11.02.26 Holiday Shopping BOTchas! / AI Driving Up Medical Costs

Are AI Chatbots Secretly Tricking Holiday Shoppers? & Why You MUST Ask for an Itemized Hospital Bill With the holiday shopping season in full swing, millions of consumers are turning to AI shopping assistants like Meta’s Muse for the very first time to hunt down the best deals. While these chatbots speak with total authority, Clark warns against taking their recommendations as absolute fact. Beyond the retail aisles, artificial intelligence is also driving up costs in healthcare as hospital systems and health insurance providers deploy AI against one another in payment disputes. Hospitals are increasingly using AI to flag additional billable charges, leaving patients stuck with inflated balance bills when insurers refuse to cover the extra costs. To avoid paying more than you legitimately owe, Clark stresses the importance of becoming an active consumer. Plus, Christa shares your #AskClark questions and Clark gives his take. All this and more on the November 2, 2026, episode of The Clark Howard Show. Submit your questions: Ask Clark. Holiday Shopping: Segment 1 Ask Clark: Segment 2 AI & Healthcare Costs : Segment 3 Ask Clark: Segment 4 Mentioned on the show: 5 Ways To Save on Holiday Shopping This Year - Clark Howard 6 Grocery Stores Cheaper Than Walmart - Clark Howard Why Frequent Travelers Should Be Using an eSIM NYTimes: Battle of Hospital A. I. vs. Insurer A. I. Is Pushing Medical Costs Higher The Free Tool That Exposes Hidden Hospital Costs Can a Patient Advocate Help With Your Medical Bills? - Clark Howard How To Safely Use Peer-to-Peer Payment Apps - Clark Howard How To Make Your Venmo Transactions Private - Clark Howard Is a HELOC a Good Idea? The Simple Answer - Clark Howard Unclaimed Money: How To Find and Claim Missing Funds for Free 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. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

• 0:00Speaker 00

  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.

• 0:12Speaker 01

  Price and participation may vary. Promotion pricing may be lower than meal pricing.

• 0:15Speaker 02

  They're running a cover two defense. But you're running to get game day deals on Uber Eats. Keep everyone at tonight's watch party fed with deals from your go to restaurants. Or stock up with deals on your favorite snacks and groceries. Whatever the occasion, get game day deals on Uber Eats all season long. It's not football without food. Uber Eats. Order now. Terms apply. Product availability varies by region. See app for details.

• 0:50Speaker 03

  It's my pleasure to welcome you to the Clark Howard Show. You know, our mission is to serve you with advice and information that empowers you to make better financial decisions in your life. And it's November. You know what this is? Black Friday month. Used to be a day. Now it's a month. So holiday shopping fully underway. So the question is, where can you find bargains? We're going to talk about that. And also, how's AI affecting your healthcare bills? Strange ways. Okay.

• 1:31Speaker 03

  So this is the first Christmas season that large numbers of people have adopted chat assistants, AI tools to do things like shopping. Last year was more pioneering, this year more mainstream. As people are using Claude or ChatGPT or Grok or whatever to do shopping for them. And Facebook has the new creepy kind of character muse that gets so deep into your personal space. But anyway, when they shop around,

• 2:15Speaker 03

  are they really looking for the best price for you? Or are there things behind the curtain that lead the chatbots, lead you to where the chatbots want you to go, rather than where the best deal is? And that's still unclear. One thing that is clear, based on checking that various organizations have done, tech sites and stuff, is that the chatbots overwhelmingly, when you're looking for the lowest price, push you to Walmart. And I don't know if there's any grand conspiracy theory going on. I don't think there is.

• 2:59Speaker 03

  But I think that the deal with Walmart is they're so large, they're all over the place. And they're so ramped up with merchandise for the Christmas shopping season, that there's a tendency to push you to the biggest players out there. And Walmart being one. But there was one thing I saw in a story about where the chatbots are encouraging you to find the best deals on groceries. And Walmart is the nation's largest supermarket chain now, by far. Are they sending you to Walmart? They're not. Are they sending you to some regional supermarket chain that you enjoy shopping?

