Category: Account Problems

A power of attorney exists so a trusted agent can step in and pay bills, move money, or manage an account the moment an aging relative can no longer do it alone. Banks and credit unions sometimes refuse to honor a valid one anyway, most often by insisting the document has to sit on the…

Adding a spouse, an adult child, or a caregiver to a bank account is one of the most common financial arrangements older Americans make, and it usually seems harmless. The account becomes shared for convenience: either owner can pay bills, manage money, or step in if the other cannot. What far fewer people realize is…

A misplaced wallet or a card number skimmed at a gas pump can empty a checking account within hours, and for someone living on a fixed income the timing of a single phone call often decides how much of that money ever comes back. Federal law ties a debit cardholder’s maximum loss to one thing…

An unauthorized charge is not just a nuisance to sort out whenever there is time — it is a countdown. Federal law gives account holders real power to reverse a fraudulent or mistaken transaction, but that power fades on a deadline measured from the statement, not from the day the fraud is discovered. Miss the…

A power of attorney is supposed to be the document that lets a trusted person step in and manage money when illness or age makes that necessary. Many families are stunned to walk into a bank with a properly signed and notarized power of attorney, only to be told the branch will not accept it…

Few things frighten a retiree more than opening a bank statement to find the account frozen over an old debt. What many older savers never learn is that federal rules build an automatic shield around Social Security and other federal benefits that arrive by direct deposit. When a debt collector tries to seize the money,…

The steel door of a bank vault suggests total protection, and many customers assume that whatever they lock inside a safe-deposit box carries the same government guarantee that protects their checking and savings accounts. It does not. Federal deposit insurance covers deposit accounts, not the contents of a rented box, and that gap can leave…

Money sitting quietly in a savings account, an old certificate of deposit, or a checking account nobody touches does not stay with the bank forever. After a period of inactivity set by state law, a financial institution can declare the account dormant and, if no one reaches out, eventually hand the balance to the state…

It sounds like a simple, loving arrangement. An aging parent adds an adult child to a checking or savings account so the child can pay bills, manage money, or inherit the balance without fuss. Banks make it easy, and the paperwork takes minutes. What almost no one at the branch explains is that the child…

Among the tools available to guard against identity theft, a credit freeze is one of the strongest, and since a change in federal law it costs nothing to use at any of the three major credit bureaus. It works by cutting off the one thing a thief needs to open a loan or credit card…