The financial news that actually matters
Restaurant owners, salon operators, and retail merchants across Illinois face a direct hit to their bottom lines starting June 30, 2026. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has issued an interim final rule and a separate preemption order that together strip away the state’s ban on charging interchange fees on tips and sales…
Service-sector businesses across the United States grew faster in May 2026, but the cost of doing business surged to a level not seen in nearly four years. The Institute for Supply Management reported a Services PMI of 54.5% for May, up from 53.6% in April, while the Prices Paid index jumped to 71.3%, the highest…
Drivers in Louisiana and Nevada absorbed the steepest auto insurance increases in the country this year, with premiums jumping 124 percent and 108 percent respectively. Across the nation, rates are projected to keep climbing in 35 states through 2026, while 15 states are expected to see some relief. Louisiana is already acting on that relief:…
Americans born in 1960 or later who claim Social Security retirement benefits at age 62 will permanently lose 30% of their monthly payment compared with waiting until full retirement age. That full retirement age has now reached 67 for this entire group, completing a phase-in that Congress set in motion more than four decades ago….
Apple is expected to show a built-in iPhone bill-splitting tool at its Worldwide Developers Conference keynote on Monday, a feature that would let users scan a restaurant receipt with their camera, extract individual line items, and assign charges to contacts for instant payment requests. The move puts Apple in direct competition with Venmo and Splitwise,…
Homebuyers in the country’s most expensive metro areas just got more room to borrow at conventional rates. The Federal Housing Finance Agency set the 2026 baseline conforming loan limit at $832,750 for single-unit properties, up from $806,500 in 2025. In high-cost counties across California, New York, and the Washington, D.C., region, the ceiling rises to…
Medicare patients waiting days or weeks for drug plan approvals could see that timeline shrink to hours. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has proposed rule CMS-0062-P, which would force Medicare drug plans to issue standard prior authorization decisions within 72 hours and urgent decisions within 24 hours. Public comments on the proposal…
Millions of lower-income workers stand to receive up to $1,000 from the federal government simply for contributing $2,000 to a 401(k) or IRA, yet roughly one in five eligible filers leaves that money on the table every year. The Saver’s Credit, codified in federal tax law as a nonrefundable personal credit, applies a sliding percentage…
Federal student loan borrowers still enrolled in the SAVE plan face a hard deadline: beginning July 1, 2026, loan servicers will start sending notices that give each borrower 90 days to pick a different repayment option. Anyone who does not respond will be automatically placed into the Standard Repayment Plan or a replacement plan by…
Credit union members who hold both regular savings and retirement accounts at the same institution can protect far more than $250,000 in total deposits, because federal rules treat each ownership category as a separate insurance line. A member with a standard share account, an IRA, and a Keogh plan at one credit union could keep…