7.26.19 The app stores are ripping people off; Clark Stinks
The app Tinder has changed the way you pay for its services because Google Play charges apps a WAY too much money; Christa reads listener posts about how Clark has missed the mark in his advice this week. If you have a "Clark Stinks" to share you can leave it here Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Read more
Good news for Costco shoppers! The Costco app now allows you to create a digital membership card right on your phone.
With this digital membership, you can get into the warehouse club, shop as you normally would and checkout at the register — all while leaving your real physical card at home!
In late July 2019, Costco announced the arrival of this option for both Android and iPhone users. Here are the requirements to access your digital membership card:
In addition to allowing warehouse entry and checkout capability, you can also use your digital membership card in the following departments:
Meanwhile, the Costco apps also allows you to renew your membership on your phone and view your 2% reward balance there, if applicable.
Physical membership cards will still be accepted at all locations. This just gives you another option if you want to go digital with your membership.
Finally, we should note a couple of things you still can’t do with the Costco app:
On that last point, Costco notes that “[the digital membership card] can’t be used at pumps because they don’t read the digital cards yet.”
You can get further details about the digital membership card in the official FAQs here.
7.17.19 Fidelity slashes expenses again; Beware the popular Face app; What to know when moving
Fidelity is taking their fees even lower; The viral Face app has some terrible terms and conditions that you need to know about before using it; Moving is full of potential pitfalls. Clark tells you what you need to know first.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Read more
If you’ve been on social media at all over the last few days, you’ve probably noticed your friends, family and even celebrities posting pictures of themselves aged dozens of years using an app called FaceApp.
However, there are new warnings about what might be happening to those pictures you’re allowing the app to access and how they might be used in the future.
Techcrunch reports that the company, a Russian startup, is uploading users’ photos to the cloud, rather than making those crazy image transformations directly on your device.
“FaceApp goes on to specify that it ‘might’ store the photos users have chosen to upload in the cloud for a short period, claiming this is done for ‘performance and traffic’ — such as to make sure that a user doesn’t repeatedly upload the same photo to carry out another edit,” Techcrunch says.
That doesn’t sound too reassuring to us.
If you’ve given FaceApp permission to access your photos and you’re concerned about how they could be used, the company has outlined how to request that your pictures be deleted:
As always, be careful about the apps that you download — and especially with the data you share with them!
Looking for the best apps to save money on groceries? Technology can be a big help when you want to stretch your grocery dollar and get the most food for the least amount of money each week! In this article, we’ll take a look at some of the best options.
There’s no shortage of apps that can help you save money on groceries. And all of them do so in a variety of ways. These typically include:
While it’s probably best to use a few grocery-saving apps in concert, you need to get a lay of the land first to know what’s available. Here are some of our favorite grocery rebate apps, listed in alphabetical order:
Need to know:
Checkout 51 makes it easy to shop as you normally would and save money while doing it. Just download the free app, select your grocery store and see what the offers are that week. Anytime you buy something that’s being spotlighted, you’ll get cash back.
The app has a built-in camera to take perfect shots of your receipt so you can start building up your savings. You can cash out when you have a minimum of $20 in your account. Payment methods include PayPal or receiving a check in the mail.
With Checkout 51, the nice thing is the items you can get cash back on aren’t limited to prepackaged goods from name-brand companies.
Need to know:
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Coupons.com has a mobile app that promises you can save hundreds of dollars with free paperless grocery coupons.
Using it is easy. Simply link your store loyalty cards to the app to add coupons for your store. Then you can save instantly at checkout.
Or if your store doesn’t have a loyalty program, you can submit your receipt after you shop to get your cash back. It’s as easy as snapping a pic and submitting it!
Best of all, you can get cash back each time you shop; there’s no required minimum before you can cash out!
Need to know:
Fetch Rewards lets you scan your receipt from any grocery store and receive points for the brands and products you buy already.
“The ‘Special Offers’ tab lists the most valuable deals, but I usually earn a minimum of 25 points per receipt without those offers,” Clark.com writer Michael Timmermann reports.
When you reach 3,000 points, you can redeem them for gift cards to dozens of major retailers like Amazon, Target, Walmart, Home Depot, Petco and many more.
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Need to know:
Ibotta is pretty much the big dog when it comes to apps to save money on groceries.
There are two ways to use it: Either earn cash from adding offers, shopping and uploading a photo of your receipt. Or you can link your loyalty account, add offers at participating retailers and earn without having to upload a pic of your receipt. Here’s a list of supported retailers here.
You can withdraw cash from your account when you reach $20. If you upload pics of your receipt, you can get your cash within 24 hours.
