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
Federal regulators now say a bank may warn a customer when a frozen account is tied to fraud
Five federal banking regulators said this week that a bank or credit union has always been free to tell a customer that a frozen account,...
Scammers now use AI voice clones to fake a grandchild’s emergency call and demand cash
A caller claiming to be a panicked grandchild no longer needs to sound convincing on the fly — artificial intelligence can now generate that voice...
Callers posing as U.S. Marshals are pushing seniors to hand their savings to gold-bar couriers
A caller in Honolulu told an elderly widow this summer that he was a deputy U.S. Marshal, that her Social Security number had been linked...
Fake toll-payment texts are now the fastest-growing government-imposter scam
Fake text messages demanding instant payment for an unpaid highway toll have become the fastest-growing form of government-imposter fraud, and the growth now shows up...
Auto-loan delinquencies hit a record 5.5%, the worst since the Great Recession
The auto loan delinquency rate climbed to a record 5.5% in the second quarter, edging past the 5.3% peak set during the depths of the...
Overdraft fees are back near $33 after Congress killed a rule capping them at $5
The average overdraft fee has climbed back to about $32.75 per transaction, according to a 2026 survey cited by financial-education site Empower, nearly matching what...
A financial adviser who pushed 2,000 clients to raid retirement accounts drew the maximum 20 years for a $380 million Ponzi scheme
A federal judge in Atlanta sentenced Todd Burkhalter, founder of the Georgia financial advisory firm Drive Planning LLC, to the statutory maximum of 20 years...
Locking your Social Security number online blocks new-account identity theft
A thief with a Social Security number and little else can open a credit card, take out a loan, or file a false tax return...
Romance and crypto “pig-butchering” scams are the fastest-growing way thieves drain retirement savings
A stranger’s message lands out of nowhere — a wrong-number text, a dating-app match, a new follower with a friendly comment — and months later,...
Elder-fraud losses hit roughly $7.75 billion last year, a 59% jump
Older Americans reported losing roughly $7.75 billion to fraud last year, a 59% jump over the prior year, according to the FBI’s own tally of...
A Doxim data-breach settlement pays credit-union members up to $5,000, or $100 with no proof, by October 13
A $5.5 million settlement is now open to people notified that their personal information was exposed in a December 2023 data breach at Doxim, Inc.,...
Federal agents caught the accused ringleader of a $250 million gold-and-cash scam that drained older Americans as he tried to flee through JFK airport
A criminal network accused of stripping more than $250 million from older Americans lost its accused top money-mover this week. Authorities caught the man investigators...
Splitting money across banks keeps every dollar under the $250,000 federal insurance limit
A single number governs how safe a bank deposit really is: $250,000. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation coverage protects checking accounts, savings accounts, money market deposit...
A verbal password on a bank account blocks a caller who spoofs the bank
A phone rings with the bank’s own customer-service number on the display, and the caller already knows the account holder’s name and the last four...
Fake security-alert scams are draining older Americans’ life savings, with reports of $100,000-plus losses up nearly sevenfold since 2020
Reports of business and government impersonation scams costing older Americans more than $100,000 apiece climbed nearly sevenfold between 2020 and 2024, according to a federal...
State officials are warning that “tariff rebate” texts promising a $2,000 check are a scam, because no such payment has been approved
State officials in Idaho are warning residents that text messages promising a $2,000 “tariff rebate” check are fraudulent, timed to exploit real political chatter about...
Comcast is paying Xfinity customers up to $10,000 over a data breach, or a flat $50 with no receipts, if they claim by September 14
Comcast will pay eligible Xfinity customers as much as $10,000 apiece, or a no-paperwork $50 flat rate, after a federal judge approved a $117.5 million...
A my Social Security account guards against a scammer diverting your benefits
A free my Social Security account closes off a specific fraud pattern the Social Security Administration has warned about for years: an identity thief who...
A bank must give provisional credit for a disputed debit charge within about 10 business days
Federal banking rules do not give a bank unlimited time to sit on a customer’s money while it investigates a disputed debit-card charge. Once a...
A fraud alert placed with one credit bureau automatically covers all three
Placing a fraud alert with any one of the three national credit bureaus sets off a legal notification requirement that automatically covers the other two,...