Pod Insights The Clark Howard Podcast 12.17.24 Airport Car Theft / The Real Consumer Victory At Supermarkets About this episode Auto theft, particularly at airports - has spiked around the country. Holidays travelers are especially at risk, but there is something you can do to keep track of your vehicle. Also today, Albertsons is suing Kroger now that the merger deal has collapsed. Clark discusses how this antitrust ruling matters - or doesn’t - to us as consumers. Grand Theft Auto: Segment 1 Ask Clark: Segment 2 Supermarket Antitrust Ruling And You: Segment 3 Ask Clark: Segment 4 Mentioned on the show: Clark's Christmas Kids 2024 How To Find and Claim Missing Money in Your Name How To Freeze and Unfreeze Your Credit With Experian, Equifax and TransUnion Chase Sapphire Reserve® vs. Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card Best Travel Credit Cards: Top Rewards Picks for 2025 Do I Need To Unfreeze My Credit To Shop for Car Insurance? What's the Best Savings Account for a Teenager? What Brokerage Do You Recommend for First-Time Investors or Kids? When Should You File a Claim on Your Homeowners Insurance? 10 Things Homeowners Insurance Doesn't Always Cover Clark.com resources Episode transcripts Community. Clark.com 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 0:01 Speaker 00 Are you ever shopping online and suddenly a discount that helps you save pops up? It makes your day, sometimes even your week. Want that feeling month after month? Well, new customers who save by switching their home and auto insurance to Progressive save hundreds. Cue your happy dance. Get your quote today at progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company affiliates and other insurers not available in all states.
0:28 Speaker 01 As wish lists grow, you know where to go. Head to Ulta Beauty. We have gifts they'll love from brands like Tato One and Rare Beauty by Selena Gomez. Shop beauty faves to give or keep from Shark Beauty, Sol de Janeiro, and more. Not sure what they want? You can't go wrong with Balmain, Clinique, or Redken. And don't forget to put yourself on the list. Book a salon moment or add a little more sparkle to your season. Shop holiday in-store or at Ulta.com. Ulta Beauty.
1:00 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 so you make better financial decisions in your life. And we are right in the middle of the holiday season. I just want to express my gratitude to all the generous souls who have donated for Clark's Christmas Kids this year, prior years, or may in the future, even as soon as right now. Because Clark's Christmas Kids is near and dear to my heart.
1:38 Speaker 02 It's our 34th year of collecting your donations for children in foster care who generally aren't going to get any gifts Christmas morning unless we step up to do it. These are kids whose parents have personal circumstances that their kids have been taken away from them, and they're in the care of the state through either a foster group home or with a foster parent or family. And they feel rejected by their own parents, but it's the parents who've got the issues, not the kids. I want these kids to know that they are cared about and loved by an absolute stranger.
2:22 Speaker 02 So you can help and understand what we do at clark'schristmaskids.com.
2:30 Speaker 02 And I want to talk about something that is so confusing to people. For months and months and months, there's been endless talk about this fight over the merger of Kroger and Albertsons. It was this huge antitrust thing. Court said no, and now Albertsons is suing Kroger and all this stuff. But the thing is, why would it matter to you? I'm going to share that with you later. Right now, though, I want to talk about the shocking stats about how many cars are being stolen right now, and some of the weird places they are being stolen.
3:15 Speaker 02 Okay, so, gosh, I don't remember if it was in the spring or early summer. I talked about this big uptick in vehicle thefts in Colorado that were centered at DIA, Denver Airport. The trend is not your and my friend, because now this is spreading from sea to shining sea at airports. You know, people go, and particularly during a holiday period, like now, people may go away for many, many days. Business travelers during normal travel cycle, more hit or miss. They may be gone and back the same day, or just overnight. So it's a little riskier for a car thief.
4:00 Speaker 02 But especially during a holiday period, they're running off with cars. Now, more and more brands, if you have a late-model vehicle, will have an app that notifies you if your car is moving. And there was recently a situation with the mom of a friend of my daughter, my oldest daughter, who was robbed at gunpoint in a parking lot, and the thief carjacked her. She was able to track the thief with the police there, and they were able to arrest, catch, and arrest the individual who'd stolen the vehicle. How were they able to do that?
4:46 Speaker 02 Well, because the thief stole the woman's purse and steals the car. And what was in the purse but the woman's iPhone? And with Find My iPhone, the police were able to track this woman in the stolen car. And the woman crossed two other jurisdictions. And the police are working, believe it or not, by phone with the other jurisdiction. And they're able to do a roadblock and they capture a woman who had been a multiple, had stolen a lot of stuff, a lot of cars, all this. And the police have been looking for her, they got her. The tracking in the iPhone.