• 3:44Speaker 03

  They're not sending you there either. Where they are sending you is to Aldi. And Aldi is becoming so big now, after being so small for so long in the United States. They've been in the US 50 years now. And Aldi, after very slow growth and kind of being invisible in the United States for the first many decades, in the last 10, and particularly since COVID and the massive run up in food inflation, Aldi has become front of mind. And now is opening a very large number of stores each year.

• 4:28Speaker 03

  And Aldi is, my wife laughs at me because Aldi and Trader Joe's are owned by the same family in Germany, different parts of the same family, the Albrecht family. Probably my pronunciation of their German name is really poor. But anyway, my wife loves going to TJ's and says she walks the aisles there and she just feels better doing so. Kind of like Krista does when she's in Target. And I'm all about Aldi. I love saving the money there because you pretty much don't have to think about what the price is of things at Aldi because they're so much cheaper than other places.

• 5:12Speaker 03

  But I digress because the big thing is about Christmas shopping. And we all fall into lazy patterns, like me going to Aldi. And so when you're buying gifts, if you have, this is your first year using Claude or another of the assistants, don't take what you see from them as fact because they speak back to you like Gemini is staring at me right now on my laptop. When you use any of these, the answers they give are so definitive. You think, oh, this must be fact.

• 5:52Speaker 03

  Uh-uh. Don't use the fact that they make things quicker, breezier, easier for you as the fact that what they're saying is fact. It is, in its own way, just another opinion. And so just because they say, go to Walmart to buy this, or go to Aldi to buy that, or wherever they're sending you, do your own homework, do your own comparison shopping. And remember my rule, I'm going to say it over and over again, as I have for decades. You have to be disciplined about holiday shopping.

• 6:36Speaker 03

  Because if you're not, you're going to spend money you don't have. And it's not at all unusual for the typical American to be paying off last Christmas as we're shopping for the next Christmas. Still paying off the credit card charges and the huge interest costs from last Christmas. So you come up with a list of people, how much you want to spend on each person. You have a total budget. If you spend more on somebody than you expected, then that means you have to spend less on somebody else. And if I'm on your list, just cut me off. I don't need anything. What can you think of?

• 7:20Speaker 03

  I mean, I don't need anything.

• 7:22Speaker 04

  You're very hard to shop for.

• 7:24Speaker 03

  I need nothing.

• 7:25Speaker 04

  I know.

• 7:26Speaker 03

  I mean, I'm, I am the luckiest person you'll ever meet.

• 7:31Speaker 04

  Oh, I wouldn't say that. I mean, you've made your own luck.

• 7:33Speaker 03

  No, no, no. Life, okay, people can have success, work hard and all that. Luck still plays a role.

• 7:42Speaker 04

  Sure.

• 7:42Speaker 03

  Good luck, bad luck. I've just been like, I've lived a charmed existence. I mean, I just feel like I've always landed on my feet, no matter what. And that's, that's only partially because of me.

• 7:58Speaker 04

  Oh, I think you have a huge role, but I don't want to debate with you right now. But I definitely think a lot of the listeners would also say it's luck, but also like you took all the opportunities and it's your attitude and your positivity and your drive. I mean, all those things factor in so heavily. Someone can have luck and not take advantage of it.

• 8:18Speaker 03

  There is no doubt that the way people see a situation and respond to it has so much to do with how they do over time.

• 8:28Speaker 04

  Thousand percent.

• 8:30Speaker 03

  I mean, everybody's going to have reversals. It doesn't matter, everybody. And it's how you deal with those that really is what counts.

• 8:40Speaker 04

  I agree.

• 8:40Speaker 03

  And there are times we all do stupid things. I've done, I've done my share.

• 8:45Speaker 04

  So have I.

• 8:48Speaker 04

  All right, we'll go to some questions. Ken in, I always get in trouble with this, say his state.

• 8:53Speaker 03

  Nevada.

