The financial news that actually matters
Merchants and consumers in Illinois face a split payment system starting July 1, 2026, when the state’s Interchange Fee Prohibition Act takes effect but applies only to state-chartered banks. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has already declared that national banks and federal savings associations are exempt from the Illinois law, setting up…
Teenagers looking for summer work in 2026 face the tightest hiring window on record. Employers are projected to add roughly 790,000 teen summer jobs this year, which would be the smallest seasonal gain since the Bureau of Labor Statistics began tracking teen employment in 1948. The unemployment rate for workers ages 16 to 19 already…
Three out of every four families who signed up a child for a Trump Account have not completed the step needed to receive the government’s $1,000 seed deposit, and the window for private contributions opens in fewer than six weeks. The IRS reports that taxpayers have enrolled more than 4 million children in the program,…
Americans who tucked away savings bonds in desk drawers, safe-deposit boxes, or filing cabinets decades ago now face a new reality: the federal government’s only online tool for tracking those bonds is gone, and more than $26 billion in matured bonds sit idle, earning nothing. As of September 30, 2025, the Bureau of the Fiscal…
Workers whose payroll data was exposed in a breach tied to Complete Payroll Solutions face a June 18 deadline to file claims under a $2.6 million class action settlement. Eligible claimants stand to receive an estimated $100 each, along with three years of credit monitoring. The gap between the settlement’s total value and the small…
Millions of non-pregnant adults between 19 and 64 who receive Medicaid through expansion programs will need to document at least 80 hours per month of work, job training, or other approved activities to keep their coverage. The federal compliance deadline is January 1, 2027, but states can begin enforcing the requirement sooner. Nebraska has already…
American families face a sharply higher price tag to keep their homes cool this summer, with the national average projected at $778 for the season, an 8.5 percent jump from a year ago. Households in the South Atlantic region, stretching from Delaware through Florida, stand to absorb more than $100 in additional cooling costs compared…
Taxpayers who owe the IRS will face a lower interest charge starting this quarter. The agency dropped its standard underpayment rate to 6% for the second quarter of 2026, down from 7% in the first quarter. Large corporations, however, still pay a steeper penalty: their underpayment rate sits at 8%, two full percentage points above…
Car buyers with top-tier credit scores are locking in new-vehicle loans near 4.66 percent, while those at the bottom of the credit spectrum face rates above 16 percent. The gap, spanning more than 11 percentage points, lands the average 60-month new-car loan at roughly 6.98 percent. Experian Automotive’s latest quarterly data, released on March 5,…
Tens of millions of retirees and survivors face an automatic 23% cut to their Social Security checks as early as 2033 unless Congress steps in. The Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) Trust Fund, which pays monthly benefits to roughly seven in ten Social Security recipients, is now projected to run dry one year sooner than…