Like a lot of the apps on this list, Ibotta mostly features products from national brands. But even if you shop at Aldi — which primarily sells off-brand groceries — you can take advantage of “Any Item” rebates for about 25 cents per receipt you upload.
RELATED: Need extra money? How to turn grocery receipts into cash with Ibotta
Need to know:
You may not think of Rakuten (formerly eBates) as an app to save money on groceries; it’s better known as an online shopping cash back site.
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However, Rakuten has a new focus on in-store offers and the grocery stores on this app include Safeway, Sam’s Club and Walmart.
You must have a minimum of $5 in your account to cash out and payments are only sent quarterly via PayPal or physical check.
Need to know:
Like the other apps on this list, Saving Star lets you either link up your loyalty account and add offers or upload a photo of your receipt to earn your cash back.
You can withdraw cash when you reach $20 via check or PayPal. Or you can elect to get gift card codes sent to you for popular retailers like Starbucks, Apple and AMC Theaters.
However, one warning about using Saving Star: The app will hit you with a $3.99 monthly fee if there’s no activity on your account for 180 consecutive days. The fee is assessed against cash back that has built up in your account, rather than charged to a credit card, but it’s something to keep in mind.
Need to know:
Unlike the other apps on this list which let you shop most anywhere you want, the Target app is tied specifically to the Red Retailer.
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With this app you can browse Cartwheel offers and get app-only coupons without the clipping. It also integrates with the REDcard to give you 5% savings on everything you buy at Target — not just groceries.
While there are a variety of apps you can use to save money on groceries, there are one of two ways most of them work: They either track your store loyalty card and offer point-of-sale savings by specific retailer. Or else they require you to add offers and then upload a pic of your receipt.
The nice thing about these apps is that they’re very low-hanging fruit if you’re looking to put more money in your wallet. Anyone can download an app and upload a picture of their receipt. It usually takes just a few seconds. So it’s easy to enjoy the fruits of your labor with very little labor.
Meanwhile, if you’re looking for more ways to lower your grocery bill, be sure to check out our 22 ways to save money on groceries!
Zelle, the popular payment app backed by the big banks, has become such a security risk that only people with money to lose should use it.
That’s the advice from money expert Clark Howard, who is on record as warning consumers to stay away from Zelle due to previous infractions.
Hackers have figured out that Zelle and similar apps are low-hanging fruit when it comes to stealing people’s hard-earned money, Clark says.
Here’s their latest strategy: You think you’re buying something online on a marketplace site like Facebook or Craigslist and the seller tells you to pay using Zelle.
Once you do that, the seller (scammer) simply takes your money, shuts down their bank account and never sends the product, according to TechCrunch.
The kicker in all this is that Zelle users have virtually zero recourse for getting their money back.
The banks behind Zelle — JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and more — have been largely silent on problems with Zelle fraud protection.
Clark says the fact that Zelle being fully integrated into the banking system is what makes it different from the other payment apps from a security perspective, as well as fraud protection.
Many banks have built Zelle into their apps. Here’s the Wells Fargo app. You can see there’s a “Send Money with Zelle” button dead-center:
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Because real bank accounts are involved — and you figure that the big banks are backing and securing the transaction — many people feel a false sense of security when using Zelle.
The banks’ position has been that if you agree to send money to someone, there’s no turning back. Here’s what it says in Zelle’s fine print:
So, unlike with a credit card, there’s no mechanism for reversing or disputing a payment once you’ve made one using Zelle.
If you take nothing else away from this, let be that Clark absolutely doesn’t want you to set up Zelle if your bank offers it.
However, other payment apps can be useful when it comes to transferring money to family, friends and trusted merchants. Here is the #1 thing you need to do if you use payment apps.
Selling your stuff to make extra money can be a pain, but the Letgo app makes it simple. Letgo is a marketplace where you can buy and sell items in your area just by posting a picture and a price.
You can add more pictures and edit the auto-generated description to make your posting more appealing to potential buyers.
Another thing you’ll want to consider is whether to post the item on multiple platforms like OfferUp, Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace.
If you do, make sure you’re checking each of the platforms regularly to ensure you don’t miss messages from potential buyers.
You can sell pretty much anything with this app! Categories on LetGo include:
Letgo is as safe to use as any other digital marketplace like Craigslist or Facebook. Letgo doesn’t do background checks, but they do have steps that let you become a verified user.
If you have a bad feeling about a seller or potential buyer, don’t risk it. You can also block or report a user within the app if you feel uncomfortable.
