The financial news that actually matters
A general consumer finance category covering everyday money decisions, budgeting, saving, debt management, credit behavior, and personal financial improvement strategies.
Food stamp households that include an elderly or disabled member can deduct all of their shelter costs above half their income, with no cap. Other households run into a ceiling on the same deduction. For older renters and homeowners with high housing bills, that gap can decide how much lands on the EBT card each…
A household of two in the 48 contiguous states and Washington, D.C., can now receive up to $562 a month in SNAP, the program still widely called food stamps. That is the maximum the U.S. Department of Agriculture set for the federal year that began October 1 and runs through September 30, 2027. Alaska, Hawaii,…
The Federal Trade Commission has started sending 65,022 checks, worth more than $9.8 million in all, to people who lost money to scammers through Walmart money transfers. Each check carries a cash-by date, and the FTC says recipients should cash theirs within 90 days. Counting from the October 15 announcement, that window closes in mid-January….
Progressive has agreed to a class action settlement with Colorado drivers who say the insurer underpaid them when their cars were declared total losses. The settlement site says total payments available are approximately $15,240,887. Only people who file a claim get paid, and the deadline is February 5, 2027. Affiliate links — we may earn…
Educational Computer Systems, Inc., the Pennsylvania company that handles tax forms, tuition plans and student loan servicing for colleges, has agreed to a $6.5 million settlement over a website breach that exposed Social Security numbers. People who want a payment must file a claim by December 21, 2026. A court has not yet given final…
Meta and the other technology companies that joined a week-long Justice Department operation against scam networks in West Africa removed more than 3.7 million accounts, Pages and Groups, the department said Tuesday. Authorities in Ghana and Nigeria arrested 28 people, 19 in Ghana and nine in Nigeria, and private-sector partners identified at least $11 million…
A gallon of regular cost about $6.34 in California and $5.63 in Hawaii in AAA’s October 8 state survey, while Ohio’s $3.71 was the cheapest in the country. That is a gap of $2.63 a gallon between the two ends of the map, at a time when the national average is above $4 for the…
Federal replacement of stolen SNAP benefits has ended, and households whose EBT cards are skimmed now have no federal recourse. From October 2022 to December 2024, the federal government replaced more than $320 million in stolen benefits for nearly 670,000 households, NPR reported on October 14. Affiliate links — we may earn a commission. The…
Discovery+ now costs $6.99 a month for the plan with ads and $11.99 a month for the ad-free plan. The streaming service is part of the Warner Bros. Discovery business that Skydance finished buying on October 6. Cord Cutters News reports that current subscribers will see the higher price on bills from November 12. That…
Frozen organic berries sold at Walmart in 30 states and at Trader Joe’s in 26 can be returned for a full refund after a third E. coli recall in three months. Frutas y Hortalizas del Sur S.A., a frozen-fruit company in Chile, announced the wider recall on October 2, and the FDA posted it the…