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
The FTC shut down a credit-repair network that took about $200 million and filed fake identity-theft reports in customers’ names
Federal regulators have moved to shut down a sprawling credit-repair operation that, they say, collected about $200 million from customers while quietly doing something that...
A Missouri woman was convicted of taking $66,000 of her mother’s Social Security while her mother lived overseas with dementia
A federal jury in Missouri has convicted a 50-year-old woman of stealing roughly $66,000 that belonged to her own mother, money drawn from the mother’s...
Port-out scammers steal your phone number to intercept the codes guarding your bank
A bank account can be drained without a password ever being guessed, because the weakest link is often a phone number rather than a login....
Bank of America customers hit by the MOVEit data breach can claim up to $100 before October 8
Roughly 200,000 Bank of America customers whose personal information was exposed in the 2023 MOVEit hack now have a way to collect a flat cash...
Chantix users can file a no-document claim from Pfizer’s $44 million settlement before September 14
Anyone who bought the prescription stop-smoking drug Chantix over a roughly six-year stretch has until September 14 to claim a slice of a $44 million...
The FDIC insures $250,000 per depositor, and adding beneficiaries can multiply that after four banks failed in 2026
Four U.S. banks have failed so far in 2026, a reminder that the $250,000 federal insurance limit is the line between a fully protected deposit...
Paying your credit-card bill before the statement closes can lower your credit score
A habit most cardholders assume can only help — paying a credit-card balance early, before the statement closes — can quietly cost a few points...
Lock your my Social Security account to block a deposit-rerouting scammer in minutes
Social Security direct-deposit theft usually leaves no broken lock and no missing card. A thief who has gathered enough personal information can try to reroute...
Amazon Flex drivers who never cashed an FTC refund check are now being paid again by Zelle
The Federal Trade Commission is making another pass at getting money to Amazon Flex drivers, this time by depositing Zelle payments straight into the bank...
Jean Joseph got 20 years for running a $50 million Ponzi scheme from inside a federal prison
A Boca Raton man who kept a $50 million investment fraud running while sitting in a federal prison cell was sentenced this month to 20...
An overdraft fee is back near $27, but turning off debit overdraft can save it entirely
The typical overdraft fee is hovering right around $27, close to where it has sat for years, after a federal rule that would have capped...
Kroger’s $17 million pharmacy-savings settlement repays members who overpaid, with a December 21 claim deadline
Kroger has agreed to pay $17 million to settle a class action claiming its pharmacies overcharged insured customers on prescriptions, and shoppers who qualify have...
The FTC is automatically mailing $23.8 million to about 640,000 Grubhub drivers and customers
The Federal Trade Commission has started sending more than $23.8 million to 640,038 Grubhub drivers and customers, money that arrives on its own with no...
Federal law lets you freeze your credit for free to block new-account fraud
A single stolen Social Security number can turn into a credit card, an auto loan, or a store account opened in a victim’s name, and...
Doxim data-breach victims can take a no-proof $100, or up to $5,000 for documented losses, before October 13
People notified of the Doxim data breach can claim a flat $100 with no receipts, or up to $5,000 if they can document losses, but...
Comcast and Xfinity customers can claim $50 with no proof from a $117.5 million breach settlement by September 14
Millions of current and former Xfinity customers can claim a flat $50 cash payment, with no receipts and no documentation, from a $117.5 million settlement...
Medicare open-enrollment scams spike each fall, and Medicare never cold-calls to sell a plan or ask for your number
Every fall, the same window that lets people improve their Medicare coverage also opens a season for stealing their money. Medicare’s annual enrollment period runs...
Banks must refund unauthorized electronic transfers you report within 60 days
When money vanishes from a checking account through a fraudulent debit, an unauthorized ACH pull, or a stolen card number, federal law puts the burden...
Cash App must pay users up to $120 million under a federal consumer-redress order
Block, Inc., the company behind Cash App, is under a federal order to return as much as $120 million to users, part of a $175...
Grandparent and romance scams cost older Americans hundreds of millions last year, and a verify-first call stops most
Older Americans reported losing $2.4 billion to fraud in 2024, and two of the schemes that hit them hardest, the grandparent scam and the romance...