08.28.26 Clark Answers His Critics on Clark Stinks / AI & The Tech Effect On Employment

Friday - Clark Stinks day! Christa shares Clark Stinks posts with Clark. Submit yours at Clark.com/ClarkStinks. Also, every time a major technological shift happens, we hear predictions of widespread job destruction—and the rapid rise of Artificial Intelligence is driving those fears to a whole new level. Clark breaks down what the AI boom actually means for your paycheck, how tech expansion shifts hidden costs onto consumers, and the concrete steps you can take today to pivot, re-educate, and make your career resilient against technological change. All this and more on the August 28, 2026, episode of The Clark Howard Show. Clark Stinks: Segments 1 & 2 AI & Jobs: Segment 3 Ask Clark: Segment 4 Mentioned on the show: Top Fortune 500 Companies for Remote Work - Clark Howard How To Find a Trustworthy Mechanic - Clark Howard Credit Card Car Rental Insurance: What You Need To Know Should I Keep My Old Car or Buy a New Car? - Clark Howard NYTimes: A. I. Companies Are Recruiting Electricians and Carpenters by the Thousands Employers still place a premium on people skills, not AI, when making hiring decisions Should I Convert a Traditional IRA to a Roth IRA? - Clark Howard Top 7 Ways To Shop Safely Online - Clark Howard Clark.com resources: Episode transcripts Community. Clark.com / Ask Clark Clark.com daily money newsletter Consumer Action Center Free Helpline: 636-492-5275 Submit your opinions or questions: Ask Clark. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

• 0:00Speaker 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.

• 0:30Speaker 01

  Your sausage McMuffin with egg didn't change. Your receipt did. The sausage McMuffin with egg extra value meal includes a hash brown and a small coffee for just $5. Only at McDonald's for a limited time.

• 0:42Speaker 02

  Pricing participation may vary. Promotion pricing may be lower than meal pricing.

• 0:49Speaker 03

  It's my pleasure to welcome you here to the Clark Howard Show. You know, our mission is to serve you with advice and information that empowers you so you make better financial decisions in your life. If you're a regular around here, you know that today is my favorite day of the week because it's Friday and that means weekend. And it's because I get to hear how I didn't do my job well. And I love that because you know, I've been at this 39 years. And so you get stuck in a rut and in habits and all that. And so Clark stinks is a direct way for me to rethink things, to think about better

• 1:34Speaker 03

  ways to answer a question or to serve you. And so thank you for writing in and just straight ahead, we're going to have our Clark stink segment and also something that will generate more Clark stinks. I'm actually going to talk about the possible goods from AI because I and everybody else talk about the bads of AI. There's actually some things about it that are going to be good.

• 2:04Speaker 04

  Particularly in the job market, right?

• 2:05Speaker 03

  And the job market in addition to other things. Yep. So we're going to talk about that later, but right now we're going to talk about how much I smell.

• 2:15Speaker 05

  I should have never encouraged you to speak. You must think I'm pretty stupid. You should be ashamed of yourself. Well, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm wrong.

• 2:22Speaker 04

  Maybe you're right, pal.

• 2:27Speaker 04

  Okay. Speaking of jobs.

• 2:29Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 2:30Speaker 04

  Humong wrote in with this one. Humong's in Georgia. Clark and Krista, you really missed the mark. You made it sound like anyone working remotely is destined to fail. While that may be true in some situations, it certainly isn't true across the board. My experience tells a different story. During my 36 year IT career, I've spent the last 26 working remotely or in a hybrid role. Across all the years, I've worked from my home office, corporate offices, client sites, hotel lobbies, coffee shops, the back of an Uber, and even at 35,000 feet on airplanes. Throughout those years, my managers, employees, clients and colleagues were rarely in the same physical location. Success in remote work requires intentional communication and adaptability.