5:29 Speaker 02 So now we're talking about carjacking is really traumatic. But coming back from a trip and you're like, I thought I parked on level three. I thought I was over there. And your car's not there. And it may be because it's been stolen. And this is like a serious thing. So if you have a car that you can track on an app, great. If you don't, they're so cheap now. If your iPhone get air tags, if your Android get the equivalent, Samsung or whoever, put them, hide them in your car. Because remember like 20 years ago?
6:14 Speaker 02 There was a big deal about this thing LoJack to keep your car from being stolen. It wouldn't keep it from being stolen, but it would be recovered almost 100% of the time because you had this device in the car that would track where it was. Well, now instead of the cost of something like that, you put a $25 air tag in it or Samsung or whatever equivalent, a Tile, whatever. Do you use any of those?
6:39 Speaker 03 No, I need to.
6:41 Speaker 02 No, I wouldn't ask it that. I just mean. Because my family, again, being all Apple.
6:47 Speaker 03 Yeah.
6:48 Speaker 02 They all love their AirTaggy thing.
6:50 Speaker 03 Yeah, my family members who are Apple have AirTags, for sure. Okay, we'll go to questions now. Alex in California says, "I received a letter from my state comptroller notifying me of some unclaimed money from a class action lawsuit regarding a previous employer. The letter looks legitimate and even provides a .gov site for me to look up and verify the amount, in this case, around $150. My only concern is, I need to provide them my social security number. Is this a normal procedure for them to do? For $150, I'm not sure if that's enough to risk my social security number falling into the wrong hands."
7:24 Speaker 02 Alex, it is. So, okay, you know that you fill out the paperwork and get $150. And then there's the remote chance that someone will take that social security information and do harm to you. Hopefully, you already have your credit frozen, because your social security number and data breaches has already been leaked again and again and again. So that's why credit freeze is so important. But I'd feel comfortable doing it. And you were lucky that you were informed by the comptroller of the state of California this money was there for you. Most of us aren't going to have our state reaching out to and say, "Hey, we got some money for you."
8:04 Speaker 02 So know about unclaimed.org, which is a clearinghouse site that's legit, that tells you in most states, money that may be hanging out there for you or a loved one, that you didn't know about.
8:19 Speaker 03 Okay, this one's from Christopher in Oregon. "I have been a loyal Costco traveler for many years, using the Costco Visa card and travel website. They seem to add value to trips and the packaging is nice. However, in 2025, my wife and I will be celebrating our 25th anniversary and would like to take a special vacation this summer. We are considering getting the Chase Sapphire Reserve card. With the points bonus and upgrades like lounges, we thought it might be worth a try, basically for one big trip. I know the fees are high, but we should get our money's worth and could cancel the card. Our credit score is in the 800s and we have no debt except our mortgage. We don't anticipate any other debt or major purchases, so the hit of canceling the card would be okay. What are your thoughts?"
9:02 Speaker 02 I think it's great, Christopher, and compare the benefits of the three bigs of the independent travel cards. In your circumstance, and congratulations on your 25th wedding anniversary.
9:13 Speaker 03 Congrats.
9:14 Speaker 02 It was a big splurge, doing a big trip, and getting either the Sapphire Reserve, the Capital One Venture X, or the American Express Platinum, all with their huge fees. You get such great signup bonuses, and so the first year is kind of a no-brainer. And then the benefits you get, it could really pay off for you on this very special vacation you're taking. And no harm, no foul, this is a great thing, but compare all three to see which one's best. The Capital One is 395, the Chase, as I recall, is 550, and the
9:53 Speaker 02 American Express is 700 annual fee. Each have their own separate benefit packages. See which one looks like it has the best return for your money. Now, I want to say something about the Costco thing. If you're booking something with Costco Travel, there is a problem with the Costco Visa now that didn't used to exist. Citi ripped away from Costco members the trip cancellation, trip interruption coverage that came with using the card to book travel, and now it makes sense to have another card that does come with rock-solid
10:35 Speaker 02 trip insurance coverage, although any trip insurance policy, the insurer seems to try to find a way not to want to pay. But the Sapphire Reserve, one of the benefits people don't recognize with that card that's great is the trip coverage you have with it and the car rental coverage you have with it that makes it, for a regular traveler, potentially a really good card to carry.
