The financial news that actually matters
Investors who watched their accounts grow by a steady percentage every single month, regardless of whether the S&P 500 surged or cratered, lost billions when Bernard L. Madoff’s operation collapsed. The SEC charged Madoff with running a multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme, alleging that returns to certain investors were paid out of principal from other investors…
Consumers who pay their credit card bills in full every month can still see their scores dip if the balance reported to credit bureaus climbs too high relative to their limit. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau advises keeping usage below 30 percent of available credit, and federal research confirms that utilization-style variables rank among the…
Bank of America Global Research has abandoned its forecast of no change to the federal funds rate this year and now projects three 25-basis-point hikes totaling 75 basis points in 2026, with increases expected in September, October, and December. The reversal, which came roughly a week after the bank’s prior call, follows the first Federal…
Charles Cole, a 57-year-old from Mooresville, North Carolina, told executives at a technology company he could deliver $55 billion in funding. Federal prosecutors say none of that money existed. Before the deception collapsed, Cole had already collected at least 239 million shares of Infinite Reality, a firm now known as Napster, and used those shares…
Two factors alone account for roughly 65 percent of what determines a consumer’s credit score, and millions of borrowers are making decisions about which one to fix first without clear evidence on sequencing. Fair Isaac has reported that payment history characteristics carry about 35 percent of predictive accuracy, while consumer indebtedness accounts for about 30…
An ex-spouse who was removed from a will can still collect a six-figure payout from a retirement account or life insurance policy if the account holder never updated the beneficiary form. Two Supreme Court decisions, Egelhoff v. Egelhoff in 2001 and Sveen v. Melin in 2018, define where state divorce laws end and federal rules…
Cardholders and merchants who did business with American Express face a fast-approaching deadline to file claims in a settlement tied to the company’s antitrust violations and separate fraud resolutions. The filing window reportedly closes July 15, and eligible claimants who miss it risk forfeiting their share of the payout. The case draws from years of…
Bath & Body Works plans to close 92 stores in 2026, a decision disclosed in an SEC filing dated March 4, 2026, alongside the company’s fourth-quarter and full-year fiscal 2025 results. The filing, which covers the fiscal year ending January 31, 2026, includes store tables tracking openings and closures by region and sales channel. For…
Borrowers carrying high-interest credit card debt can freeze their finance charges for as long as 21 months by opening a 0% balance-transfer card, but the tradeoff is an upfront fee of 3% to 5% of the amount moved. That fee structure is not uniform across the industry. Wells Fargo’s Reflect card, for example, charges $5…
Consumers who cancel a long-held credit card to simplify their finances risk a score drop that hits harder than many expect, even if the card has been sitting unused in a drawer for years. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau warns that closing a credit card can decrease a credit score by reducing total available credit…