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
AI voice-cloning scams cost victims $893 million, and seniors lost $352 million of it
Older Americans lost $352 million to AI-driven fraud schemes last year, accounting for a large share of the nearly $893 million in total losses tied...
Keeping deposits under $250,000 at each bank keeps every dollar covered by FDIC insurance
Anyone holding cash in a U.S. bank account faces a simple but high-stakes dividing line: deposits up to $250,000 per depositor, per FDIC-insured bank, per...
The FBI is warning older savers about a “phantom hacker” scam that talks them into moving money to a “safe” account
Older Americans with retirement savings are losing everything to a fraud scheme the FBI calls the “phantom hacker” scam, a three-stage con in which criminals...
Three men are charged in a scheme that talked Virginia seniors into handing savings to a courier for fake “government verification”
Three men now face federal charges for allegedly convincing elderly Virginia residents to hand over their life savings to a courier who claimed the cash...
Your bank must refund an unauthorized debit-card charge, often within 10 business days
Anyone who has spotted a charge they did not authorize on a debit card knows the panic that follows: the money is already gone from...
Federal law caps what a lost or stolen credit card can cost you at $50
Consumers who lose a credit card or have one stolen face a hard ceiling on what they can be forced to pay for fraudulent charges:...
$250,000 is FDIC-insured per bank, and using several banks covers more
Households holding more than $250,000 in deposits at a single bank risk losing the excess if that institution fails. Federal law caps deposit insurance at...
Circle K will pay $50 to customers whose data was exposed, with claims open until September 3
Massachusetts residents whose Social Security numbers and driver’s license data were exposed in a 2025 breach at Gas Express LLC now face a narrow window...
Urban One’s data-breach settlement pays up to $10,000 for documented losses, or a flat cash payment without receipts
People affected by Urban One, Inc.’s confirmed data breach now face a choice: gather receipts to claim up to $10,000 in documented losses, or accept...
A Wisconsin woman lost more than $400,000 in retirement savings after scammers posing as her investment company told her to buy gold
A Wisconsin woman watched more than $400,000 in retirement savings vanish after scammers impersonating her investment company convinced her to liquidate her accounts and convert...
Cash App is mailing settlement checks automatically after a $175 million order, with nothing to sign up for
Millions of Cash App users who reported unauthorized transactions or account fraud are starting to see paper checks arrive in their mailboxes this year, tied...
A 77-year-old lost $390,000 in retirement savings to a gold-bar scam and is now warning other seniors
A 77-year-old woman drained nearly her entire retirement account after scammers convinced her that converting her savings into physical gold bars was the only way...
Amazon is mailing new claim notices for Prime refunds of up to $51 under a $1.5 billion FTC settlement
A wave of official claim notices is landing in mailboxes and inboxes across the country, and many older Amazon customers are trying to work out...
Scam texts promising a $2,000 “tariff rebate” are spreading, and officials say never pay a fee to claim one
Talk in Washington about sending Americans a $2,000 “tariff dividend” has given fraudsters a fresh script. Scam texts and emails promising a “tariff rebate” are...
Six digits and no cost: an IRS Identity Protection PIN blocks thieves from filing a tax return in your name
Tax-related identity theft works by beating the real taxpayer to the punch. A criminal who obtains a Social Security number files a fraudulent federal return...
An 80-year-old Florida veteran lost $1.4 million to a gold-bar scam, police say
An 80-year-old military veteran in Bradenton, Florida, lost roughly $1.4 million after criminals convinced him that his financial accounts had been compromised and that the...
The “phantom hacker” scam has stolen more than $1 billion by posing as tech support, then a bank, then the government
Federal authorities are warning older Americans about a fraud that has already stripped more than $1 billion from victims by impersonating not one trusted institution...
Medicare warns of a fake “new card” text from code 42474 as open-enrollment scams pick up
Every fall, as Medicare’s annual enrollment period approaches, the volume of scams aimed at older Americans climbs sharply. Fraudsters know the calendar as well as...
Big banks’ overdraft fees are now capped at $5, a change expected to save households about $225 a year
Overdraft fees have long been one of the most resented lines on a bank statement. A single mistimed payment, a forgotten automatic withdrawal, or a...
Credit-card late fees are staying near $32 after regulators dropped a plan to cut them to $8
For a while it looked as though credit-card late fees were about to shrink dramatically. A federal proposal would have capped the typical charge at...