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
Freezing your credit is free at all three bureaus and blocks a thief from opening accounts in your name
A federal law that took effect in September 2018 made it free, nationwide, to freeze a credit report at each of the three major credit...
Opting out of debit-card overdraft coverage stops a bank from charging about $35 when a purchase overdraws
A federal rule requires a bank to get a customer’s explicit opt-in before it can charge an overdraft fee on a debit-card purchase or ATM...
Credit-card interest rates are stuck near 22%, the most expensive consumer-debt cycle on record
The interest rate on credit card balances that actually accrue a monthly finance charge averaged 22.15% in the second quarter of 2026, according to the...
A federal sweep charged 25 people in a $65 million scam ring that drained thousands of seniors, seizing luxury cars and $4.2 million
Federal prosecutors in San Diego are moving from guilty pleas to prison time in a $65 million fraud and money-laundering ring that spent years draining...
Naming both a primary and a backup beneficiary keeps an account out of probate if the first dies
A payable-on-death designation is one of the simplest ways to keep a bank account out of probate, but the simplicity depends on naming more than...
A SIM-swap scam hijacks a phone number to break into a bank or brokerage account
A phone that suddenly loses all service, no calls, no texts, no data, can be the first sign that a scammer has just taken over...
A verbal password on a bank account can block a scammer who spoofs the bank’s number
Caller ID showing a bank’s real name and number no longer proves a call is genuine, because scammers can fake, or “spoof,” that same information...
FDIC insurance covers up to $250,000 per depositor, and beneficiaries can raise that limit
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation insures up to $250,000 per depositor, per bank, for each account ownership category, a ceiling that has not moved since...
A fake-overpayment scam pressures seniors to wire back money they never received
A buyer for an item listed online sends a check or money order for more than the agreed price, then asks the seller to wire...
Heirs of a reverse-mortgage borrower have limited time to repay or sell before foreclosure
When a reverse-mortgage borrower dies, the loan does not simply pass to whoever inherits the house; it becomes immediately due and payable, and a clock...
A total and permanent disability discharge can wipe out federal student loans for disabled borrowers
A federal loan discharge that erases a borrower’s entire remaining student debt is available to anyone certified as totally and permanently disabled, and most people...
Nine on-time payments can pull a defaulted student loan out of default
Nine on-time monthly payments, spread across a ten-month window, can lift a federal student loan out of default and erase the record of that default...
Defaulting on a federal student loan can also seize a tax refund and wages, not just a check
The federal government has two tools that can take money directly from a borrower who defaults on a federal student loan: intercepting a tax refund...
Five U.S. banks have failed in 2026, yet insured deposits moved to new banks intact
Five federally insured banks have failed in the United States so far in 2026, the most recent a 153-year-old Philadelphia savings bank that closed its...
A checking account with no named beneficiary can sit frozen in probate for months
A checking account with no payable-on-death name, no joint owner and no listed beneficiary does not pass to the next of kin the moment its...
Adding a payable-on-death name to a bank account sends the balance straight to a loved one
A payable-on-death designation is one of the few estate-planning tools that costs nothing, takes minutes at a bank branch, and needs no attorney: an account...
Regulators are letting big banks keep charging more than $17 billion a year in credit-card late fees
Credit card issuers collected more than $17 billion in late fees in 2024, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s own December 2025 market report...
Banks that run Zelle now reimburse some victims of bank-imposter scams that spoof a bank’s number
Banks that operate the Zelle payment network must reimburse some customers hit by bank-imposter scams, a benefit that predates the current political fight over who...
A federal grand jury charged a man with draining more than $1 million from an elderly investor’s savings
A federal grand jury in Harrisburg indicted William D. Brenner, 62, on Aug. 5 on charges that he drained more than $1 million from an...
Taking more than $10,000 out of your bank triggers a federal report, and splitting it up is itself a crime
Withdraw or deposit more than $10,000 in cash at a bank in a single business day, and the bank does not ask permission first. It...