Pod Insights The Clark Howard Podcast 09.12.25 Clark Answers His Critics on Clark Stinks / Our New Car Cost Calculator About this episode Friday - Clark Stinks day! Christa shares Clark Stinks posts with Clark. Submit yours at Clark.com/ClarkStinks. Also today, Empowerment in Action: Our team has developed a new tool to help you make one of life’s largest purchase decisions - exclusively at Clark.com Clark Stinks: Segments 1 & 2 Car Cost Calculator: Segment 3 Ask Clark: Segment 4 Mentioned on the show: What Can I Safely Use for Peer-to-Peer Payments? Why You Need To Lock Your Phone Number Today Best 529 College Savings Plans By State 5 Money Tips To Know Before You Travel Abroad The Total Cost of Buying Cars (Calculator) Clark.com How Much Car Insurance Do I Need? 10 Ways To Save Money on Car Insurance Will I Get a Better Deal on a Car By Financing or Paying Cash? 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 I'm so glad you're with us on the Clark Howard Show. You know, our mission is to serve you with advice and information that empowers you so you make better financial decisions in your life. And in today's show, it's time for Clark Stinks. Also, I want to tell you about something I'm really proud of. A new tool our team has developed that I've not seen anywhere else to help you make a major financial decision in your life. I'm really excited about it. What I love about our decision-making tools is it's like we've landed on the beach at Normandy, and then from there, we got better and better with it from your feedback as
0:50 Speaker 00 we learn how we can make these tools more helpful for you making decisions. Because so much of life now is noise that's hard to figure out. How do I make a good decision about all the different things I've got to make decisions about in a busy life? And that's what we're trying to do with our decision-making tool section on Clark.com. But now it's time for Clark Stinks, where you get to hear how I messed up.
1:23 Speaker 01 I should have never encouraged you to speak.
1:26 Speaker 02 You must think I'm pretty stupid.
1:27 Speaker 03 You should be ashamed of yourself. Well, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm wrong.
1:31 Speaker 04 Maybe you're right, pal.
1:32 Speaker 05 All right, we're going to start off with Mike in California's submission. On a recent show, Clark talked about using pay apps. Clark has always advised against using Zelle, which I understand. However, I wanted to share with you a time when I was in a bind, and I attempted to use Zelle to pay a vendor whom I knew well. I attempted to pay the vendor $300, but I was unsuccessful because my bank automatically blocked the attempt. I soon received a call from my bank's security department, and I was told that even though Zelle is a feature on their banking app, they don't want their customers to use it. Needless to say, I was shocked. In addition to sharing this story with you, I wanted to mention users should always try sending a dollar test amount first when using a payment app to pay someone for the first
2:17 Speaker 05 time.
2:18 Speaker 00 Okay, that is a riot that the security department doesn't want you using it at a bank that the marketing department has embedded Zelle in the accounts. Because see, the security department people know, they know real world, all the problems that people are having with Zelle, which by the way, Zelle is being sued by the state of New York for all the fraud problems that people are having with Zelle. And then Zelle's like, huh, not us. I mean, what do we have to do with it? We're not concerned about all this fraud.
2:52 Speaker 05 All right. Amethyst in Pennsylvania says, Mary wrote in with a Clark stink saying you were incomplete to quote unquote, remember the ladies and once you suggest trades for women because in quotes, the majority of trades require upper body strength. I'm a sheet metal worker and there are quite a number of women in my union, as there are tons of women in all other building trades. Seriously, there are tons of us who just drive by a site, especially at lunchtime, and you'll probably see some running out to get a bite to eat. There are even groups geared for women in the trades or in non-traditional careers. If you need examples of fantastic women in the trades, master carpenter Leah from C Jane Drill, Beth Allen from DIY Hip Chicks, and Fay Hadley from Piston and Pixie
3:35 Speaker 05 Dust are just three empowering women freely sharing their knowledge. Don't sell yourself short. In the trades, we get excellent health benefits, participate in building things, and go places and see things the average person will never see. You have immediate gratification for seeing what your hands have created. Every day I leave work seeing what I did and I made a difference. My pay is the same as the men. None of that crazy stuff white collar people have to deal with bickering over unfair pay between the sexes. You don't need to be a bodybuilder, but if you feel you need to work on your upper body strength, then do just that. But you're selling yourself short brushing off the trades just because you're a woman. I love it.