• 3:13Speaker 04

  Early on, I developed a routine of sending my manager a brief message each morning outlining my priorities and another at the end of the day summarizing progress. I also kept him copied on relevant emails. Those simple habits helped build trust and I consistently received top performance reviews and raises. As a manager of 28 employees across the US, I made myself accessible and held a 45 minute weekly call besides work meetings dedicated to non-work conversations, family, hobbies, sports, and current events.

• 3:43Speaker 03

  Good job.

• 3:43Speaker 04

  Those meetings strengthened relationships and helped create a highly connected virtual team. I recognize not every job can be done remotely, but when remote work is done well, it's an asset, not a liability. And I'm just going to stop there.

• 3:57Speaker 03

  So I want to thank you very much for that. So when we did the segment talking about the negativity of remote work, I was really focused on two aspects. And one of them is that people right out of school, whatever level of school they complete, who come into the workplace, if they go straight into remote work, there's a lot of subtlety they miss about the work environment, the corporate culture where they're working, the opportunities to be mentored by someone that they lose by remote work. And I think that, that it will cause a real problem for them progressing in a job.

• 4:41Speaker 03

  And speaking of progressing, the other facet of remote work that did not affect you at all, and congratulations with your enormous success over the years, is that you tend to get passed over for promotions and job growth at a company when you're the disembodied voice on a Google meets or Zoom or something like that versus working eye to eye and being around fellow workers. So in your case, it worked great. And in many cases, particularly for people who've got some career under their belt, it works really well.

• 5:21Speaker 03

  I'm especially worried about people starting off their job journey in remote work. I think it's really hard to progress.

• 5:31Speaker 04

  There's some really great tips in there based on what you came up with for yourself because I think those are, those are some fantastic ones, like the notes to the boss and all that stuff. Okay. Deborah in Oregon, I want to say this gently, but the Clark stinks segments themselves kind of stink. They do not come across as genuine and I have a hard time listening on Fridays anymore. Over many years of listening, I've noticed that most of the Clark stinks letters you read are met with Clark defending his original position and going on to explain why he said what he did and why he was right after all. He says he loves to hear where he can improve, but then he goes on to defend his original position on most subjects as if the person must have misunderstood him. I'm not sure, but it seems like this is a situation about 80% of the time.

• 6:15Speaker 04

  Are the letters chosen to be read the ones that he can easily do this with? Because I rarely hear him say someone else was right or that they provided clarity he didn't. Overall, I love your show, but I think Fridays could use some improvement.

• 6:28Speaker 03

  Well, that is a wonderful Clark stinks post. And it's one of the things that I may not be aware of about myself. And you hear this time after time. Have I fallen into a pattern of defending myself instead of listening as I should?

• 6:45Speaker 04

  I, you know, maybe I'm too close to it, but I feel like you do admit you will often say this is what Clark stinks is about. I learned something new, but it's also true that like what you're saying on the show is usually your, you know, it's the way you see something. And so sometimes I hear people do misunderstand you or I don't know.

• 7:03Speaker 03

  Or no, there are times that I will intend to, to make one point when I've originally talked about something that generates the Clark stinks and I failed to communicate well. I will take what you said to heart though, and I apologize if you and others feel that I'm not using Clark stinks to its full advantage, which is for me to learn, which is the whole purpose of it.

• 7:35Speaker 04

  Jim in Alaska says, Clark, I love your input and help with my finances and life decisions. However, I think you've missed the mark when it comes to taking your vehicle to a dealership for maintenance. I'm a former mechanic and now service advisor at a formerly American brand dealership. I have worked at another American brand for several years. I was also a mechanic and then service advisor at Independence for several years. When I moved over to a dealership to be an advisor, I was floored at how much less we were charging than the independent shops I had previously worked at. Independence will use a lot of aftermarket parts, which I have found to have a higher rate of failure than OEM parts, which is frustrating for the customer and the business.

