Banking & Credit Cards
How banks, credit cards, and payment systems work. Covers products, rates, fees, regulations, and what consumers need to know to navigate the banking system.
Latest in Banking & Credit Cards
Scammers now pose as the agents who can recover your stolen money, and any upfront fee is the tell
The cruelest fraud aimed at retirees no longer targets people with money to lose. It targets people who have already lost it. Federal investigators are...
Comcast customers can claim $50 with no proof from a $117.5 million data-breach settlement before September 14
A $117.5 million settlement over a 2023 cyberattack on Xfinity is paying former and current Comcast customers a flat sum of about $50 with no...
Medicare warns of a “new card” scam demanding your number before benefits switch
A caller says a new Medicare card is on the way, then explains that benefits cannot switch over until the recipient reads back the number...
HSBC customers who file by August 20 receive at least $10 from a settlement
A class action settlement over HSBC Direct Savings accounts is paying a guaranteed minimum of $10 to eligible customers who submit a claim, and the...
Locking your my Social Security account blocks a deposit-hijack scammer in about two minutes
The Social Security Administration lets account holders freeze the electronic side of their record in about the time it takes to read a benefit letter,...
Social Security will no longer switch your direct deposit over the phone, a fraud block you clear online or in person
The Social Security Administration has closed one of the oldest routes that thieves used to steal retirement checks: a beneficiary can no longer redirect a...
SAVE borrowers are being told to switch federal repayment plans
Millions of borrowers parked in the SAVE repayment plan are no longer waiting for a court case to resolve before making a choice. Federal loan...
New professional students face a $50,000 annual federal loan ceiling
A new professional student can no longer assume federal loans will cover an unlimited gap between tuition and other aid. For loans made on or...
Graduate borrowing is now capped at $20,500 yearly for new students
The new $20,500 annual federal loan cap changes graduate-school financing by moving a portion of tuition risk away from unlimited federal borrowing and back toward...
Credit cards stay near 20% after the Fed leaves rates unchanged
The Federal Reserve’s decision to hold its benchmark range steady does not freeze every credit-card account at one rate, but it removes the immediate relief...
Employers can pay $5,250 toward student loans tax-free under a permanent federal rule
An employer can put money directly against an employee’s qualified student loan without adding the first $5,250 to taxable wages in 2026. The benefit runs...
Splitting cash deposits to avoid the $10,000 report can trigger a suspicious-activity filing
The legal problem with a series of cash deposits is not that each falls below $10,000. It is the purpose behind dividing them. When transactions...
Most checks require $275 available by the next business day
A bank can hold much of a check while still owing the depositor access to a small first slice. Under the current Regulation CC thresholds,...
Credit-union accounts get $250,000 in federal insurance for each ownership category
A $250,000 balance is not the universal ceiling on federally protected money at a credit union. It is the standard limit applied to each member-owner...
$250,000 in FDIC insurance applies per depositor, per bank and ownership category
FDIC insurance does not attach a separate $250,000 shield to every checking account, savings account or certificate of deposit. The standard amount applies to one...
Stolen credit-card charges generally leave you owing no more than $50
Federal credit-card protections put a $50 ceiling on qualifying unauthorized charges made with a lost or stolen card before the issuer is notified, and many...
Report a stolen debit card within two business days and federal law caps liability at $50
A stolen debit card creates a deadline measured from discovery, not from the day a monthly statement arrives. Federal electronic-transfer rules limit a consumer’s liability...
$6,725 is where federal rules let banks hold more of a check deposit longer
A large check can appear in an account balance long before all of it is available to spend. Under the current Regulation CC threshold, a...
Four scammers admitted stealing over $5 million from 400 seniors through fake family emergencies
Four men have pleaded guilty in a transnational grandparent-scam operation that federal prosecutors say stripped more than $5 million from more than 400 older Americans....
AI voice-cloning “grandchild in trouble” calls are rising, and a family code word can stop them
A phone rings, and on the line is the unmistakable voice of a grandchild, panicked and crying, saying they have been in an accident or...