• 8:54Speaker 04

  Says Clark mentioned he sold most of his rental properties. Did he use a home buying agency to sell the homes? Or did he go through a real estate agent? And if so, can he share what home buying company he used? Zillow stopped their home buying product.

• 9:08Speaker 03

  Yeah, the home buying thing I thought was going to be just phenomenal. Gosh, that start like 10 years ago.

• 9:15Speaker 04

  It was for a little while, right?

• 9:16Speaker 03

  It was for a while. And then it turned out the companies tended to lose a lot of money. So there were a bunch of companies that, that we were profiling in my TV work. And eventually I did sell one property with an organization that had a different model where instead of buying the home, what they did was they said, okay, this is what we will pay you if the home does not sell. And I think it was 45 days. And it was a good price. And then it went on the market and sold in less than a day for far more than that. I

• 9:57Speaker 03

  just had underestimated what the market was doing at that time. But that's the only time I ever used even anything like that. It's not around anymore to my knowledge, the one that I used. And today, I mean, everything else I sold with a traditional real estate agent, and I have had every experience with selling property over the years. I've had things that sold immediately. And I've had things that just sat there, like just an apple going right into the core. It's just longer and longer and longer. And it's like, is this thing ever going to sell? Do you know what the longest I ever had a property sit on the market for?

• 10:41Speaker 04

  How long?

• 10:42Speaker 03

  14 months.

• 10:43Speaker 04

  Oof, I had one sit close to that, too. Yep.

• 10:46Speaker 03

  And I've had, but I've had more often than not, I've had properties sell within the first week. Okay, something I've always done with real estate, Ken, that is just how I think. I will price a property aggressively, meaning the opposite of what people thought that meant a few years ago. I will have an agent say, well, you know, market survey says blah, blah, blah. Let's do just a little less than that. I've always wanted to price where in the first couple of weeks, I'm going to scare up a buyer.

• 11:23Speaker 04

  Right.

• 11:24Speaker 03

  And I'd rather leave money on the table, not get quite as much, but get a place sold, particularly if it's an investment property, because I'm not having rental income while the property is on the market. I want to be done with it.

• 11:38Speaker 04

  Yep, I just did that with my house and it, we had three offers in the first weekend. So.

• 11:44Speaker 03

  In this market.

• 11:45Speaker 04

  Right. Okay, William in Texas says Clark's always helping us. Now it's time to share my find, low cost smartphone plan. Here's my hack for staying connected when I'm abroad without breaking the bank. I ported my very affordable Mint mobile number to Google Voice and added a roamified data on eSIM, 20 gigabytes for $57 a year. Since I was already using Wi-Fi VoIP with Mint and averaging only about two gigs of data per month when offline, this combo was perfect. I get reliable calls and texts from Google Voice plus affordable data when I need it, all for an average of just $7 a month. And by the way, all of my two factor authentication works fine.

• 12:30Speaker 03

  All right. So William, thank you for bringing this up because I've been trying to figure out how to talk about all the new ways people who are traveling internationally are getting service that follows them. And I've talked about, I just hit the simple button. I'm with Google Fi. With Google Fi, it works in most countries in the world, just like I'm here in the United States, except for voice calling, where I'm using WhatsApp for my voice calling. And I'm not answering calls when people call me on a voice call because I have to pay 20 cents a minute for those outside of the United States. William is doing

• 13:15Speaker 03

  one of the workarounds using Google Voice so that his calling just continues as it was. And there are now around the world, there must be a couple of dozen of these eSIM operators that have seamless service around the world and many more that are doing single country or regional, doing Europe or doing specific parts of Asia, parts of Africa, whatever. So having your cell phone service follow you at really cheap costs around the world using eSIMs is an absolute game changer. And eSIMs have made this all

• 13:58Speaker 03

  so much easier. And it used to be when you had to have a physical SIM. Now you don't have to have that. And so people who travel routinely internationally always have two eSIMs in their phone, their home base eSIM, then their other for when they travel. And versus, oh, when you travel overseas and you just rely on AT&T, Verizon, or T-Mobile, unless you're there for a very short period of time, it's like you're taking the entire net worth of a country and handing it over to one of these three cell phone carriers.