• 8:17Speaker 04

  Because of this, I always opt for the OEM brand whenever possible. No shop I've worked at, independent or otherwise, has tried to charge more than any other shop in our market. We go to great lengths to make sure that we're not overpriced. All equipment is designed and built by imperfect people and ran by software that may or may not be well engineered, hence the need for seemingly constant updates. I've always been inundated by the constant flow of broken vehicles being towed in or dropped off without appointments. That's often nearly impossible to get vehicles in and out in a timely manner. Then we come to the subject of skilled technicians. We never find enough of them. My technicians are commissioned as well as me or most anyone at a dealership.

• 8:59Speaker 04

  The difference is that we do not have to go looking for work. We have more than we can do in a single day without even trying. We're simply hardworking Americans doing our best to take care of our friends and neighbors.

• 9:12Speaker 03

  Thank you very much. Inside view of what it's like to repair vehicles. And as an insider, you have a very different perspective, having worked both in independent shops and in franchise dealers. And I've got a long time bias, clearly a bias. For going to an independent shop, particularly with foreign brands, you said the brands you've worked on are American or one that was formerly American. That was a puzzle. I was trying to decide if you meant Stellantis or what you meant. But having a place that you go to regularly is so very important because when something does go

• 9:57Speaker 03

  wrong, whether it's a dealership bay or an independent, having a known relationship with them and having a feel for their customer focus or not, I think is really great. Now, you point out towards the end of your post about the extreme shortage of mechanics. And my goodness, I talked recently about how many skilled trades, we're short people, people are needed across various skilled trades. And I don't know where we're going to come up with them.

• 10:29Speaker 04

  I know. I think you're going to talk more about that later in the episode, too.

• 10:33Speaker 03

  Yeah, in a different way.

• 10:35Speaker 04

  Yeah. Victor in Alaska says, last week, a lady asked Clark about car rental coverage for European country, and Clark suggested to take the insurance from the rental company. I don't think that response was complete. From what I understand, in most of Europe, third-party liability is included in the rental fee. If one uses a travel credit card that covers auto rental CDW, what other coverage do you need? We used our Venture X during our Europe rental. I scratched the bumper at a parking garage in France. Although I had to pay 2,000 euros to the car rental company at the return counter, Venture X refunded it fully after I submitted my claim.

• 11:13Speaker 03

  Very nice.

• 11:14Speaker 04

  My question is, if one has a credit card that covers CDW, why do we need additional rental insurance in Europe? I understand Italy and some other countries have some special requirements.

• 11:24Speaker 03

  So here's the hard part. And that is, you mentioned liability, that some countries include third-party liability. The problem is the limits that they require may not be enough if there is an accident that involves serious injury. And so it's just like, think about in the United States, we have a lot of states that have state mandated minimum liability that you have to have with auto insurance that is so low that it covers about 15 minutes for somebody in a hospital emergency room. The limits are a joke. So my worry for people is not the damage to the vehicle, because you can so easily cover that with

• 12:09Speaker 03

  one of the credit cards that stands in primary position, or even secondary, it eliminates a lot of the risk. It's the liability side that I really worry about more.

• 12:22Speaker 04

  Jim in Alabama says, TV repair can be a winning proposition. I am by no means an electronics guru, but I was able to repair my three-year-old 55-inch TV by replacing a few capacitors for less than $10 after watching a few YouTube videos. A better investment than shelling out $300 for a new one.

• 12:43Speaker 03

  Okay, I love this. I love this. There is no chance I could do what you did, Jim. I would even not plugged in, somehow I'd figure out how to electrocute myself. Could you imagine repairing your own TV?

• 12:57Speaker 04

  That's impressive.

• 12:58Speaker 03

  I mean, I could not do that at all. One of my brothers, before anybody even thought about this, used to build electronics from scratch. And I'd go with him to, there used to be a superstore chain called Fry's Electronics. And I'd go with Gary to Fry's, and he'd buy all these components, and he'd build something. And it would work. And I was like, wow. So he, of the four of us as siblings, is the one who got all the ability that Jim has. There's no way I could watch a YouTube video and not be dangerous to myself and others trying to repair a TV or other electronics. I just, you got to know what you can't do.

