Pod Insights The Clark Howard Podcast 07.13.26 How Much $ Is In Your Payment App? / Weddings: Less Is More Forever About this episode Use payment apps? How much? Clark has a major warning about a serious financial risk hiding in plain sight: storing your hard-earned cash inside payment apps like PayPal, Venmo, or Cash App. While these platforms are convenient for sending money, a shocking number of people use them like regular bank accounts to store large sums of money. Therein lies a dangerous reality that could cost you plenty. Also, millennials are rethinking life milestones, especially when it comes to weddings. A recent story of a beautiful $5,000 wedding proves that you don’t need to bury yourself in debt to celebrate love. If you want to spend a fortune and you have the cash, go for it—but if you want to start your marriage on a stronger financial footing, younger generations are proving you can have an unforgettable, gorgeous wedding at a crazy inexpensive price.
Plus, Christa shares your #AskClark questions and Clark gives his take. All this and more on the July 13, 2026, episode of The Clark Howard Show. Submit your questions: Ask Clark.
A New Payment App Warning: Segment 1
Ask Clark: Segment 2
Affordable Weddings: Segment 3
Ask Clark: Segment 4
Mentioned on the show:
Storing Cash in PayPal, Venmo or Cash App Carries Hidden Risks, CFPB Says
Safer Ways To Send Money - Clark Howard
Who Should Consider Setting Up a Trust? - Clark Howard
Car Rental Insurance: Everything You Need To Know - Clark Howard
Car-Rental Insurance and the Collision Damage Waiver (CDW)
Clark Howard's Guide to Saving Money on Your Wedding
Should I Borrow Money To Pay for a Wedding? - Clark Howard
6 tips for a more affordable wedding - Clark Howard
The Costco Price Secret Almost Nobody Knows - Clark Howard
Are Airline Ticket Consolidators a Good Way To Save Money on International Flights?
Clark.com resources:
Episode transcripts
Community. Clark.com / Ask Clark
Clark.com daily money newsletter
Consumer Action Center Free Helpline: 636-492-5275
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Transcript 0:00 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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1:04 Speaker 02 I'm so glad you're with us here on the Clark Howard Show. Our mission is to serve you with advice and information that empowers you so you make better financial decisions in your life. Okay, we're right back on it. Last week, we had thing after thing that came up about the payment apps. Well, I got something important about the payment apps, different than I've talked about before, that I want you to protect yourself on. And coming up later, I want to talk about weddings. You know, weddings don't have to be a fortune. And what's great is a lot of 20-somethings and 30-somethings getting married don't have
1:48 Speaker 02 that mentality of weddings being these giant blowouts. And how beneficial that is to them financially moving forward. We're going to talk about that. Okay, I want to talk about something new federal warning, that when you store money with a payment app, there is no FDIC insurance.
2:12 Speaker 02 So I finally have something I can say that's positive about Zelle. Cause Zelle's embedded in your checking account that has FDIC insurance coverage. But there's nothing like that for the competitors. Cash App, Venmo, PayPal. Your money is at risk if one of them got into financial trouble. So forget all the stuff I talk about, about all the fraud and theft and all that with money from the payment apps. A lot of people now are storing money on the apps themselves. When you do that, that money's vulnerable.
2:52 Speaker 02 Now, do I know anything about any of the apps being in financial trouble? No, no. But what the point is, is that the money is exposed. If there was an unknown problem and any of the owners of the apps went and solved it, your money is at risk. This goes along with a theme that you've heard from me in the first half of the year about how there are different entities pitching places for you to store your money. For example, the various crypto exchanges and stable coins and all that.
3:38 Speaker 02 And then the promissory note people telling you, you're going to get a bigger return on your money by lending it out through them or depositing it with them. Again, and again, and again, you're looking at platforms where they're promising you something else, but there's no FDIC or NCUA insurance. NCUA is credit unions. And so that money you've worked hard to save, and it's money you're not specifically investing, it's money you're saving, that you're looking at is where you put your idle cash. You don't want to take the risk that that money evaporates on you. And so having
4:23 Speaker 02 little amounts of convenience money with one of the apps, if you lose it, it's not going to be the end of the world. But if you have significant amounts of money stored with any of them, that's what I don't like and what I don't want you to do. Krista?