• 14:39Speaker 03

  If you will take the patience and time to understand more what various people are doing, and William gives an example, so that you avoid letting AT&T, Verizon, or T-Mobile own your future. Just learn how to do it. It's easier than you think.

• 14:58Speaker 04

  Okay, Lisa in Florida says, with the penny production cessation, what would you suggest for pennies as well as other change accumulated in a change jar over many years? Would it be best to bring them into a bank now and deposit them?

• 15:12Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 15:12Speaker 04

  Or are they something worth saving?

• 15:14Speaker 03

  No. I remember when I was first researching this, when the penny was eliminated. And there are so many, remember, nobody ever had any, but they were, I don't know, were there billions of pennies in circulation that were in people's drawers that nobody bothered to carry them anymore. And now people don't even carry any coins because so seldom are people using cash. So I was like, wow, people are going to get rich hoarding these? No, you're not. Because there are so many in circulation. There are rare exceptions that coin collectors will say, Clark, no, no, you're missing. You got this, this particular

• 15:56Speaker 03

  coin that was issued in 19, blah, blah, blah, blah. No, unless you are a professional coin collector who knows what to look for, get rid of your pennies, maybe also get rid of your nickels and dimes, and remember to keep a quarter for getting your cart at Aldi.

• 16:18Speaker 03

  I did say that.

• 16:19Speaker 04

  That was like a nice circular segment. You talked about Aldi at both ends.

• 16:24Speaker 03

  Of course. I mean, think about it. Our dog Kirkland Signature, I wanted to be named Aldi. Lane had already gotten the, the name tag for the collar that said Aldi.

• 16:38Speaker 04

  But you let the audience decide.

• 16:40Speaker 03

  The audience decide. And so.

• 16:43Speaker 04

  Next dog.

• 16:43Speaker 03

  Is Kirkland Signature. Next dog?

• 16:46Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 16:47Speaker 03

  I think we have enough dogs. Although I don't get a vote in that.

• 16:51Speaker 04

  No.

• 16:53Speaker 03

  I live in one of those democracies with one vote and I don't have it. So coming up ahead, I'm really pretty silly today.

• 17:03Speaker 04

  I know. I am too. We're punchy.

• 17:06Speaker 03

  Yeah. Well, coming up ahead, so I mean, it's not at all funny, is how hospitals and insurers are in this feud with each other, punching each other out. And guess who? They're missing each other and they're punching you and me in the nose. I'm going to tell you what to watch for.

• 17:28Speaker 05

  Gifts mean more when they have the power to give more. They can inspire more discovery, give more confidence, and unwrap more of who you are. This Black Friday, give a gift that goes beyond the box. The Dell XPS 13 laptop. With a beautiful design and cutting edge performance, it helps you unlock more possibilities. It's the thinnest, lightest XPS laptop yet, with touchscreen, a backlit keyboard, and long lasting battery life to power you through your day. Built with a durable aluminum chassis weighing just 2.2 pounds and Intel Core processors, it's fast, reliable, and portable enough to keep up wherever you go. Visit dell.com to explore the possibilities with XPS. While shopping,

• 18:11Speaker 05

  you'll also find great perks like Dell Rewards, fast free shipping, premium support, and financing with flexible payment options. Plus, you can find great deals on monitors and accessories. That means you can score a whole new setup now for less. This Black Friday sale is one you don't want to miss. Head to dell.com/deals. That's dell.com/deals.

• 18:35Speaker 05

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• 19:01Speaker 06

  Hi, I'm Don McDonald from the Talking Real Money Podcast. Simple, honest financial advice is hard to find because there are too many people in the financial services industry and even the media, who will do or say anything to get your money. Well, for decades, my co-host Tom and I have been trying to help people better manage money on the radio, TV, and in our podcasts. About five times a week, we share simple, low-cost advice on building the wealth you need to enjoy a better future without making your broker richer, and ironically, you broker. Listening to Talking Real Money could not be easier because you're already listening to a podcast. Just search for Talking Real Money on your podcast service or ask your smart speaker. Give us a try.