• 13:42Speaker 03

  And I know I can't do that. But it's great that you, for $10, you kept that TV running.

• 13:49Speaker 04

  Brandon in Michigan says, hi, Clark. You don't stink too badly, but you smell like my truck's musty AC if it hasn't been cleaned lately. You recently talked about how you believe it's worth getting a new vehicle if the repairs to fix an old vehicle exceed 50% of the used vehicle's value. I would make an argument that unless there are fundamental safety concerns, like a frame rot that can't be fixed, or faulty engine or transmission design from the factory, there's never a financial reason to replace a vehicle. Let's say the engine blows up tomorrow in my truck. It might cost me $4,000 for a used engine from a scrapyard, or in the worst-case scenario, $8,000 for a new crate engine from Ford. Most people would say, okay, time to dump the truck that already has 140,000 miles.

• 14:33Speaker 04

  But that makes no sense. Are you going to sell a vehicle as is and take the huge loss? No, you would have to fix it anyway before you sell it. You're then selling a vehicle that has brand-new parts. There's never a time that buying new or leasing makes sense financially. If you have the money to buy and want to solely because it's a want, then fine. But financially and practically, it never makes sense. Maintain your vehicles meticulously and hold on to them as long as possible.

• 15:00Speaker 03

  So Brandon, let me tell you, I have realized over time that my 50% rule was not accurate, particularly right now with how much new vehicles cost. And I have deferred lately to what Consumer Reports and others have said, that you repair a vehicle even up to its current value. Now, if you follow what you're saying, and you go well beyond that, and whatever the cost of the repair is, you do it to keep the vehicle on the road. Problem is, is the vehicle ages, and 140,000 miles is not a lot of miles today

• 15:43Speaker 03

  on a new vehicle. But if you do repair one, you got to know other components are going to age out and have to be replaced as well. I mean, they do that with airplanes. Airplanes go through life cycles that are 30 to 50 years. And they do it through a series of checks that are alpha, you know, A-checks, D-checks, whatever. And they essentially, over time, continually rebuild the entire plane and its engines, because it's cheaper up to a point than replacing it. So that's the point you're making about a vehicle. And so it is true, you can keep something on the road forever. Anybody who's ever seen

• 16:27Speaker 03

  pictures of the vehicles in Cuba that are from the 1950s, and they're still running pretty much okay, shows that vehicles, even from an era where vehicles were not dependable in the 1950s, are still able to be maintained and kept on the road.

• 16:45Speaker 04

  Okay, Wayne in Florida says, Clark, you stink worse than the aftermath of overindulging in the free samples of prune juice at Costco.

• 16:53Speaker 03

  That would be a bad day. Thanks for that image.

• 16:57Speaker 04

  My mentor may have left me out in the cold when it comes to using the healthcare marketplace. I retired at 62 and used my Cobra benefits to provide for the next 18 months, and they're about to run out. The marketplace option was available, but it was twice the cost of Cobra. So I reached out to a commercial insurance broker and found a catastrophic policy that did not cover pre-existing conditions and was a great option. I'm very fortunate that I don't have any pre-existing conditions, and most of my healthcare concerns can be addressed at a walk-in clinic. I was amazed to find it was actually less than the money I was paying for my Cobra. Just want to pass that on to other listeners. Grateful for your advice and mentorship throughout the years. Thank you.

• 17:37Speaker 03

  All right. So Wayne, I got to know your secret. 62 years old and no pre-existing conditions? Wow. I mean, you either got really lucky in the genetic lottery of life, or you live the greatest habits of fitness and food and the rest. I mean, that's amazing. As someone who walks around with a lot of pre-existing conditions, that doesn't apply to me and doesn't apply to most people as they go through the decades. So insurance that does not cover pre-existing conditions would be a very high-risk endeavor for most

• 18:20Speaker 03

  people. But it's specifically so cheap because the insurer is knowing they're not going to have to cover anything that may already be a problem that could cost them a lot of money.

