Personal Finance
Day-to-day money decisions for individuals and households. Practical guidance on budgeting, saving, spending, credit, debt management, and financial planning.
Latest in Personal Finance
The FTC is mailing $23.8 million in Grubhub refunds to 640,000 customers, and the checks expire in 90 days
The Federal Trade Commission began mailing 640,038 payments worth more than $23.8 million to Grubhub drivers and diners on August 12, 2026, closing out an...
Walmart and Target dropped price matching, ending one way shoppers trimmed their bills
A familiar money-saving tactic just lost two of its biggest venues. Walmart and Target have both pulled back from price matching, the practice that once...
Airlines must send an automatic cash refund when they cancel or badly delay your flight
Air travelers who once got stuck with a voucher after an airline scrapped their flight now hold a firmer right to cash. Under a federal...
Billions in unclaimed cash sit with state treasurers, and one free search covers most states
Across the United States, state treasurers and unclaimed-property offices are holding tens of billions of dollars that belong to ordinary people who lost track of...
Buy-now-pay-later loans are starting to appear on credit reports, where they can move a retiree’s score
A form of borrowing that once stayed invisible to the credit system is beginning to surface on consumer credit reports. Buy-now-pay-later plans, the four-payment installments...
The FDIC insures $250,000 per depositor, and naming beneficiaries can lift that ceiling
A federal guarantee stands behind the money Americans keep in banks, and knowing its exact shape matters more when banks are failing. The Federal Deposit...
Idle savings are earning less as Federal Reserve rate cuts drag yields down, and locking a CD near 4.5% guards a retiree’s interest income
One number quietly decides how hard a retiree’s cash works, and lately it has been pointing down. After the Federal Reserve cut its benchmark rate...
Anyone on SNAP or Medicaid can cut a phone or internet bill by $9.25 a month through the federal Lifeline program
A federal program that predates the smartphone quietly knocks up to $9.25 off a phone or internet bill every month for households that already receive...
Walmart and Sam’s Club cut prices on thousands of summer grocery and household items to win back shoppers
In early July, Walmart and its membership warehouse arm Sam’s Club announced price reductions on thousands of summer products, a coordinated push aimed at drawing...
Seniors can deduct long-term-care insurance premiums, and the limit rises with age
Long-term-care insurance is one of the few retirement expenses that can pay off twice: once if the policy is ever used for care, and again...
Idle cash in a money-market fund earns far more than big-bank checking
Cash left sitting in a checking or savings account at a large national bank often earns almost nothing, while short-term interest rates elsewhere sit far...
Anthem drug-plan members can file a class-action claim before November 10
A settlement involving Anthem Blue Cross Life and Health Insurance Company has opened a window for certain policyholders to recover money they paid out of...
Owners of 1.8 million recalled attic ladders can claim a free repair kit
Millions of American homeowners keep a folding attic ladder tucked into the ceiling, and federal safety regulators now warn that one widely sold line of...
Buy-now-pay-later loans are starting to appear on credit reports, and they can move a retiree’s score
Buy-now-pay-later borrowing is moving from the checkout screen into the credit system. Some providers now furnish account data to national credit bureaus, and FICO has...
A free national database can turn up a deceased relative’s forgotten life-insurance payout
A family can settle an estate without knowing that an old life-insurance policy exists. Coverage may have been purchased decades earlier, the insurer may have...
A long-term-care partnership policy shields extra assets from Medicaid spend-down
A qualified long-term-care partnership policy does more than reimburse care bills. It can preserve an additional amount of savings when the policyholder later applies for...
Student-loan balances in the old SAVE plan have grown since Aug. 1, 2025, as the interest pause ended
Borrowers left in the blocked SAVE repayment plan have faced a quiet but expensive reality for more than a year: interest resumed on Aug. 1,...
A top CD still pays about 4.1% after the Fed held rates steady
One current certificate of deposit offer shows that a yield above 4% remains available even after the Federal Reserve held its policy rate steady in...
Airlines must send an automatic cash refund for a canceled or badly delayed flight when you decline alternatives
A canceled or significantly changed flight can trigger an automatic refund to the original form of payment, but only when the traveler does not accept...
Sam’s Club raised its membership fee to $60, its first increase in almost four years
Sam’s Club has reset the price of entry to its warehouses. The standard Club membership now costs $60 a year, up from $50, after the...