4:41 Speaker 03 All right, let's go to some questions that came in. This one's from Patrick in Georgia. Someone siphoned a full tank of gas from my truck in long-term parking at the Atlanta-Hartsfield-Jackson Airport. Is this common? Is there anything I can do to get reimbursed? It's unbelievable.
5:01 Speaker 02 Well, it actually was very common in different cycles when gas prices went way up. Now thankfully, we're on a trend line. If you look at wholesale, gas prices are going to normalize over a number of months. The impact from what happened with the war is going to steadily lessen. But every time we've seen these spikes in gas prices, going back to 2009, I think, when we hit the all-time highest price inflation adjusted, and then in the 1970s, twice, people were stealing gas. I had a locking gas cap.
5:45 Speaker 03 My gosh.
5:46 Speaker 02 On my car.
5:47 Speaker 03 So wouldn't there be cameras all over an airport parking deck?
5:50 Speaker 02 In theory, in theory. And I don't know if Patrick went to the airport police to ask them if they could find who the perpetrator was. Because there are, I mean, you can look in an airport parking garage, there are cameras all over those things. Who knows how sophisticated the system is to be able to use AI or whatever to find where there would have been somebody at Patrick's truck. But has it been common? Not this time around that I've heard. And hopefully, it won't be that, that Patrick, you were just particularly an unlucky person.
6:35 Speaker 02 I'm really sorry.
6:37 Speaker 03 Deb in Connecticut says, you recently discussed a situation where a neighbor of yours was crying and you discovered she was being kicked out of her partner's home by his children after he passed away.
6:49 Speaker 02 Her husband.
6:50 Speaker 03 I've worked very hard my entire life to support my family. My biggest fear is that if I pass away, at some point, my husband remarries or moves in with someone else. If there aren't any specific rules spelled out, I fear my two daughters, both in their twenties, will be left with nothing if my husband passes. Technically, all of our money would go to his new wife. Do you have any advice on how to set up the rules? Do I meet with a lawyer to get all my wishes written down in a will or some other document?
7:20 Speaker 02 Yeah, so you're the opposite side of the coin. Because this was a widow who the kids threw her out because the home was in a trust. And so what happens in order to, in your circumstance, you're trying to do what happened in that other situation where she was a subsequent wife and the kids actually had legal right to the house when their dad died. That's what you want to do in this case, that your daughters will be protected with the value of the house. So yes, you do go to a lawyer.
8:00 Speaker 02 Yeah, you have to have the full understanding and agreement of your husband that you want the house. Don't even talk about, you know, if I die first and I want to make sure that your next wife doesn't end up with everything and my daughters end up with nothing. Don't bring up that scenario. Just say you want to have the house protected for the benefit of your daughters at the time that either you are no longer living, both of you no longer living, whatever. And so that is handled very simply by a lawyer. In a trust arrangement where you have the right to live in the property and your
8:41 Speaker 02 husband does for the rest of each of your lives, but in the event of your passing, the value passes, both of your passing at that point, the value passes to your daughters.
8:55 Speaker 03 This is, we're hearing more and more of this. I just heard of a family, there's a business, a family-owned business involved. The grandfather who started it passed away. His children and grandchildren work in the business. His second wife now received everything and is chair of the business and has never been involved in it. And there's just, it's terrible to see the family squabbling when somebody passes away like that.
9:20 Speaker 02 So that's why this has to be an upfront conversation.
9:24 Speaker 03 Mm-hmm.
9:26 Speaker 02 And both of you need to lay your cards on the table and, and agree to what it's going to be. And a lawyer, this is one of those things that a lawyer has many different tools they can use to accomplish this. And I just mentioned a trust, but there are a variety of ways that a lawyer can prepare documents that both of you agree to that protect the interests of these adult daughters.