• 18:34Speaker 04

  It's a great tip for other people.

• 18:36Speaker 03

  Yeah, that is wonderful. So the best news is not about the money, but that your health is so crazy amazing. And I want to thank all of you who posted today. I appreciate it so very much to hear your perspectives. And remember, we all learn together. Coming up ahead, I've said so many negative things about AI. Straight ahead, I want to say something positive. And I know it's hard to hear something positive about AI.

• 19:12Speaker 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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• 21:29Speaker 03

  So the AI data centers, everywhere you look in the country makes no difference, rural, urban, suburban, what people's politics are. Universally, people are furious about the AI data centers. And we've talked about that before. The energy use that's driving up our consumer and business power bills by huge amounts because the reality is the data centers are cost shifting onto you and me, the power demands, the water demands, the rest. Not to mention the concerns with AI about being a rogue kind of thing.

• 22:11Speaker 03

  The various break-ins that AI tests have led to corporate and governmental databases. I mean, there's some weird stuff going on. At the same time, AI can be an extremely useful tool. And I use two different AI assistants because I'm really trying to adapt to them and learn from them. And one thing that I feel pretty strongly is that AI is going to create a lot of jobs at the same time that it destroys others.

• 22:50Speaker 03

  When I read anything about what AI is going to do to the job market, there's so much about how it's going to destroy jobs by the tens of millions, that there's not going to be any work for anyone, that there's going to be mass unemployment around the world. Forget who it was just in the last week who's involved in AI who says, well, we're going to have to have universal basic income around the world to pay people a survival amount of money who are never going to be able to find work again. Oh, my goodness.

• 23:26Speaker 03

  Every, every technological change leads to disruption, leads to destruction of some jobs. And at the same time, jobs that we never thought about are created. We've seen it throughout human history. And the people who are so close to this, who say that this is different. How many times in human history, at least in the last 200 years, has the phrase been, but this is different, or this time is different, or whatever?

• 24:06Speaker 03

  Because the unknowns, the clouds, if you will, that are hard to see through what that future is going to look like, there's this feeling that this is going to be only destructive and not creative. And AI will also have, as we've seen in war, it's going to have very negative violent consequences. All technology can unleash forces of various types. But in terms of jobs, yes, a job could get crushed. My job could get crushed. Your job could get crushed.

• 24:47Speaker 03

  And throughout our lifetime, jobs continually change. As I've shared with you over the last two decades, most jobs that exist in a 20-year cycle, those jobs didn't even exist 20 years before, that the nature of work continually goes through a rotation, what we do, how we do it, the skills we need. And so if AI does anything, it's going to increase the need for you to remove the blinders that so many of us have in whatever we do, that we're still going to be able to do exactly that in the future.

• 25:31Speaker 03

  But the nature of work is part of how creative, there's a term, creative destruction. There are several terms like that, that the way things work continually changes and most things improve for the better over time. Now, that is no comfort to you if your job is the one that's eliminated. And that's why you always hear me talk about how we have to continually engage in lifelong learning. We have to get additional training when it's available. We have to re-educate in a new skill.

• 26:12Speaker 03

  And this is hard because we're comfortable maybe with what we do and how we do it and where we are in our lives. But change is a constant. So, yeah, you can just buy into the fatalistic kind of thing that jobs are going to permanently vanish across our economy and others. But I can tell you, that's not how this is going to play. And what will change is what you may be doing for a living. And you have to be prepared for that change.