• 19:44Speaker 06

  You have absolutely nothing to lose, except a few minutes of time, and you might just discover something to help you enjoy a more prosperous and secure future, along with a simpler present. Just visit talkingrealmoney.com or search for Talking Real Money in this podcast service. It's that easy.

• 20:01Speaker 00

  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.

• 20:13Speaker 01

  Price and participation may vary. Promotion pricing may be lower than meal pricing.

• 20:16Speaker 02

  They're running a cover-two defense. But you're running to get game day deals on Uber Eats. Keep everyone at tonight's watch party fed with deals from your go-to restaurants. Or stock up with deals on your favorite snacks and groceries. Whatever the occasion, get game day deals on Uber Eats all season long. It's not football without food. Uber Eats. Order now. Terms apply. Product availability varies by region. See app for details.

• 20:47Speaker 03

  On a recent podcast YouTube show, we had a Clark stinks from someone who was an independent medical provider, talking about how their reimbursements from insurance were much lower than they were at a hospital-based facility. And what's going on right now is these two titans of the marketplace, the big hospital systems that have tried to create monopolies or semi-monopolies in areas, are fighting with the insurance companies over what reimbursements are going to be. And as they go back and forth, back and forth, back and forth,

• 21:27Speaker 03

  you and I are actually the ones who are getting left holding the bag several ways. Number one, the big hospital systems are principally responsible for the giant increases that we've seen year after year after year and what our part of health insurance costs are. Because the hospital systems have had superior negotiating ability with the insurers. And now there are a lot of allegations that you and I are ending up with more of the billing charges

• 22:07Speaker 03

  because hospitals are inventing more and more things to bill the insurance companies for. There's even claims that hospitals are using AI to run bills up, saying, well, we did this, so that means we can charge for that other thing. And this is where you are getting squeezed because the insurer then says, no, we're not paying that. Hospital has a balance bill there. They're turning around saying, insurance didn't cover, and sending you the balance bill. So here's where your role becomes so important.

• 22:51Speaker 03

  And if you've been in the hospital, you're in terrible shape, you don't have the ability to do what I'm about to say. You've got a family member to do it. And this is something I talked about in the good old analog days. And now is much more complicated with the assistance of AI, with everybody fighting each other over money, is that you want, if you've been in the hospital for any meaningful amount of money in terms of a bill, oh, you were in the hospital 12 seconds? Yep, meaningful bill. You want a full itemized bill from the hospital. They don't like to give that. They'll just say you had blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And there's what you owe.

• 23:36Speaker 03

  Insurance paid this, you owe that. Okay, you want the full itemization. Because with that, even a layperson now using AI can figure out what it is that the hospital put on there for $1,422 for blah, blah. You're like, what's blah, blah? And you look up what it is. And over and over again, it's going to be something they didn't do, you didn't have. So these bills are artificially inflated. And you and I are being played as chumps by the hospitals. And then you've got the other side of this,

• 24:20Speaker 03

  where an insurance company says, no, this isn't allowed. This isn't approved. This isn't covered. And again, and again, that's not right either. So you, to protect your wallet, when you've got a giant bill, you're having to review both sides. Your insurance statement that you get and your hospital bill they don't want to give you that you get. Because big money can be at play. Do you know that half of all items that end up on people's credit reports are medical bills? And this is after smaller bills don't show up anymore.

• 25:04Speaker 03

  So you need to know that everybody wants your wallet. Your job is to make sure that what they're getting as a share of your wallet is only what they should be getting. And if you have a massive bill, believe it or not, there are people who work as patient advocates, not for your care, but for the bills. People who work back office medical billing that now make a living reviewing these bills and advocating for you, and often getting a percent of the savings or an hourly rate that could save you a fortune. You don't want to end up with your credit ruined

• 25:48Speaker 03

  over stuff you don't actually owe. You don't want to end up with a collection agency coming after you or a hospital suing you over something you legitimately don't owe. System's broken, obviously. But it's the system we have right now. And so you and I cannot be passive. We have to be active. Krista?