9:51 Speaker 03 Jeffrey in Georgia says, hi Clark, I have a particular fear of renting a car and I've never done it before in my life. I have an interesting vacation in mind, like an upcoming potential trip to the Faroe Islands near Denmark, which is supposed to be one of the most, supposed to be one of the most beautiful, untamed, wild areas of the world. But everything I read is that it's best accessed by car. My US car insurance agent tells me that my policy doesn't extend outside of the US and I think my credit card has collision damage waiver coverage. But what can I do to limit my liability in an accident where someone gets hurt or property other than the rental car gets damaged? That's my big fear, being liable in a major accident abroad. Thanks. I want to rent a car abroad, but I'm just too scared.
10:36 Speaker 02 All right. So Jeffy, there are a couple of ways to handle this and congratulations on this exciting trip you're going on. Okay, number one. You can buy a liability policy for temporary use of a rental car. And there are a lot of travel insurance policies that sell car rental liability coverage for a trip overseas or even domestic. If you have a situation where your own automobile insurer does not cover temporary use of a rental car. By the way, to the many Tesla owners in states where Tesla writes auto insurance,
11:20 Speaker 02 Tesla does not cover in most states temporary use of a rental car, does not cover it for liability, only if your vehicle's in a Tesla-owned repair shop. No vacation coverage. And they're not the only insurer that doesn't cover temporary use of a rental car, even though normally it is common you'd be covered. Your insurer doesn't cover you outside the US. So you can buy a liability-only policy. It will be pricier than you might imagine. If you're like, a week trip might be 200 bucks for one of these policies, something like that, that would have a good liability coverage.
12:05 Speaker 02 The alternative is you buy daily liability coverage from the rental car company itself. That will be more expensive normally than you buying a liability-only policy.
12:20 Speaker 02 This is something if you use your search engine and you ask for liability-only car rental insurance, you'll see different companies that sell it. You'll be able to get quotes, you'll see if they cover you, where you're going to be in Denmark, most cover around the world. And so you just do that upfront, you'll have peace of mind. Because I think about people who rent in Iceland and car rentals get very heavily damaged, particularly when people go to the far eastern coast of Iceland.
12:59 Speaker 02 A lot of auto insurance that you have on your own vehicle will not cover a lot of the damage that might happen in Iceland. And so people have to make that decision to buy an independent policy in advance, or pay enormous money from the car rental agency itself in Iceland. And there are situations like that in the world. But don't worry so much that you're going to wreck the thing. Just get the coverage. Enjoy your trip. Coming up ahead, talk about a day that's an expensive day, or can be, a wedding. I want to talk
13:41 Speaker 02 about how there's a counter movement now to not make it a day of debt.
13:49 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.
14:19 Speaker 04 Low energy, unfocused, foggy? You might be dehydrated. Gatorade Zero powders have been scientifically designed to help improve hydration balance in the body. With a clinically proven electrolyte blend and no artificial colors or flavors. Great tasting hydration, no matter where you're going. Shop now online or at retailers nationwide. Gatorade hydrates better than water. Is it in you? Symptoms noted are signs of mild to moderate dehydration. Consult a healthcare professional if symptoms persist.
14:48 Speaker 05 Now at Kroger, your points add up to more ways to save every trip. Use them your way to take dollars off groceries at checkout, or save at the pump. You can even save up to $35 on your next fill-up. Same points, more choices. And with low prices on fresh, quality food, plus digital and personalized offers tailored to how you shop, your dollar goes further. Redeem your points online or in the app. Kroger, fresh for everyone. Restrictions apply. See site or store for details.
15:19 Speaker 02 There's something that people go into with an expectation that varies so much from one individual or one couple to another, like almost nothing else I can think of. It's how people approach their wedding. And there's all these stories about how the average wedding this year costs blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, tens of thousands of dollars. And then there will be people who spend crazy six-figure amounts on weddings, unless you're Jeff Bezos, who's spent how many tens of millions of dollars?
16:02 Speaker 02 There's every amount of money that people spend on weddings. And I think there's something that we can learn from a lot of 20-somethings who are choosing to do ultra-affordable weddings. And I think about my nephew and his wife, when they got married, and all the things they did to make the wedding crazy and expensive. It was so very nice. And I told that story before about how they got married on a Monday night at a venue space in Malibu.