4:12 Speaker 00 Thank you for that. And do you remember we talked last year about how women have been taking higher and higher percentage of the jobs as a truck driver?
4:23 Speaker 05 Mm-hmm.
4:23 Speaker 00 It used to be really a male-only profession, and women have been doing it because
4:29 Speaker 05 They're better drivers. What? What? Did I say that out loud?
4:32 Speaker 00 You said that out loud. The pay is the same. You know, when you work for a trucking company, you're paid for productivity. You're paid per mile or however the pay works at that company. There's no discrimination based on being whatever race or male, female, whatever. And so, women have been moving into the trucking industry for that reason. Another field that was pretty much all men.
5:00 Speaker 05 Pat in Texas says, Clark, you don't stink, but you made me stink. After you spoke about locking the SIM card on my phone for safety reasons, I eagerly tried to do just that. My attempt resulted in my phone being virtually inoperable because I didn't know what my P U K number was and the phone locked me out after three guesses. I couldn't make or receive phone calls or texts for over two days until I went to a brick and mortar office on Monday where they couldn't unlock it either until they put a regular SIM card in, unlocked the phone, took it out again and put me on an eSIM again. I love most of your very good financial advice. And we had several people write in with various cellphone companies saying the same thing happened to them.
5:40 Speaker 00 That they, that they
5:42 Speaker 05 They got locked out.
5:43 Speaker 00 Locked out of their own phone?
5:44 Speaker 05 Mm-hmm.
5:45 Speaker 00 Wow.
5:46 Speaker 05 Yeah.
5:47 Speaker 00 Because you know, with our provider, all you do is there's on the app, there's a button you push.
5:52 Speaker 05 Right.
5:53 Speaker 00 And it SIM locks your phone, which means that nobody can, who's trying to get your two-factor authentication to steal your money can, can do that if you have your SIM locked. But if you're with a provider that requires a code, whatever this P U K, I wonder what that stands for? That I'm not familiar with. Then I guess you have to remember that code?
6:19 Speaker 05 My gosh.
6:19 Speaker 00 That's new for me.
6:21 Speaker 05 Well, most, and most cell phone companies require you have a PIN. So I don't know if it's the PIN or what it is, but. Okay, Glenn in Texas says, Clark, you stink worse than a skunk at a picnic. You keep praising 529 plans as if they solve everything for college costs. But here's the rotten egg. If parents pay all tuition with 529 funds, they can lose out on valuable tax credits. The American Opportunity Tax Credit can be worth up to $2,500 per student per year for the first four years of undergrad. The Lifetime Learning Credit can be worth up to $2,000 per return per year for grad school or continuing ed. But if every dollar comes from a 529, families could miss those credits entirely. A little planning, saving some tuition to pay with cash instead of 529 withdrawals, can mean thousands back on taxes.
7:05 Speaker 05 Clark, when you skip that warning, you stink like sour milk left in the sun.
7:10 Speaker 00 Thank you for that. The, the problem with college costs is most families have not been able to save enough money for it. But you're right that if you're too good at saving with a 529, that you end up missing the opportunity credit. And the way you can handle that, if you've saved for part of college costs, is you only use 529 money in a particular year. And other years, you get the opportunity credit.
7:43 Speaker 05 Pete in Georgia says, currency conversion when paying by a card. On a recent trip to the UK, I paid for breakfast with a credit card and selected US dollars as opposed to pounds as the currency, as Clark always recommends. This receipt shows I was charged a 5% markup on the currency conversion rate. This seems high. I wonder if I would have been better off selecting pounds. How can I know what is better beforehand?