• 26:46Speaker 04

  Okay. Shalina in Texas sent this in for you, Clark. I'm considering a part-time job after I retire in order to move funds from my brokerage account to my Roth IRA. Part-time work would put me in the income level that would allow this. I would be sure to pick something I would enjoy. I'm wondering if this is reasonable. Does it matter when the money is deposited into a Roth IRA if the account is more than five years old? Finally, are there any downsides that I haven't considered?

• 27:14Speaker 03

  Okay, so this is such an interesting perspective you're bringing to us, is the idea of you needing to continue to work and using it as a vehicle to move money from a taxable account to something that grows permanently tax-free and can be spent tax-free? I think it's very smart tax planning on your part. And also, I don't know, and there's nothing in your question about this, but Roth IRA money is great money potentially if you end up not needing it later in life for an heir to receive. This is good all the way around.

• 27:54Speaker 03

  You're embedding future gains tax-free to use as you need. And at the same time, you've got something that's great to inherit. And an investment account is also, let me make that clear, great to inherit. The one thing that's not good to inherit, traditional IRA, traditional 401K, the tax code hates them, or hates the people who inherit the money, and takes a lot of it in tax.

• 28:26Speaker 04

  Kevin in Wisconsin says, 15 years ago, my mother co-signed with my sister on about 50K in private student loans. My sister never graduated and has stopped paying these student loans for several years, with the total now climbing to $150,000.

• 28:42Speaker 03

  And your mom's the co-signer.

• 28:44Speaker 04

  This has caused my mother's credit to be ruined and prevented her from getting a credit card, something that she could use in her day-to-day. Is there anything my mother can do regarding the loan interest? Or is the only option to pay the full balance or start making monthly payments? Also, my mother is in her mid-70s and concerned that they will eventually take her house that she fully owns and wants to transfer it to my name. Is this something that would make sense or only lead to further problems for myself? I've emphasized the importance to my sister and mother of paying down the debt, but they don't make much money and I think are hoping this will somehow go away, which I've informed them that it will not and will cause issues for their entire lives. It's a tough one.

• 29:29Speaker 03

  So in the most extreme cases, Kevin, your mother's concern about her house may be partially justified. Each state has its own laws on whether or not there is any kind of homestead exemption or protection. So let me take you to the worst possible scenario that you posed in what you wrote. So if the private student loan lender decides to sue your mom and your sister and gets a judgment against them, then that gives them a license to hunt and go after assets. Well, if the only meaningful asset your mom has is her

• 30:11Speaker 03

  house, what then becomes key, and I'm not a lawyer and I wouldn't know this answer specifically about Wisconsin anyway, is the home a protected asset? Or is there what's known in some states as a homestead exemption up to a certain value or just a blanket one that would protect your mom and make the house what's known as judgment proof? That the lender, even if they got a judgment against her, couldn't go after the house? One thing you don't say is if your mom or your sister has had any conversation with the lender, the lender,

• 30:49Speaker 03

  knowing the finances, may decide that that they want to offer some kind of deal on the loan. And that's possible because as a private student loan, they're getting nothing. So the fact that it's risen from 50 to 150 may mean nothing.

• 31:09Speaker 04

  Right.

• 31:09Speaker 03

  So I would say very first step would be to have a conversation with the student loan lender. And second thing, if they're not interested in any kind of accommodation or arrangement that you consult with a, I guess, a real estate lawyer in Wisconsin would be able to tell you this, it would not be an expensive consultation to find out the actual risk to your mom's home that she owns free and clear, right?

• 31:42Speaker 04

  Mm hmm.

• 31:43Speaker 03

  To her home. And yes, before legal action's taken, if the home is at risk, the lawyer might recommend moving the home to you because if it's before any legal action's taken place, then the lender would have no claim on the home, no claim against you. But this is one that you can't just bury your head in the sand. And you're right, even though your mom and your sister are ignoring your pleas, you go get the information and find out what risk there actually is.

• 32:20Speaker 04

  Bob in Ohio says, is the shop app legitimate? I was tricked into using it at checkout, then later deleted my credit card account. I use this. Have you used it?

