The financial news that actually matters
Consumers and small businesses sending money through Zelle or the Federal Reserve’s FedNow Service can now complete transfers in seconds without paying a fee, while major banks continue to charge roughly $35 for a domestic wire transfer that often takes hours to settle. The Federal Reserve set its 2024 fee schedule for FedNow in November…
At Home, the home-decor superstore chain, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and expanded its store closure plan to 32 locations after initially targeting 26. Liquidation partner Hilco Consumer Retail announced closing sales at the additional six stores, bringing the total number of shuttered sites well beyond the original round. For shoppers and employees at those…
Workers age 50 and older just gained a small but real bump in how much they can stash in an Individual Retirement Account. The IRS set the 2026 IRA catch-up contribution limit at $1,100, a $100 increase over the $1,000 cap that applied in 2025. The adjustment stems from SECURE 2.0, which introduced annual inflation…
Savers who stash money in a Roth IRA hold a withdrawal advantage that most retirement accounts do not offer: every dollar they personally contributed can come back out at any time, free of federal income tax and free of early-withdrawal penalties. That flexibility, grounded in federal statute and IRS distribution rules, separates the Roth from…
Every deposit account at an FDIC-insured bank carries automatic federal protection up to $250,000, and the account holder does not need to apply, register, or pay a fee. That single rule, set permanently by Congress through the Dodd-Frank Act, determines how millions of Americans can structure their savings across institutions to maximize coverage. Yet the…
Millions of American households are watching their credit-card statements climb, with the typical balance now sitting near $7,000 per person. That figure, drawn from the Federal Reserve’s tracking of revolving consumer debt, reflects years of rising balances that have not retreated even as borrowing costs have increased. The real pressure falls hardest on households already…
Nearly 7 percent of Americans with subprime credit scores are now at least 60 days behind on their car payments, a level of distress not recorded in more than three decades. The Federal Reserve published new analysis on November 24, 2025, using the FRBNY Consumer Credit Panel and Equifax credit records, showing that auto-loan delinquency…
Borrowers with lower credit scores are responsible for nearly all of the recent increase in missed auto loan and credit card payments across the United States, while prime borrowers and conventional mortgage holders show little added stress. Federal Reserve research confirms that delinquency increases among riskier borrowers have far outpaced the overall increase, creating a…
Roughly 330,000 importers are waiting for the federal government to return approximately $166 billion in tariffs that courts have ruled invalid, and a federal judge wants the money moving faster than Customs and Border Protection says it can manage. CBP told the court in a sworn filing that processing refunds for about 53 million import…
West Marine Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Delaware on May 17, 2026, setting in motion a restructuring that will shutter 59 stores across 23 states. The marine-products retailer entered into a Restructuring Support Agreement with its lenders and secured cash-collateral arrangements to keep remaining locations open during the proceedings. For thousands of…