8:06 Speaker 00 So Pete, I must be terrible as a communicator, because what I've always said is the opposite, and I must have not explained it well when you heard it. You always want a clear and local currency, never in US dollars. This is a scam that is, that is played on Americans all over the world, it seems now, with. They act like they're doing you a favor clearing a purchase in US dollars or an ATM, clearing it in US dollars, then they charge you often 10% extra for the convenience fee
8:46 Speaker 00 of having cleared you in US dollars. You always want your purchases overseas, any withdrawal from an ATM, always in the local currency. And a lot of the terminals now in Europe will default to US dollars. You have to override that and say you want it in Euro or Pounds or Swiss Francs or whatever. You never want to clear in US dollars at an ATM or at a payment device.
9:21 Speaker 05 Richard in West Virginia says, Dear Clark, you stink worse than a mechanic's old coveralls. When someone wrote in about paying $1,000 to replace a wheel bearing in your car, you didn't say anything about the ridiculous price they paid. I checked my purchase history on Amazon and I paid $88 each for brand name wheel bearings for my car, which I installed myself. Even including labor, there's no way it should have cost $1,000. Please advise people to never get any work done at a dealership unless it's under warranty. Instead, find an independent mechanic, preferably one that specializes in their type of brand of vehicle, or better yet, learn to do it themselves.
9:57 Speaker 00 Richard, I couldn't have said that better myself. Thank you for writing that.
10:01 Speaker 05 Richard in West Virginia says, Dear Clark, as someone who's supposedly-
10:04 Speaker 00 You just said Richard in West Virginia.
10:06 Speaker 05 Oh, he wrote in twice. I didn't realize that. Okay. Well, Richard, you get both ears read. As someone who's supposedly a big fan of Dollar Tree, you should realize the reason someone spent over $900 on a stolen credit card was because they bought a bunch of gift cards there. Our local Dollar Tree has a select, a section where you can buy gift cards from different stores like Apple Cards, gaming cards, et cetera, and I think even prepaid debit cards. The thief was not buying hundreds of items at $1.25 each to sell later.
10:34 Speaker 00 Thank you for that because you taught me something I didn't know. I never think about buying gift cards. So I probably, it's like they're invisible to me when I walk through the $1.25 tree.
10:48 Speaker 05 All right. Another one from Richard. No, I'm just kidding. This one's from Thomas in Georgia. Clark doesn't stink, but I have one sort of nostalgic request. When you sign off each episode, can you please go back to your old way of saying it? Save more, spend less, and don't let anyone ever rip you off. Too often you say avoiding getting ripped off these days. Not nearly as much fun.
11:12 Speaker 00 You know what? It's funny you say that because I did at one point used to say, don't ever, not ever allow anyone to rip you off. And now I just have shortened to say, avoid, you know, avoid getting ripped off. So I'll try to remember every once in a while to say, never, never, not ever getting ripped off. Like I just did for you twice.
11:35 Speaker 05 Yep.
11:35 Speaker 00 Right then. Coming up ahead, speaking of ripping yourself off, spending too much money on the second largest purchase we make. That's the vehicles we drive. I got a new tool to get you to overcome new car fever.
11:56 Speaker 00 So I just mentioned minutes ago that I was going to talk about a new tool we've developed, and we'll keep refining it. This is the first version that's now available. But the point of this is to really get you thinking about what the average vehicle, this averages we have here, costs to own, depending on what you pay, how you finance it, and how long you intend to keep the vehicle. And then we compare it to what that vehicle would cost
12:33 Speaker 00 you buying it used. The purpose of this tool is to give you a sense about how much of your pay When you get new car fever and you go in and you buy something and most of us, let's face it, we're payment buyers, we're just hearing what it's going to cost per month. We're not thinking about the overall cost, the depreciation, the maintenance, the insurance, all the things involved with owning a vehicle. And so the numbers stare right at you because it is, in a sense, a decision tree. Should I be looking at a two or three year old vehicle?
13:18 Speaker 00 Should I be looking at a new one? What's the difference going to cost me? If I intend to own the vehicle this long or that long? What's it actually going to cost me? And so it puts very quickly numbers there for you to stare at and what it's actually going to take out of your life. If you have a vehicle you loved, but now you just kind of tolerate it because it's gotten older and more worn out and it's not shiny new and it's paid for, it's depreciated out. You're thinking, but wouldn't it be great to have this new thing?
