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
A new Georgia law lets banks freeze a suspected scam transfer for up to 15 days to protect people over 65
When an older customer walks into a bank insisting on wiring their life savings to a stranger, a teller who senses a scam has long...
Medicare warns of a “new card” scam and says it isn’t issuing new cards this year
The pitch sounds official and even helpful: a caller says Medicare is sending out a new card, and all the recipient needs to do is...
Crypto-ATM and QR-code scams drained $333 million last year, and people over 60 lost most of it
Bitcoin ATMs were pitched as a convenience for buying digital currency at a gas station or grocery store, but they have become the collection plate...
The FTC is mailing more than 1 million refund checks to customers of the Brigit cash-advance app
More than a million former customers of the Brigit cash-advance app are receiving refund checks this summer, the latest payout from a Federal Trade Commission...
Credit-card delinquencies hit a 15-year high as the average card rate holds near 21%
The share of credit card balances that are seriously past due has risen to a 15-year high, even as the average interest rate on those...
Freeze your credit for free to block identity thieves from opening accounts in your name
A credit freeze is the strongest free tool an American has to stop identity thieves from opening new accounts, and federal law has made it...
Scammers can hijack your phone number in a “port-out” fraud to intercept your bank codes
A stolen phone number has quietly become one of the fastest routes into an older American’s bank account. In a port-out scam, a criminal poses...
Social Security “verification” texts warning your benefits will stop are 2026’s fastest-growing scam
A text message claiming a retiree must “verify” their information or watch their Social Security benefits stop has become one of 2026’s most aggressive impersonation...
A South Dakota retiree wired more than $200,000 to scammers posing as his bank and the FDIC
An elderly Sioux Falls resident lost more than $200,000 over roughly a month this summer after scammers posing as computer-support staff, the victim’s bank, and...
The FBI warns a three-phase “Phantom Hacker” scam is draining seniors’ entire retirement savings
The FBI is warning that a scam it calls the “Phantom Hacker” is wiping out older Americans’ entire retirement and savings accounts by layering three...
A romance-scam ringleader got seven years for helping steal more than $100 million from older Americans looking for love
A Ghanaian man who spent years posing as online suitors to drain money from lonely Americans was sentenced on July 28, 2026, to 85 months...
A KYB Americas data-breach settlement pays up to $5,000 with documentation, or a flat $75 without, for claims by August 26.
A class-action settlement with automotive-parts manufacturer KYB Americas is paying affected people up to $5,000 with documentation, or an estimated $75 flat payment with none,...
Bank deposits are insured up to $250,000 per depositor, per bank.
The federal guarantee behind a bank account has a precise ceiling: $250,000 per depositor, per insured bank, for each ownership category. That one sentence hides...
A Wisconsin man was sentenced to prison for draining $135,000 from an elderly woman in a drawn-out scam.
A 38-year-old man who served as the in-person cash collector in a scheme that stripped $135,000 from an elderly Wisconsin woman has been sentenced to...
McKenzie Memorial Hospital patients hit by a cyberattack can claim up to $4,000, or a flat $50, by August 24.
Patients swept into the McKenzie Health System data breach can now choose between a flat $50 payment with no paperwork or reimbursement of up to...
Paying your credit-card bill before the statement closes can lower your score.
Credit-card issuers send just one balance figure to the credit bureaus each month, and it is rarely the balance on any given day. It is...
Three men were arrested after a scam ring drained more than $1 million from elderly Virginia victims.
Three men are being held without bond in a Virginia jail after investigators tied them to an organized scheme that has drained more than $1...
No $2,000 tariff “dividend” check is coming, and the IRS is warning about scams that promise one.
No federal law authorizes a $2,000 tariff “dividend” check, yet that promise has become the bait in a growing wave of fraud the IRS has...
An accused romance scammer used AI video to steal over $8 million from older victims, prosecutors say
A live video call used to be one of the strongest ways to test whether an online romantic interest was real. Federal prosecutors now allege...
Eleven defendants admitted roles in a $65 million fraud ring that targeted older Americans
The guilty pleas in a $65 million elder-fraud case expose a business operation built around ordinary infrastructure: call centers created the panic, short-term rentals received...