Clark Howard

Find banking deals online

By Alexandra Thomas

updated 2:29 PM EDT, Wed June 06, 2012

Clark tells you where to find a great deal on a savings account.

Scared of summer spending? Try these apps!

By Alexandra Thomas

updated 12:48 PM EDT, Wed June 06, 2012

The smartphone has become much more than just a cellphone to a lot of people. It’s the friend with good advice, the grandmother with great recipes, the job recruiter, the credit card machine, the Scrabble board, the underwater camera. The list goes on. And just as easily as they can help you spend money, they can also help you save money. So before you burn a hole in your pocket spending, check out some of these apps that can help keep your budget on track while you have fun this summer.

AAA Trip Tik Travel

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Find out which hotel deals are real!

By Alexandra Thomas

updated 4:51 PM EDT, Tue June 05, 2012

If you've ever had to search for a hotel, you know it can be pretty stressful and often quite a pain, especially if it's in an area you aren't familiar with. It's almost impossible to figure out when you're getting a good deal and what you should be spending to stay in certain areas. Well there's a new site called DealAngel that's supposed to make the process much less painful. You enter in the city where you'd like to stay, and the dates of your visit, and it shows you which hotels are offering the highest value for your money across the entire market.

DealAngel keeps track of price changes to figure out a fair market rate for each hotel. The site compares criteria like location, features and star value, while also taking into account each hotel's pricing in the past. It then takes what each hotel is offering for the dates you entered and compares that to the fair market rate to find which hotels are offering prices that are below what they should be charging. So then you can compare current offers and know if they're actually good deals.

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Big delays for borrowers

By Alexandra Thomas

updated 1:31 PM EDT, Tue June 05, 2012

Clark explains how to speed up the process if you're ready to refinance your home loan.

Easyshift for easy money

By Alexandra Thomas

updated 6:13 PM EDT, Mon June 04, 2012

The San Francisco start-up Quri created a free app called EasyShift that helps consumers make a few bucks while shopping. When you sign up or log in through Facebook, you see pins pop up on a map of your area. Each pin represents a "shift," and for a small sum of money, somewhere between $3 and $8, you go to a local retailer and complete an assignment, called a "shift."

When you click on a specific shift, you will see instructions including where in the store to find certain products and directions for the specific assignment. The tasks may require answering a few questions about pricing info or taking some photos. Opportunities are available at the mall, grocery stores, gas stations, coffee shops and in some places even at movie theaters. The tasks are usually pretty quick and users are paid daily via paypal.

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Best ice cream treats? Here's the scoop!

By Dave Siff

updated 12:12 PM EDT, Fri June 01, 2012

If you’re racing the calendar to get your body in swimsuit shape for the pool or the beach, ice cream might be the last thing on your mind.

But let’s face it -- there’s no better time for a sweet, frozen treat than the long, hot days of late spring and summer. Besides, even the most committed dieters are entitled to a “cheat day” now and then.

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Filed under: Clark howard

Homesnap real estate app

By Alexandra Thomas

updated 10:04 AM EDT, Fri June 01, 2012

Clark tells you how the home-buying process just got easier.

7 ways to avoid unexpected medical bills

By Alexandra Thomas

updated 3:10 PM EDT, Thu May 31, 2012

Have you ever left the hospital or doctor’s office with a really good understanding of what you just paid for and why you paid that much? A lot of people would say no, and that’s a big problem.

Most Americans would be very surprised to find out just how much health care costs can vary, even within the same network. What you pay may have absolutely nothing to do with the quality of the service provided, and it’s possible you could have gotten the same service for 90% less than what you paid, but no one told you how. That seems fair, right?

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