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.
One convenience store in Cleveland is accused of trafficking more than $14,000 in food stamp benefits. It is one of 19 stores in Cleveland, Cincinnati and Columbus that federal and Ohio investigators sent formal violation notices on June 3 and 4, 2026. The notices start an enforcement process. They are not findings that the stores…
The Agriculture Department has put a price on Maryland’s food stamp mistakes: $16,587,692, assessed against the state for errors in how it paid SNAP benefits. It is the second-largest of seven state liabilities in USDA’s latest annual quality control report, and half of it is at risk of repayment. The money is a penalty on…
Equifax is taking claims through December 28, 2026 in a class action over a computer coding problem that changed credit scores and credit information it sent to third parties for about three weeks in the spring of 2022. Opt-outs and objections are due earlier, on November 27. Affiliate links — we may earn a commission….
Apple’s smartphone AI settlement pays by the device, not by the person. A household that bought three covered iPhones has to submit three separate claim forms, and all of them are due by December 21, 2026. The administrator’s rule is plain: a person who purchased more than one eligible device must submit a separate claim…
A federal judge granted final approval to AT&T’s customer data breach settlement on October 2, 2026. The deadline to file a claim passed on December 18, 2025, more than nine months earlier, and the approval order does not reopen it. For people who filed on time, the approval is a step toward a payment, not…
Federal money to replace SNAP benefits stolen by card skimmers ran out on December 21, 2024, and USDA’s own stolen-benefits page, updated September 8, 2026, still shows no replacement authority. Households hit by skimming after December 20, 2024 do not have the federal backstop that earlier victims had. The change matters most to people who…
The U.S. Treasury now lists two separate customer service numbers for Direct Express, the prepaid card that carries federal benefits for people without a bank account. Cards that begin with 5332 call 1-888-741-1115. Cards that begin with 5141 call 1-833-347-9777. The split follows a change of bank: Fifth Third Bank is replacing Comerica Bank as…
The checks from the LifeLock and Norton robocall settlement went out on September 11, 2026, and the clock on them runs out on January 9, 2027. After that date an uncashed check is void. For anyone who filed a claim and received a payment, that leaves 90 days from today to cash it or deposit…
March 30, 2026 was the last day for Capital One 360 Savings class members to choose how a settlement payment would reach them, and that date passed months before an appeal froze the case. The administrator’s site lists the payment-method deadline as March 30 and shows distribution as delayed due to appeal. What the March…
A Capital One 360 Savings account with two names on it produces one settlement payment, not two. The settlement administrator’s site says that a Class Cash Payment will be issued only to the primary accountholder listed on the account, and it gives no date for any payment because an appeal is pending. One account, one…