11:01 Speaker 03 Jim in Missouri says, "When shopping for homeowners and auto insurance, would I need to unfreeze my credit first? I thought you mentioned that many insurance companies would base a quote on credit score, but so far, no companies have said anything about credit score when I've applied. A very good score and want to make sure I'm going to get the best price quotes."
11:19 Speaker 02 So in almost every state now, the number-one criteria for setting your auto insurance premiums and potentially homeowners...
11:29 Speaker 02 Is your credit score. Well, it's not a, it's not a traditional credit score. It's your credit report that then has an industry formula. So it's insurers in most states are allowed what's known as a soft hit. Where even if your credit's frozen, they can get a sense of what's going on with your credit. But my recommendation is to do your shopping for homeowners or auto insurance in a concentrated period and thaw your three credit files for, let's say 72 hours or something like that. So that you don't have to worry that you're paying discriminatory rates for your auto
12:13 Speaker 02 or homeowner's insurance because your credit is frozen. And so the temporary thaw is free. It's easy to do. However, if you are turned down for an auto insurance policy or homeowner's insurance policy, or they charge you higher rates because they didn't have access to your credit report, the insurer is supposed to disclose that to you. I say supposed to, and we do have a briefing on this. We actually have an article titled, "Do I Need to Unfreeze My Credit to Shop for Car Insurance on Clark.com?" But just take it from me that in the states that allow, and you can look online and easily
12:55 Speaker 02 find what states allow insurers to set your rates for auto and homeowners based on your credit score or credit report. Set down a time, couple of days, you know, shop auto or homeowners or both and thaw your credit for those days. Let them run that on you and then you'll be fine. It goes back frozen after those couple of days and you'll get the preferential rates that people may get based on their credit standing. And by the way, it is bonkers, but if you've got bad credit, insurers will in many states charge you more for auto insurance with a perfect driving record than somebody with
13:40 Speaker 02 a great credit score who has a DUI or DWI. That is nuts to me. And coming up next, I want to talk about your grocery dollar. Your grocery dollar became like a grocery 25 cents, it felt like through inflation. But there's been a big fight about your grocery dollar that I want to talk about straight ahead and how you should play the grocery game.
14:10 Speaker 00 Are you ever shopping online and suddenly a discount that helps you save pops up? It makes your day, sometimes even your week. Want that feeling month after month? Well, new customers who save by switching their home and auto insurance to Progressive save hundreds. Cue your happy dance. Get your quote today at progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company affiliates and other insurers not available in all states.
14:37 Speaker 01 As wish lists grow, you know where to go. Head to Ulta Beauty. We have gifts they'll love from brands like Tato One and Rare Beauty by Selena Gomez. Shop beauty faves to give or keep from Shark Beauty, Sol de Janeiro, and more. Not sure what they want? You can't go wrong with Balmain, Clinique, or Redken. And don't forget to put yourself on the list. Book a salon moment or add a little more sparkle to your season. Shop holiday in store or at Ulta.com. Ulta Beauty. LinkedIn is pretty amazing at helping you grow your small business. We cannot make your email response time faster. We can help you sell, market, and hire in one place. We cannot help you find space for your three desk drinks. Why do you have three?
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15:50 Speaker 02 Sometimes there are those ongoing stories that kind of make noise in the news. And you're like, how's this relevant to me? So there's been this Donnybrook fight going on in the courts and Washington and in the marketplace where Kroger, the nation's second largest supermarket chain, was trying to buy Albertsons, which has been the third, soon going to be the fourth. And the court said this would be an antitrust violation and said no just last week.
16:28 Speaker 02 And I talked about this months and months ago, that the problem with government antitrust is it's always looking back instead of forward. Because here's the thing, shopping at Kroger, any of its brand name stores, which I guess there are dozens of different brands under the Kroger umbrella, or with Albertsons, they are high-low retailers, expensive places to fill your grocery list. As a result, their market share keeps going down, down, down. And as is so often the case with mergers, they're done out of weakness, not strength.
17:10 Speaker 02 These two companies are becoming less and less relevant in groceries. It's because particularly magnified by what happened with the inflation cycle in the grocery aisle during the COVID run, where we had just crazy increases in grocery prices. People focus much more on where to get the best deal. And three retailers took enormous market share during this cycle from all the Kroger-affiliated brands and from Albertsons.