• 26:14Speaker 04

  All right, Sally in Kansas wrote in, and she says, we opened a separate checking account for our Venmo transactions and felt safe because it was separate and has its own account number. But this account is at the same credit union as our family checking account. Are we safe?

• 26:29Speaker 03

  No. That one, that one's pretty easy because it's become common at banks and now credit unions that they have, for lack of a better term, originally referred to as cross-default clauses. So let's say a criminal taps into your Venmo, and they just start spending like crazy. Your credit union almost certainly has a clause where if you overdraw one account there, they have the right to go grab money from another account. So you don't have the money properly sheltered when you have the money for Venmo or Cash App, or if you feel you must use big bad Zelle,

• 27:13Speaker 03

  that it also, whichever of the three you use, that it's cordoned off somewhere else other than where your normal transaction account money would be.

• 27:25Speaker 04

  Can I ask you a question?

• 27:26Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 27:26Speaker 04

  Couldn't you just turn off overdraft protection on that account?

• 27:30Speaker 03

  Overdraft protection is different.

• 27:31Speaker 04

  It's different because that's just like they, yeah, give you money.

• 27:34Speaker 03

  Yeah, so that's a different thing than cross-default.

• 27:38Speaker 04

  Got it.

• 27:38Speaker 03

  So you present a check or a debit, whatever, against an account or a Venmo withdrawal or Cash App, Zelle, and there's not enough money there. By practice, and often it's actually in your terms of service with the institution, they have the right to go seize whatever. Go on a money hunt.

• 28:00Speaker 04

  I mean, they may be trying to protect you, just to be fair, like, because then you don't have an overdraft fee or whatever. But that's...

• 28:07Speaker 03

  They may charge you a fee for going and taking it from another account. That's not, it's all about them not ending up with the ones without the money.

• 28:15Speaker 04

  Okay.

• 28:16Speaker 03

  So that's why you always cordon off, since the law doesn't provide good protections on Zelle, Cash App, or Venmo, because they didn't exist with laws that existed at the time. They've never been updated. The laws have not been updated. So you're exposed with these apps. And I'm not saying don't use them because they're so common and routine. Do you know how often people are expected to pay rent with one of these three now? I mean, it's totally common that landlords use as an effective way of getting rent instead of chasing down a tenant for a check or whatever. So you have that separate segregated account

• 29:01Speaker 03

  that you can move money to as you need it for the payment app.

• 29:06Speaker 04

  Okay, Jill in North Carolina says, I'm downsizing. My financial advisor suggested a HELOC from my paid-off home to have available to use to purchase a new home of lesser value if I find one I want to buy before my home sells. Is this a good idea?

• 29:21Speaker 03

  Yes, Jill, this is funny because... I talk about how what you don't use a home equity line of credit for. But we've had, I don't know, half a dozen different questions have come into me, asking me specifically, what about a home equity line of credit for this circumstance? Or that? And Jill, your financial advisor is right. This is a good reason for you to go ahead and have the standby home equity line of credit, particularly if you set it up under more favorable terms with a credit union or a very small bank, not a big bank. And you don't have to pay to set up the HELOC. And the interest rate rules are favorable.

• 30:03Speaker 03

  Lot of banks have very high floors on their home equity lines of credit that make them like you having the worst of both sides of a flip of a coin. Because what a lot of banks will do is they set the minimum interest rate on a HELOC above what the marketplace would be. But you're also subject to resets based on the formula in it that only will move you up generally, not down. So you gotta be very careful with how the rates are set. Again, this is not a problem at credit unions, only at certain banks. But having that HELOC for that situation, your advisor recommended for you to have the money to buy a new home pending the sale of your old one?