Letgo lays out its rating process on its FAQ page. To review your buyer:
As a buyer reviewing a seller, you have to wait until after the seller rates you in order to rate them. To review your seller:
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Letgo makes money from ads and featured listings. You won’t be charged for posting or using the app.
Letgo lays out how you can completely remove your account on its FAQ page.
To permanently delete your account, you must log in to Letgo and submit a request through the contact form in the app. Follow these steps:
SUCCESS STORY: After six months of using YNAB, a Clark.com reader wrote in to tell us that she is “no longer stressing over how to make it through the month.” She has an emergency savings for the first time and is working to get out of debt. The reader says she has used Mint and another program without success, but “neither program worked like YNAB.” Congrats and keep up the great work!
You Need a Budget, also known as YNAB, is a popular budgeting program that brings the envelope method into the digital age.
YNAB is based on four rules that have helped many subscribers stop living paycheck to paycheck and spend less money than they earn every single month.
In fact, YNAB claims that new budgeters save an average of more than $6,000 in their first year with the program.
I’ve been using free budgeting tools from Mint and Personal Capital for years, but I was reluctant to test YNAB because it costs $83.99 a year ($6.99 a month) after a 34-day free trial. There’s also an $11.99 monthly option.
I finally decided to try it out after this type of feedback from members of Clark’s Ditch Your Debt group on Facebook:
Tiffanie: We’ve used it for over 2 years, and LOVE it! Easy to enter transactions (especially on the fly); easy to import and approve transactions; always handy on my phone, which means I check it and update it frequently (important part of budgeting!); self-updates with great features; accessible on phone and online (work, home, etc); great tools to help you set & reach goals. Completely worth the monthly fee!! By using this, we save WAY more than the fee.
Don’t think you would ever pay for YNAB? I felt the same way, but stick with me. Even if you don’t plan to continue as a paying member, I believe the free trial may be worth your time.
If I had to choose just one word to describe my last month of budgeting with YNAB, “eye-opening” would be it.
This article details my personal experience with YNAB and how it compares to Mint, but I want to get started with a brief explanation of why this budgeting app isn’t like the others…
YNAB says it will help you budget like you’ve never done before, and that was true for me. YNAB’s method is based on four rules that can help you set up a budget, take control of your money and reach your financial goals.
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YNAB’s rules were a little confusing to me at first, but it all started to make sense once I started my free trial.
Before I share more about my 30 days of budgeting with YNAB, I want to point out that the trial doesn’t require you to enter a credit card and there’s a 100% money-back guarantee for paid customers.
Once I signed up on YNAB’s website, I immediately started following the prompts to connect my bank accounts to YNAB.
Like Mint and Personal Capital, YNAB links to your accounts to automatically import transactions. The service also has the option of adding unlinked accounts by starting with your current balance and manually entering transactions.
I ended up doing it the manual way because YNAB had trouble establishing an initial connection with several of my accounts.
People who are sensitive about sharing bank usernames and passwords may actually prefer the unlinked option. YNAB has a section of its website where you can read more about its security features.
Moving on, I determined the amount of money to be budgeted for the month and started to give every dollar a job.
Here’s an example: If you have $2,000 to be budgeted, you have to assign all 2,000 of those dollars to your customizable categories, which are broken up into the following groups by default:
This is a useful exercise because it requires you to prioritize your spending. If you have $2,000 to be budgeted and a $1,000 rent payment due in a few days, that leaves $1,000 to get you by until your next paycheck.
As you assign money to those categories, YNAB will encourage you to create short-term and long-term goals.
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The simple color-coding with YNAB can also keep you on track. Green means you have dollars available, orange indicates that a category is underfunded and red is a sign that you’ve overspent.
The real fun began when I started spending money! Like I said, I had to manually enter transactions because of the synchronization issue, but it ended up being a lot less tedious than I expected.
I got into the habit of checking my category balance before buying anything and recording the transaction immediately after.
YNAB’s mobile app for Apple and Android devices is easier for me to navigate than the desktop version. In addition to categorizing new transactions in about five seconds, you can move money around as your priorities shift.
Here’s an example: During my free trial month, I got a surprise $700 home repair bill. That wasn’t in my home maintenance budget. As a result, I had to move money from several other categories to fund it — the third rule of YNAB.
The method empowered me to prioritize the repair over things like eating out, clothing, gifts and my vacation fund.
I’m an analytical person to begin with, but checking with my budget and the dollar amount left in a particular category before making a purchase really helped me spend less over the last month.
Even with that $700 home repair bill, I was able to set aside money for my true expenses (non-monthly bills) and had $200 left.