14:00 Speaker 00 I want you to see what, isn't it great, going to cost you? So you can put in the average cost of a new vehicle, which right now is pretty much right around, are you ready for this? You're ready? $50,000. $50,000. We were down about 47, but the tariffs have pushed things up. So now we're going to be about 50 grand. And on this tool, you very quickly put in the price, whatever it is, maybe vehicle you're looking at is 38,000 or 64,000 or whatever it is. You put that in, put in what your anticipated down payment is, what you likely qualify
14:41 Speaker 00 at your credit union, or if you don't have a credit union, you want to go to an inferior bank, what the bank will issue a loan for, what the interest rate is, how long you're going to take out that loan, new or used. How long you're going to keep the vehicle? And then the numbers hit you right in the face. What it's going to cost you to make that decision to buy those new wheels. And then down below, to do the full guilt trip, we've got a tool that shows how much money you're going to save keeping your current car longer versus buying the new wheels you're intending to buy,
15:26 Speaker 00 or buying used instead of new. How much money you're going to save? So it just goes bam bam bam bam, hitting you as hard as I can so that you won't trap yourself in a vehicle. Why do I call it a trap? Because people have been doing loans that are longer and longer and longer. And then you're upside down in the vehicle for the entire life of the loan. Meaning you are trapped upside down. Even if you realize, oops, I shouldn't have bought that. You have no way out. And then life happens.
16:05 Speaker 00 And sadly, the rate of vehicle repos is going up, up and away right now. And it's so upsetting. The percent of people that are delinquent on their vehicle loans has gone up so much. So please, go to our tools on Clark.com. And we call them calculators on the website.
16:31 Speaker 05 We do. There's a shortcut to this one. Clark.com/carcostcalculator.
16:36 Speaker 00 Can you say that three times?
16:38 Speaker 05 Clark.com/carcostcalculator.
16:41 Speaker 00 I say it quicker for you to trip up.
16:42 Speaker 05 Clark.com/carcostcalculator.
16:45 Speaker 00 Knew you couldn't do it. Knew you couldn't.
16:46 Speaker 05 You're the worst.
16:47 Speaker 00 I know. I'm a terrible person.
16:49 Speaker 05 Just kidding. No, you're...
16:51 Speaker 00 I'm a terrible person.
16:51 Speaker 05 Of course, you're not.
16:52 Speaker 00 Yep, I am. Go ahead.
16:55 Speaker 05 Now you say it fast.
16:56 Speaker 00 No, because I know I can't. I knew you couldn't either.
17:01 Speaker 05 Ken in Oregon says, "My wife and I currently have a paid off 2019 Subaru Forester with 50,000 miles and four and one-year-old girls. We are hoping to have one more kid in the next year or two. My wife is adamant that we will need a new car. It kills me to lose a paid off Subaru with such low miles, but I agree it will be very tight with three kids. Our current second vehicle is an old two-seater truck with almost no value that I drive occasionally. We both work from home, so currently have little use for two SUVs, although that could change when our kids start playing sports. What would Clark do? Buy a bigger vehicle and sell the Subaru? Buy a bigger vehicle and also keep the Subaru,
17:42 Speaker 05 knowing life changes and we may need two kid haulers? Or make the Subaru work and use the money on a divorce lawyer when my wife eventually leaves me?"
17:50 Speaker 00 Oh, boy. Oh, boy. Okay. So, Ken, there's a third option. It's what I would recommend. It's not the time yet to ditch the Subaru. Subaru's very low miles. It's only six years old. And right now, you only have the two kids. So, when the third child comes along, which who knows if that's a year, two years, three years, whenever that is, that's when you make the decision to get a new vehicle. And what I would do at that point, the Subaru
18:30 Speaker 00 is at the age where the depreciation will start leveling out, because the greatest depreciation is in the first three years, then it's a little less, years four and five. And then after the fifth year, it doesn't depreciate much each year. So, as you said, the Subaru, the 2019 Subaru, paid off. So, keep driving it with the agreement with your wife that when the third child is born, that then you get a larger vehicle. And I would keep the Subaru.
19:06 Speaker 00 And get the new vehicle unless the much older, what was the other vehicles?