16:43 Speaker 02 The food, a group of us went to Costco and bought the food that was served after the ceremony. And we just loaded up a rental van and brought stuff and big wedding, crazy and expensive. I mean, there's no reason other than because we want to that a wedding has to be expensive. What's special about a wedding? That the two people standing there want to spend their lives together. That's what's important.
17:18 Speaker 02 But there are people who, who really do. And if it's something you want to do, go for it. You want to spend a fortune. But I love reading the stories I read about people who hire for having music at a wedding. And they want live music. They hire music students from a nearby college that has a music department. They call and they find students to have them play for a fraction of the cost of having a traditional live band. And of course, I want musicians to earn a living. Somebody wants to spend the money on a big fancy band, do it. They want to have a DJ, do it.
18:02 Speaker 02 I was at a wedding last year where someone just had their own playlist that they were playing on. It wasn't a boombox, but some kind of thing like that. That they were playing their own music selection. And it just was just playing the songs. And then when it was, it was a song people wanted to dance to, they got up and danced. And they didn't, they didn't. But what did they have the cost of? Whatever boomboxy kind of thing they had and the time they spent putting together the playlist. I mean, you don't have to spend big bucks. There are people who get married for whatever the filing fee is at the courthouse.
18:47 Speaker 02 And then they have a party. And by the way, everything is cheaper when you say it's for a party than when you say it's for a wedding. But in a time that people are having trouble just paying their regular bills, going into debt for a wedding? That's a bad start to a marriage. To pull out the Visa and MasterCard and start charging things you can't pay for? And then you're starting off a marriage paying 25% interest. Let me tell you, nobody ever got rich paying Visa or MasterCard 25% interest. It doesn't work like that. And the richness of the moment.
19:31 Speaker 02 Is the two people that love each other that are getting married and the life they're going to have together. So I could give you examples of individuals who did very inexpensive weddings, but the point is it's all what's in your head. And if you start off with the attitude that you're not going to make this a budget buster, you absolutely can have a beautiful day without making it expensive.
20:03 Speaker 03 All right, we'll go to some questions. Double in Washington wrote in with this one. I've been a longtime Clarky and a member and fan of Costco. Recently, I discovered that the 14% markup on brand names may not be entirely true. Recently, I found an Indy mangoes box, item 1208, for $19.99 and one Costco, and the same item selling for $14.99 in a nearby Costco 25% less. A corporate buyer emailed me back saying they marked down the mangoes specifically at the second location because of poor sales, wanting to sell through the product before it spoiled. Notice the price still ended with a 99. A
20:44 Speaker 03 lesson for all. Call membership and check prices with nearby stores. You may be able to save money.
20:50 Speaker 02 Okay, first of all, I know this quote was directly from a Costco corporate buyer because they use the term sell-through. That's warehouse club speak. And so the 14% would be accurate unless the mangoes were marked as Kirkland Signature, in which case it would be 15%. So the location selling them for $14.99 was losing a lot of money on those. They were trying to move them out before they had spoilage. So why it wasn't $14.97
21:28 Speaker 02 instead of 99, I have no idea. But what you were told is valid, that the pricing of items in a Costco Can vary store to store based on the sell-through rate because items, different items, they don't disclose exactly, but a lot of items in the store is supposed to sell through in 21 days, meaning that the inventory that's put on the shelf should have to be, if it's an item that's regularly stocked, should be gone in 21 days and replaced with new inventory. Costco is the only retailer publicly known that I'm aware of that sells
22:11 Speaker 02 things before they even have the invoice date due on the items they bought from whoever the supplier is. So in the case of the mangoes, yeah, it's a great idea to go to one that they're not selling well and get them for less money.
22:27 Speaker 03 All right. Tim in Wisconsin says, hello Clark, I love the podcast. It makes the miles go faster on road trips. Question, do you have any experience using a specific, he wrote a specific name, consolidator for airline tickets? The one I'm looking at specializes in business and first-class seats. Your feedback would be appreciated.