17:50 Speaker 02 And those places were Walmart, the nation's largest grocer that just cleaned up and attracted for the first time, a lot of wealthier shoppers who joined Walmart Plus, got grocery delivery for free, I guess it is, or really, really cheap. I think it's free as part of that. And the grocery aisle market share that moved so stubbornly moved in big amounts away from Kroger and Albertsons because structurally, they're so expensive to buy groceries from. And then,
18:30 Speaker 02 who else took a lot of share? Aldi. Aldi, growing like a weed around the country, but a good, good one. That's because Aldi has the cheapest grocery prices of anybody, pretty much by far in the United States. It's an acquired taste, it's a whole different experience. I love Aldi. Our next dog is going to be named Aldi, if I have anything to say about it. And then the shocker, in third place now in groceries, Costco. Because during COVID, with the run-up in prices, people who might have done grocery shopping with an emphasis
19:09 Speaker 02 on convenience, now focus price, price, price, and nobody can compete with Costco on price. And so, the government saying that these two steadily shrinking food retailers, Kroger and Albertsons, couldn't get married, to me is lame. It's like, that was no consumer victory. Because the consumer victory is forcing change in the marketplace by the decisions you and me make of where we go to shop each and every day. Now, I said twice now, I think,
19:48 Speaker 02 high-low. So, the business model of a high-cost retailer is to charge high prices on most of the things in their store, but get you in with low prices on sale items. So, they use the sale flyer. To get you in the store, lured in, and they're happy if you buy the things they have on sale, on rotation. And then, as you're in there, you buy this item, that item, and the other item that are regular price, which is quite a high price. And that's how a high-low retailer
20:28 Speaker 02 tries to survive in the marketplace. Their structural cost of operation is so high. And by the way, it's shocking how low the profits are of these high-cost operations at Kroger and Albertsons. But if you go in thinking you're saving money because you bought the items that are low that week, you only are saving money if you only cherry pick and buy those items and ignore all the regular stuff that's at regular high prices. The beauty of buying groceries at these players that are taking more and more market share
21:09 Speaker 02 with Aldi and Costco and with Walmart is their whole thing is everyday low prices. And so you go in and you want to buy produce. Everything in there is going to be cheaper. You got to like the quality of the produce, but it's going to be cheaper. And that would be true throughout the grocery items they sell. So the government can do what it's going to do and say, no, these two can't get married. I couldn't have cared less if they got married. And what really matters is what you're paying. And it's up to you to shop for the deals wherever you shop.
21:48 Speaker 03 Okay, Leslie says, "My friends have a daughter who is turning 12." I love this, by the way, Leslie's question. Listen to this. "They have asked some women to be an influencer in their daughter's life for a month in her 12th year."
22:00 Speaker 02 Oh, like a mentor?
22:01 Speaker 03 Yeah. "The goal is to spend a month building a relationship and passing a knowledge or a skill down to their daughter. At the end of the year, she will have many new skills and a village of women to walk alongside her for the rest of her life. I was lucky enough to be chosen and decided to share about money. My makeup and cooking skills leave much to be desired, but after being a longtime listener of The Clark Howard Show, I feel comfortable sharing basics about living on less than you make than you earn and investing the rest." My question is, what is a realistic goal to accomplish at the end of the month? Can a 12-year-old have a checking and/or savings account, an investment account? I'm grateful for everything I've learned from you and I'm excited to pass it along.
22:44 Speaker 02 Leslie, this is a case where I get to say, first, it's great that you're taking this on with such enthusiasm. And second, what Fidelity Investments has done, allowing investing by minor children, is just great. And I don't know if you gotta be 13 or if at 12 you can do the investing account that the minor child has control of. But even if you do it at 12, you could be the custodian or have the parent be the custodian. You only need a dollar to open one of these accounts with Fidelity.
23:24 Speaker 02 Because I think for the bad message to me that a checking or savings account, particularly a checking account, everything the banks are about is getting kids to spend, spend, spend, spend, spend. Then get into debt, debt, debt, debt, debt. What's different about an investment account or a mutual fund account? It's about investing in the future. And the earlier a kid gets that into his or her, in this case, her head, the better it is. So I love an investment account at Fidelity that the 12-year-old can learn. And I would say the teaching should be about the value of index funds.
24:08 Speaker 02 And Fidelity has the zero funds that you could use as a template to teach, to mentor, this 12-year-old during the month about the advantage of being an owner of little slices of thousands of companies.
24:22 Speaker 03 So Fidelity's youth account is for 13 to 17-year-olds and a parent has to have an account to open, a child's account.