• 30:48Speaker 03

  Good idea.

• 30:49Speaker 04

  Now, can I just ask?

• 30:51Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 30:52Speaker 04

  Her financial advisor suggested it. So it seems like that it wouldn't be a financial strain if the advisor's recommending that. But for, say, a friend recommended to somebody, you'd probably caution them to owning the other house in case it sits for too long.

• 31:05Speaker 03

  Well, okay, so, yeah, paid off home. Their existing home is paid off.

• 31:11Speaker 04

  Right.

• 31:12Speaker 03

  So they're not taking on-

• 31:13Speaker 04

  They're just doing taxes.

• 31:14Speaker 03

  They're not doing a double-

• 31:16Speaker 04

  Mortgage.

• 31:17Speaker 03

  Mortgage in this case. So it's a transitional kind of way of financing. I like it.

• 31:22Speaker 04

  Okay. Greg in Ohio says, I thought you might like to hear about some customer amazing service I experienced from, wait for it, a state government agency.

• 31:32Speaker 03

  Good job.

• 31:33Speaker 04

  I was looking to claim funds that belonged to my late parents. I emailed a question about limits noted on the Pennsylvania Treasury website. A rep got back to me, answered my question and offered to put the claim together and send me the necessary forms. I returned the forms directly to her and within two hours, she'd processed the claim and sent it along for final approval. In just over three weeks, I had the check in hand, a far cry from the three months that's expected turnaround time. A month later, I was-

• 32:01Speaker 03

  Wait, wait, wait, wait. You got your money in three weeks from a state unclaimed property office? Took me four months last time. Four months.

• 32:10Speaker 04

  A month later, I was able to hand out checks to my siblings. From there, the funds went to their adult kids or into 529 plans, a gift from my long past mom and dad directly to their grandkids and great grandkids. Thanks for all you do and remember that what seems like, in what seems like a world of customer no service, there are real gems to be found. Keep up the great work.

• 32:32Speaker 03

  Thank you. Okay, I really appreciate it when you share a story like this. I mean, think about it, Greg. How often do people who have a good customer experience, customer service experience, they ever say anything about it? What people get fired up about is when they get indifferent or poor customer service. And I mean, that's in a more impersonal world, diffusion of responsibility. We're going to have more negative experiences today than positive. But what people talk about are the negatives. They don't talk about the positives.

• 33:16Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 33:16Speaker 03

  And it's wonderful when somebody takes the time to share a positive one.

• 33:21Speaker 04

  Yeah, thank you, Greg.

• 33:23Speaker 03

  Yeah. So my middle child just flew across the country recently. And I said, well, how was the flight? And she said, kind of thinking, oh, I guess it was fine. Everything went perfectly.

• 33:36Speaker 04

  Right.

• 33:37Speaker 03

  Flight left on time, got in early. The internet was working fine on the plane. And so it was a non-event, you know, that it worked just like you would expect in a TV commercial for an airline. But if it had not worked out well, it would have been a pretty loud expression there. So we forget to appreciate when things work like they should.

• 34:08Speaker 04

  So true.

• 34:09Speaker 03

  Or in this case, better than they should. Better than they usually do. Well, thank you so much for joining us today. And I have such a great time sharing part of my day with you and you sharing part of your day with us. I individually and we collectively appreciate your faith in us, your trust in us. And it's really something that is a labor of love for me to do this because I love sharing knowledge. I love having the opportunity for you to be able to take what you get here and put it to work in your life or share with a friend

• 34:54Speaker 03

  or family member who doesn't want to hear from you what Clark says. But I really, really appreciate the opportunity to be with you. And that you're part of what I call the empowerment zone, where through knowledge, we have power. And you use it in turn to save more and spend less and absolutely avoid getting ripped off. You think about how many people you and I know who at some time or another have been on the edge of being scammed or have been scammed and how rotten it makes you feel when that happens to somebody. So that's really important to us too, is to keep you out of harm's way.

• 35:38Speaker 03

  And we'll be back at your service on Wednesday.