19:12 Speaker 05 A truck.
19:13 Speaker 00 Truck? Well, you're not going to be able to take the kids in the truck in a pinch. You could take the kids in the really comfortable, new, bigger thing, or squeeze them in the Subaru. So I would keep the Subaru.
19:27 Speaker 05 You don't need car seats.
19:28 Speaker 00 Huh?
19:29 Speaker 05 You don't need car seats. Just kidding.
19:32 Speaker 00 Well, I don't know if the Forester will take three car seats.
19:35 Speaker 05 Right, that's the thing.
19:37 Speaker 00 But anyway, I would keep the Forester and get the new vehicle, but not yet. No need to take on that new vehicle at this time. And so she's getting the new vehicle just on a different timeline.
19:52 Speaker 05 So she's right.
19:53 Speaker 00 She's right, but the right is delayed.
19:56 Speaker 05 She's just right too soon. Okay. John in Florida says, myself and my wife both work remotely and have since the pandemic. I'm thinking about selling my second car, a 2015 Infiniti Q50, or I would like to possibly downgrade as it will cut my insurance by $1,000 a year by only having one car. Is there a good option or list for cheap cars for insurance? I would just need something simple to get around town as we use my wife's 2022 Palisade for road trips, et cetera.
20:25 Speaker 00 So the 2015 Infiniti, I am wondering if you're still insuring it in full. It's old enough now at this point that the math probably works for you to only have liability coverage on it. And then you're your own insurance company. If it, at its age at this point, 11 model year old Infiniti, if it's as depreciated out as I think it is, and you can look up the used value of it, then you don't have to think of this as an either or, that you get rid of it and not have a second vehicle or a different second vehicle.
21:08 Speaker 00 That this one, you know it, you know how it performs. If it's behaving okay, you use the word downgrade, which makes me think you really like it. If you just go liability only on it, you may find that you can have your cake and eat it too. That you still are able to drive the vehicle you've enjoyed and know, and lower the cost of it by going liability insurance only, knowing. That if you then have a wreck and it's totaled, you're gonna hate me because now whatever remaining value it has, you're the one that absorbs it. But the average person has a wreck,
21:51 Speaker 00 I think it's every 10 or 11 years. So the odds are with you that you're gonna be fine driving it. And I wouldn't do that with a vehicle that was worth a lot of money, like a new vehicle or one that was exotic, that was worth a lot of money. But one that's got as much age as this one, you're probably fine just going liability.
22:14 Speaker 05 Lisa in Minnesota says, "I'm wondering if you're able to pay cash for a car, if you should finance instead to get the best price and then pay the loan off right away."
22:23 Speaker 00 So Lisa, this is a game a lot of people who have the resources to pay cash for a car do. Especially if the manufacturer, not the dealer, the manufacturer is offering a special factory incentive where you get a lower price on the vehicle if you finance it with them. So if it in fact will generate a lower price and the loan has no prepayment penalty, yeah, take out the loan, get the lower price, and then soon after you pay off the loan. You might have to leave the loan open for 30 to 90 days and then you pay it off. The savings can be today oddly
23:08 Speaker 00 a few thousand dollars on the purchase price of a vehicle if you elect to finance instead of paying cash. You'll have a little bit of interest for that very short period of time. As long as you execute the payoff and get it done, it can save you money. But what you do when you're getting a quote on a car, and I want you to get them online. You never discuss financing. You're just, as you're getting quotes from dealers on specific VIN numbers,
23:45 Speaker 00 you want to get what the price is to buy the vehicle, including all junk fees and taxes. And then you've got something to really compare it to. And if the dealer wants to offer you a lower price for financing, and it's substantial enough that it's worth the hassle of setting up a loan that you're then going to pay off in a month or so, then go ahead and do it to get the savings. And that concludes our podcast and YouTube show today. I hope that you have an absolutely wonderful weekend. Know we serve you all weekend long on our social media posts,
24:30 Speaker 00 on our websites, Clark.com and ClarkDeals.com, with our newsletters. We are here for you so you are empowered with knowledge so you can save more, spend less, and never, never, not ever, get ripped off.
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