The financial news that actually matters
A borrower in Texas who falls behind on a payday loan can still look up the federal rule that is supposed to stop lenders from draining her bank account with repeated withdrawal attempts. The rule is right there on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s website. But as of early 2026, no one at the bureau…
If you signed up for the SAVE repayment plan and have been waiting months for clarity on your federal student loans, your window to act is about to open and close fast. Starting July 1, 2026, loan servicers will begin sending notices to millions of affected borrowers telling them to choose a new repayment plan….
A tow truck backs up to a driveway at 3 a.m., hooks a sedan with 54 payments still on the books, and hauls it to an auction lot where it will sell for thousands less than the borrower owes. That scene played out roughly 1.73 million times in 2024, according to Cox Automotive data reported…
Seven years is a long time to pay for a car. It is long enough to watch a child go from kindergarten through sixth grade, or to cycle through two presidential elections. Yet in the first quarter of 2025, nearly one in four new-car buyers who financed their purchase chose exactly that timeline, signing 84-month…
A restaurant owner running a busy dinner service in Chicago collects, say, $100 on a credit card. Roughly $8 of that is sales tax headed to the state. Another $18 is a tip headed to the server. The merchant never keeps either dollar, yet the card-processing fee, typically around 2% to 3%, is calculated on…
For three years, a firearms retailer in Fort Worth kept getting the same letter from different banks: account closed, no further explanation. He was not behind on payments. He was not under investigation. He sold a legal product, but compliance departments at three separate institutions decided his business posed a risk they did not want…
Picture a borrower in her mid-30s who has not made a student loan payment since 2020. She earns $3,200 a month after taxes. If the federal government garnishes 15% of her disposable pay, roughly $480 disappears from every paycheck before she can spend a dime on rent, groceries, or child care. No court order is…
Roughly 8 million federal student loan borrowers were enrolled in the SAVE repayment plan when courts froze it in mid-2024. Most of them have been in limbo ever since, making no payments and receiving little guidance. That changes on July 1, 2026, when loan servicers will begin sending notices requiring those borrowers to choose a…
A parent who borrowed $35,000 in federal PLUS loans to help a child finish college could be locked out of the only repayment plan that ties monthly bills to actual earnings. The deadline is June 30, 2026. After that date, the door closes permanently. Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law as…
College students borrowing federal loans for the first time this fall will pay more for the privilege than almost any freshman class in the past decade. Starting July 1, new Direct Subsidized and Unsubsidized undergraduate loans will carry a fixed interest rate of 6.52%, the steepest rate offered to incoming borrowers since the 2024-2025 award…