The financial news that actually matters
Merchants and banks across Illinois face a direct collision between federal and state authority over the fees charged every time a customer swipes a debit or credit card. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has issued an interim final rule that takes effect June 30, 2026, one day before Illinois’ own swipe-fee restrictions…
American households paying electric bills this summer will feel the pressure of a price surge that has been building for half a decade. The national average residential electricity price stood at 13.01 cents per kilowatt-hour in 2019, and costs have climbed sharply since then, with summer bills projected to rise again. The Energy Information Administration…
Federal student loan borrowers still enrolled in the SAVE repayment plan after July 1, 2026, will be automatically moved into the new Repayment Assistance Plan, a program that requires up to 360 monthly payments before any remaining balance is forgiven. That 30-year ceiling represents a sharp extension for borrowers who entered SAVE expecting shorter forgiveness…
Married couples filing jointly will owe zero federal tax on long-term capital gains in 2026 if their taxable income stays below $98,900, according to inflation-adjusted thresholds the IRS published through Revenue Procedure 2025-32. The new figure, which applies to assets held longer than one year, creates a concrete planning window for households that can time…
The Federal Trade Commission is warning consumers that fake CAPTCHA prompts are tricking people into installing malware on their own computers. Instead of verifying a human user, the bogus “prove you’re human” boxes instruct visitors to press specific key combinations that paste and execute hidden malicious code. The stolen data includes email logins and mobile…
American households cut their collective credit card debt by $25 billion last quarter, dropping the total to $1.25 trillion. That paydown happened at the same time late payments on credit card loans at commercial banks climbed to levels not seen in 16 years. The two trends pulling in opposite directions point to a widening gap…
Couples who hold a joint bank account can protect up to $500,000 in deposits at a single FDIC-insured institution, double the $250,000 cap that applies to an individual account. The difference comes down to how the FDIC categorizes ownership, and many households still do not realize that account titling alone determines how much of their…
Parents who borrowed federal PLUS loans to help pay for a child’s college education face a hard deadline that could strip away their only path to income-based monthly payments. The U.S. Department of Education issued guidance on July 18, 2025, stating that provisions of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act take effect immediately upon enactment,…
Owners of roughly 179,698 Ford Broncos and Rangers now face a trip to the dealership after federal safety regulators flagged a loose bolt in the front seat frame that could allow the seat to shift during a crash. The recall, reported by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, covers a large swath of two of…
U.S. citizens and resident aliens living outside the country face a hard deadline next Monday, June 15, to file their 2025 federal income tax returns. The date applies to calendar-year filers whose tax home and abode were outside the United States and Puerto Rico on April 15, 2026, the standard filing deadline. While the two-month…