24:29 Speaker 02 Oh, so you'll need to see the parent does. If that's a bust, Leslie, then if the investing angle's not going to work, then I would introduce your mentee to a credit union and help them set up an account at a credit union, which would be wonderful for a 12-year-old to have. No friend should ever take a friend to a bank.
24:56 Speaker 03 Jill in North Carolina says, "I rent a storage unit and the storage company provides no insurance to the tenants."
25:02 Speaker 02 That's unusual.
25:03 Speaker 03 "I'm hoping my homeowner's policy would cover my personal property in the unit in the event of an incident. How specific does the language need to be in the homeowner's policy? Does it need to specify fire, smoke, hail, water damage, theft? My husband's motorcycle is also stored in the unit. If an incident occurred, would that be an auto insurance claim? How do I know if I need an additional policy for self-storage tenant insurance?"
25:26 Speaker 02 So Jill, you do want a storage unit policy and do not rely on the homeowner's insurance. You do not want, even if your homeowner's insurance does cover temporary use of a storage unit and allow you to make a claim under it, you do not want to make a homeowner's claim for things in a storage unit. Your insurer will sell you a separate policy, pretty much every insurer will, for possessions in a storage unit. And I want you to buy that separate policy because you do not want to claim on your record with homeowner's insurance for a piddly claim. And the money may not be piddly, but in
26:10 Speaker 02 terms of the homeowner's insurance thing, you don't want to make any smaller claims. Your homeowner's insurance, because of insurers quick to pull the trigger and cancel you for your homeowners, you want that only to be for catastrophic things. And that's why you buy the separate policy. You call your insurance company for your husband's motorcycle. He's like most people with a motorcycle, Progressive provides the insurance. They're the dominant player in motorcycle insurance. But whoever it is, you contact them and find out if the motorcycle insurance covers
26:48 Speaker 02 Theft or damage or whatever that would occur in a storage unit facility. You need to know that because otherwise you could think it's covered and it's not. And so you got a little bit of homework here, but it won't be as complicated or as hard as it may sound at first glance.
27:08 Speaker 03 Chris in Indiana sent in a question. You're gonna love Clark. They're building the first Wawa in the state of Indiana, right by my office.
27:16 Speaker 02 Should I move?
27:17 Speaker 03 What's so great about them? Get me excited for the opening. Can their gas prices compete with Costco?
27:23 Speaker 02 All right, let me deal with the last thing first. No, their gas prices at Wawa generally are much higher than what they'll be at Costco, but still lower than they'd be in an oil company branded station. Wawa, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index, ranks the highest of all the big convenience store chains in customer satisfaction. My wife and my son are obsessed with the Wawa Hoagies. For those of you not familiar with the term hoagie, it's like a sub sandwich, very high quality ingredients. My son also loves their fancy beverage bar that they have in Wawa.
28:08 Speaker 02 So Wawa, although they sell gasoline, it's about a whole lot more. I'm a Wawa fan. But I'm a longtime fan of who ranked number two in the survey, Tulsa, Oklahoma-based QuickTrip. And there are two chains in the United States called QuickTrip. One with a Q, that's the one from Oklahoma. The other from the, I guess, the upper Midwest is QuickTrip with a K. And these independent chains just do such a great job. They are so much better than the oil company-owned gas stations. In fact, I'm looking at the list, the only oil company
28:52 Speaker 02 chain that came on the list with a decent score was BP's own convenience stores that came in 10th place on the list. Third place went to Buc-Ee's. And if you've never been to Buc-Ee's, wow, you're missing something.
29:11 Speaker 02 They also have great Tesla chargers at a lot of the locations. So that concludes this episode of Clark's Obsession with Convenience Stores. And I hope you have a great, great rest of your day. And we will be at your service tomorrow, giving you ways to save more, spend less, and avoid getting ripped off. And I want to talk about spend less. Our Clark Deals team, as we are in the final stretch, final week of Christmas shopping, our Clark Deals team is hard at work, giving you deals you can trust and great bargains
29:54 Speaker 02 that you can see at ClarkDeals.com or get our newsletter where you can see the deals that we vetted, that are deals that we know are legit, that we believe are great values for the hard-earned dollars that you spend shopping. And we'll see you tomorrow.
30:19 Speaker 00 Are you ever shopping online and suddenly a discount that helps you save pops up? It makes your day, sometimes even your week. Want that feeling month after month? Well, new customers who save by switching their home and auto insurance to Progressive save hundreds. Cue your happy dance. Get your quote today at progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company affiliates and other insurers not available in all states.
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