• 32:30Speaker 03

  I've not used it. You know, the reviews are generally not great.

• 32:34Speaker 04

  It's a huge, like-

• 32:35Speaker 03

  We were asked about it before.

• 32:36Speaker 04

  Yeah, well, a lot of big retailers, a lot of them use it for checkout. It's one option at checkout. You could use like Google Pay, PayPal, or shop. And I like it myself just because if I'm ordering from multiple places and a few places I order from do use it, then I store my credit card information in one place and it tracks my shipping, it sends me lots of updates in one central place. And I've found it to be safe so far, but that's just my one person experience.

• 33:05Speaker 03

  Well, you know, the complaints that I heard before is they, one of the things they promise is that if a shipment goes missing, that they're going to help you with that. And that's where people say that promise is not being kept.

• 33:19Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 33:20Speaker 03

  But you don't pay for it.

• 33:22Speaker 04

  Yeah, no, I mean, I don't pay, no, you don't pay for it.

• 33:25Speaker 03

  You don't pay for the app. So it is, your question straight up was, is it legitimate? Yes, it's legitimate. How you were tricked into using it, how would somebody-

• 33:37Speaker 04

  You might have clicked, maybe when clicking to checkout, it brought you to shop. That might have been the option from that retailer.

• 33:43Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 33:44Speaker 04

  You know, where they want to use that as their checkout method.

• 33:47Speaker 03

  Well, retailers use something like shop app because it allows a small retailer to kind of level the playing field with the big retail players by giving an entire platform to be able to quickly execute a transaction to complete it. So it's not a scam. It is legit. The reviews are different than what Chris does happiness with it. One thing is the TrustPilot score is extremely low. I think it's a one out of five.

• 34:22Speaker 04

  Wow.

• 34:23Speaker 03

  So again, not, not a scam, and it's free, but not really mixed opinions about whether or not you should use it. How's that?

• 34:35Speaker 04

  Sounds good.

• 34:36Speaker 03

  And it's great that you've used it and are able to-

• 34:38Speaker 04

  Yeah, I've used it for years.

• 34:39Speaker 03

  Your own first person. So you said something that makes alarm bells go off in my head, by the way, storing your credit card number.

• 34:47Speaker 04

  Mm hmm. Well, you know what, it's that or have it on other retailer sites that I usually use. And I haven't had a problem so far, knock on wood. And it's a credit card, so if something happens, I can do a charge back.

• 34:58Speaker 03

  But you know, my obsession when I shop online is always do the one time-

• 35:02Speaker 04

  The virtual. You can do that, too. It offers you different options when you check out.

• 35:07Speaker 03

  Because one time use numbers are so much better when you're shopping online because even if there's a hack somewhere, the data that the criminals get on you, absolutely worthless to them to be able to compromise your credit card number because it's a tokenization process. It's basically a one time use approval and transaction, transmission of your information that is never usable again. So I guess I'm saying, eh, and you're saying, yeah.

• 35:46Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 35:46Speaker 03

  So that's great. That's wonderful. Thank you. And I want to tell you, it's great having you here today. I appreciate so much. All of you shared your opinions on Clark Stinks and the variety of things you posted, the questions asked that touch so many different areas. And so I'm grateful to you. And I hope this weekend is absolutely fantastic weekend for you. And know that if you need us, we're there for you all weekend long. If you've never been to Clark.com, wow, you're missing something. I am so proud of our team of writers

• 36:29Speaker 03

  and what they produce and content that you can use and put to work in your life each and every day. And over the weekend, if you're out shopping, check out Clark Deals because these are deals that are legit. We don't waste your time. We don't do any advertorial content on Clark Deals. They're all real, legitimate deals that we believe in, or they wouldn't be there. So check them out. And know everything we're about is your empowerment with knowledge so you can save more, spend less, and avoid getting ripped off. And see you Monday.

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