if you have heard it, I could hear it a million times, and I always love hearing it. It's so fascinating.
30:05 Speaker 02 I find my life story boring.
30:07 Speaker 03 No way. Absolutely no way. So, happy almost birthday to you, Clark, and we will see everybody on Friday.
30:17 Speaker 02 Yeah, how about that? 70. You know, it's funny, because people in any kind of performance industry or anything like that, used to keep their ages a deep, dark secret. The internet's taken care of that. You want to know how old anybody is? You can find out in a nanosecond. But anyway, next time you see me, I'm going to be elderly. I'm going to be 70.
30:46 Speaker 02 Have a great rest of your day.
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