The financial news that actually matters
Millions of Tinder subscribers who paid higher prices for premium features simply because they were over 30 now have a path to compensation. The dating app agreed to a $60.5 million class-action settlement to resolve allegations that its age-based pricing amounted to discrimination. Eligible users face an August 18 deadline to file claims, and a…
Older adults reported $832 million in losses through bank transfers in 2024, making it the single costliest payment method for scam victims over age 60. Across all age groups, consumers lost roughly $2 billion via bank transfers or payments that same year, far outpacing the $1.4 billion lost through cryptocurrency. The gap between those figures…
U.S. importers that paid tariffs later struck down by the Supreme Court are owed roughly $100 billion by the federal government, and the money is not arriving fast enough. Customs and Border Protection has accepted $85 billion in refund applications so far, but the Trump administration plans to appeal the court order that opened refunds…
Federal banking regulators have jointly banned the use of “reputation risk” as a basis for pressuring banks to close customer accounts tied to political, religious, or other lawful views. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Federal Reserve finalized the rule after a public comment period and…
Roughly 100,000 IBM retirees and beneficiaries have seen their pension benefits transferred from the company’s own plan to insurance giants Prudential and MetLife through a series of transactions totaling approximately $14 billion. The transfers, executed in 2022 and again in September 2024, removed billions of dollars in obligations from IBM’s balance sheet. Some affected retirees…
Five people who helped overseas scammers steal at least $8 million from elderly victims in at least 10 states have been arrested, prosecuted, and sentenced in a federal case built around a simple but effective trick: convincing seniors to convert their savings into gold bars, then sending couriers to collect them. One victim, an 82-year-old…
Four Dominican nationals pleaded guilty to running a call-center grandparent scam that targeted more than 400 seniors across the United States, stealing over $5 million from victims whose average age was 84. The operation ran out of Santiago de los Caballeros in the Dominican Republic, where staff used VoIP technology to mask caller IDs and…
Savers holding more than $250,000 at a single bank face a straightforward risk: any amount above the FDIC insurance cap is unprotected if the institution fails. A deposit placement network solves that problem by splitting large balances into sub-$250,000 pieces and distributing them across dozens of participating banks, all while the depositor maintains a single…
Billions of dollars in forgotten bank accounts, uncashed checks, and dormant insurance payouts sit in state treasuries across the country, and the people they belong to have never come looking. California alone is safeguarding unclaimed property valued at more than $15 billion, according to the State Controller’s Office. The state designated February as Unclaimed Property…
Americans who buy a Series EE savings bond today receive a federal promise that their investment will be worth twice its purchase price after 20 years. The U.S. Department of the Treasury backs that pledge with a one-time adjustment at the 20-year mark if the bond’s accrued interest falls short. Since May 2005, EE bonds…