If you’ve been budgeting with Mint or another tool, YNAB is going to require some effort to master — but it’s worth it!
Shortly after I signed up, YNAB sent me an email with an invitation to talk one-on-one with a coach for 15 minutes to answer some of my questions. That was a huge help!
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In fact, that coach was even able to get someone to troubleshoot the account synchronization issues I had.
There are also 20-minute workshops every day where coaches answer your questions. I’ve shared a recorded workshop below because I think it’s one of the better ones:
There are other resources to help you budget successfully. YNAB has additional instructional videos, podcasts, forums, chat and help documents on its website. I’ve also seen YNAB respond to questions via Facebook and Twitter.
Even without phone support, I felt like I had all of the tools I needed to get the most out of the free trial.
Money expert Clark Howard is a fan of Mint.com and says it’s great for automatically tracking your expenses. I’ve used Mint since 2010 and like how it has evolved to include bill reminders, credit score updates and net worth tracking.
However, I would have to say that YNAB does a better job with the budgeting component — that’s really all it does!
The more I used YNAB, the more I realized how it truly helps me manage my finances and proactively make smart decisions about what I spend money on and what I choose not to.
Mint, on the other hand, now seems like more of a report card after the money has already been spent.
The big advantage of Mint is that the service is free, but you do have to put up with credit card ads. There’s none of that with YNAB. You avoid the ads because it’s a paid service.
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Is YNAB worth $83.99 a year? If it helps you get out of credit card debt or reach other financial goals, the answer is probably “yes.”
Here’s my suggestion: Take YNAB up on its 34-day free trial and spend some time to learn the method. Even if you don’t become a paying member, you may be able to apply the four rules on your own using a free budgeting tool.
More Clark.com stories you may like:
If you’re a dedicated brand-name shopper, your weekly supermarket haul is about to get more expensive.
Consumer packaged goods giants like Church & Dwight, Clorox, Kimberly-Clark and Procter & Gamble have all recently pushed through price increases on their household staples like toilet paper, laundry supplies, cat litter and more.
But there are ways to beat the price hikes…
RELATED: How to claim up to $40 in the Canada Dry Ginger Ale settlement
Last year, we told you how Procter & Gamble pushed through price increases on some of your favorite brands for the second time in just a year. But they were far from alone. Kimberly-Clark also moved to raise prices and shrink package sizes after P&G’s announcement.
Now, within the past week, both Church & Dwight and Clorox have announced new price increases to Wall Street analysts.
According to the Wall Street Journal, there are three factors behind the price increases: Higher costs of raw materials, increased transportation expenses and the difficulty of managing foreign-currency swings when these companies do business internationally.
Here’s a look at a some items that you’ve probably noticed higher prices on — or will soon:
Even warehouse club shoppers are feeling the effects of the price push. One Costco shopper in New Jersey told the Wall Street Journal that he’s seen prices on Charmin and Bounty products go up to around $23 this year from under $18 last year.
Ditto for Glad trash bags, which are selling at his warehouse club for $19, up from normally being under $15.
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The solution? Buy the store brand. At Costco, that means buying Kirkland Signature. But almost every retailer from dollar stores to big-box stores has private labels that can save you money.
Just because manufacturers are trying to pass the bill on to you doesn’t mean you have to pay it.
Here’s how to save money on your favorite brands:
These apps make it easy to determine if there’s a manufacturer’s coupon or rebate available for the product you want to buy:
iBotta
iBotta is an app that pays you through cash back rebates you can earn before you shop. Once you download the app, you’ll want to look for deals you like. Once you do, you can ‘qualify’ for the deal by clicking on the deal, watching a video or filling out a survey.
Checkout 51
Checkout 51 works in a similar fashion to iBotta. Just download the app, browse hundreds of offers within the app, select an offer, go shopping, upload your receipt and earn cash back!
Coupons.com
This app provides a simple way to select all the coupons you want at the tap of a button, and allows you to print them from your phone or simply save them to scan at the store. Browse by featured deals, grocery, shopping and nearby, or search for exactly the brand or store you’re looking for.
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Talk to your store’s manager and find out where they keep the clearance items. Many stores will have a dedicated rack or shelf. It’s also helpful to know when new stock is added to the clearance rack or aisle.
If you’re first to find it, you can score some real deals!
The American Express Blue Cash Preferred Card offers 6% cash back on groceries, up to a max of $6,000 annually.
But there are two caveats here: First, the card has a $95 annual fee you should know about. Second, you must be sure you pay your bill in full each and every month — or else you’ll rack up more interest charges than you’ll receive in cash back.
