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
After the Fed’s September hike, 84% of tracked banks raised CD rates in one week, with the median one-year CD at 3.25%
Eighty-four percent of the rate changes CD Valet tracked among banks and credit unions moved a certificate-of-deposit rate higher in the seven days after the...
Nonbank ATM users have until February 10, 2027 to claim from the $167.5 million Visa and Mastercard fee settlement
A class action over surcharges at independent ATMs has produced a $167.5 million settlement between Visa, Mastercard and a certified class, and anyone who paid...
Navy Federal members who upgrade to Flagship Premier drop to 1 point per dollar on everyday buys and can’t switch back
Two rewards points on every non-travel, non-dining purchase becomes a flat 1 point per dollar under Navy Federal Credit Union’s new Flagship Premier card, a...
A five-year new-car loan from a bank averaged 7.14 percent in the second quarter, the Fed says
A driver taking out a typical five-year loan on a new car paid an average 7.14% interest rate at commercial banks in the second quarter,...
U.S. Bank raised its prime lending rate to 7 percent on September 17
The prime lending rate that sets pricing on most variable-rate credit cards and home equity lines of credit rose to 7.00% on September 17, when...
A Miami lab executive who took at least $35 million pleaded guilty in a $500 million fake COVID test billing scheme
Hasan “Lucas” Seyhun, the chief operating officer of Fast Lab Technologies, pleaded guilty September 23 to conspiracy to commit health care fraud in a nationwide...
Banks raised CD rates about 100 times in August, up from about 35 in June, NerdWallet counts
NerdWallet’s monthly tracking of certificate-of-deposit rates at 50 banks and credit unions counted about 100 separate rate increases in August, nearly triple the roughly 35...
The FTC logged more than a million impostor-scam reports in 2025 and is weighing rules that would force platforms to vet advertisers
Consumers reported losing nearly $3.5 billion to scams that impersonated government agencies and businesses in 2025, across more than 1 million reports filed with the...
A Texas clinic owner convicted in a $26 million military health care fraud bought a gold-plated Cybertruck, prosecutors say
A federal jury convicted Kevin D. Curry, a 64-year-old mental health clinic owner from Frisco, Texas, on nine felony counts tied to a $26 million...
Direct Express, the card that pays Social Security to people without bank accounts, is moving to Fifth Third Bank
A prepaid debit card that delivers Social Security, Supplemental Security Income and other federal benefits to people without a bank account is switching banks. The...
People on the Do Not Call list who got O’Reilly Auto Parts texts can claim up to $22 by September 28
Consumers whose phone numbers sat on the National Do Not Call Registry and who received unwanted text messages from O’Reilly Auto Parts can file a...
Grubhub customers holding FTC refund checks from August have 90 days to cash them
The Federal Trade Commission mailed more than $23.8 million in refund checks and PayPal payments to 640,038 Grubhub drivers and diners on August 12, working...
Californians harmed by subprime auto lender Credit Acceptance will get $6.86 million in restitution and debt relief
California’s attorney general says the state’s consumers will collect $6.86 million in restitution and debt relief from subprime auto lender Credit Acceptance Corporation, the state’s...
The FTC says Humboldt’s scam-linked merchants had chargebacks nearly 10 times the excessive-rate threshold
The Federal Trade Commission says shell merchants processed by Humboldt Merchant Services typically generated chargebacks at rates almost 10 times higher than what Mastercard and...
A payment processor will pay $12 million after the FTC said it enabled billing scams
Payment processor Humboldt Merchant Services will pay $12 million and accept a permanent ban on processing payments for certain high-risk merchants to settle Federal Trade...
A $7.3 million mortgage-fraud case had already triggered more than $493,000 in FHA insurance claims
Federal prosecutors in Texas say an alleged $7.3 million mortgage-fraud scheme had already cost the Federal Housing Administration more than $493,000 before any of the...
Four people face charges in a $7.3 million mortgage-fraud case involving FHA and VA loans
A federal grand jury in the Northern District of Texas has indicted four people accused of running a multi-year mortgage-fraud scheme that pushed more than...
Romance scammers used fake identities and urgent money requests to target older Americans
Scammers working with a Nigerian money launderer used fake social media identities to court older Americans, convinced them they had a future together, and then...
A romance-and-sextortion network took more than $2.5 million from about 150 Americans
A Nigerian national who helped run sextortion and romance scams against roughly 150 Americans made more than $2.5 million from the schemes, the Justice Department...
Justice says a September plea follows a 2025 seizure of more than $2.1 million from an elderly-fraud network
Federal prosecutors in California secured a guilty plea on Sept. 14 from Juliet Mora, an organizer of a fraud network that posed as attorneys and...