22:46 Speaker 02 All right. So Tim, first of all, let me explain what a consolidator is. Consolidator in the historical reference and definition is a ticket seller that sells tickets below the official price, usually for international flights, and they have a contract with the airline where the airline doesn't want to publicly discount fares, but they've got unsold inventory and they use these consolidators or ticket sellers that in the old days, they would actually write out a physical ticket. Now it's all computerized, but they would have authority to issue a ticket below the official price. Now, that's not done
23:33 Speaker 02 Nearly as much as it used to be because international airfares used to be set through an international air cartel called IATA that now is just a trade association, International Air Transport Association. So today, most of what you're going to find with the sellers of business and first-class tickets for international travel are people that are mileage brokers. They are buying miles from one traveler. Like, let's say Krista has a huge amount of miles on a particular airline. She's not going to be able to use them anytime soon. And she wants to get some money for those miles.
24:15 Speaker 02 So she would go to one of these brokers and sell her miles through them to me, and then I go on a ticket at a big discount from what it would be just actually buying a ticket. Now, the danger is at both ends. If the airline knows that the miles were sold, which their terms, there may be a few international airlines that allow miles to be sold, but as a general rule, they're not marketable that way. She can have her account wiped out, and I can get to the airport to fly, and they say, "I ain't flying."
24:55 Speaker 02 So it is a gray market that is not against the law, but it's against the frequent flyer programs' rules generally, and so carries risk with it.
25:08 Speaker 03 So would you buy a ticket today?
25:10 Speaker 02 No, I've never done it. I've never sold points, which I've got, you know, points I try to burn regularly, and I've never bought a ticket that way.
25:23 Speaker 03 Janet in Florida says, "I know you've mentioned before that adding a child as an authorized user on a parent's credit card can help them build credit. I have excellent credit, around 800, and I'm trying to decide whether this is a good idea for my 20-year-old son. My concern is, he's not as financially responsible as I would like right now. I worry that helping him build strong credit- Could actually make it easier for him to open his own credit card, run up the limit and not pay it back on time. He works full time, making $20 an hour, has not completed college and is pursuing his dream of being a death metal musician. Should I help him build credit now or stay out of it and encourage him to stick with debit cards until he shows more financial responsibility?
26:05 Speaker 02 All right, before I answer this question,
26:07 Speaker 03 Oh, I know what you're gonna say.
26:08 Speaker 02 I have to show my absolute ignorance. What is a death metal?
26:13 Speaker 03 I don't know what death metal. I think it's just a specific type of music, like, you know, heavy metal. There's death metal.
26:19 Speaker 02 Yeah.
26:20 Speaker 03 He's a musician.
26:21 Speaker 02 I am really clueless, but I do know the answer to this. All right, so Janet, your instinct is correct. You do not lend your credit with a, remember when you issue an authorized use card, you don't give your child access to the card unless you know they're crazy responsible with the credit and you're okay with it. Usually you're just lending your good name, your good credit, so they have a better credit record. And you are completely right that if your 20-year-old son is not of a mind to be good with money,
27:02 Speaker 02 to be good with credit, it could be a maturity problem, could be just, sometimes people are just wired that way. You are doing them no favors by lending your good credit in this case, so they can establish their own. So in this circumstance, your question is the answer. He should stick with debit cards until he reaches the point that he shows more financial responsibility. Absolutely, Janet, the right answer in this case, no gray on it. And I wish him enormous success playing.
27:43 Speaker 02 This death metal music, I don't know what it means, but I hope it goes really, really well. And thank you so much for joining us today in the empowerment zone. Empowerment through knowledge where knowledge you can act on. That's our deal. And so the ultimate goal is learning ways to save more and spend less. And don't let anyone ever, ever, not ever rip you off. And we will be at your service on Wednesday with more advice you can put to work in your wallet.
28:29 Speaker 05 Now at Kroger, your points add up to more ways to save every trip. Use them your way to take dollars off groceries at checkout or save at the pump. You can even save up to $35 on your next fill up. Same points, more choices. And with low prices on fresh, quality food, plus digital and personalized offers tailored to how you shop, your dollar goes further. Redeem your points online or in the app. Kroger, fresh for everyone. Restrictions apply. See site or store for details.
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