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.
People notified that their information may have been exposed in American Consumer Credit Counseling’s January 2025 email-account intrusion can now file for proposed settlement benefits. One route is a $45 alternative cash claim that does not require proof of a financial loss. Claims close September 16, while the court’s final-approval hearing is scheduled for October….
A court-authorized website is accepting claims from people whose information was accessed in the American Medical Collection Agency breach after they received diagnostic services from Labcorp. The September 3 deadline is firm, but the cash figure is not: the simple alternative payment is expected to be about $50 and can change with the number of…
FINRA ordered American Portfolios Financial Services in December to pay approximately $4.6 million in restitution over charges and retained interest tied to a cash-sweep program. The order covered a past period and should not be presented as a new August action. It remains a useful lesson for retirees: “cash” inside a brokerage account can carry…
Forgotten accounts do not vanish when a bank, insurer, employer, or utility loses contact with the owner. After a state-defined dormancy period, the property is generally transferred to a government custodian that holds it for the rightful owner. The totals are enormous: California’s controller says that state alone safeguards more than $15 billion, while state…
A long-running Georgia overdraft case has reached the claim stage after the court granted final approval. Eligible former SunTrust customers can seek a cash payment without producing a receipt for each fee, but the class definition reaches back to transactions from 2006 through 2014 and carries several residency and account conditions. The September 14 deadline…
A proposed settlement tied to Vector Security’s December 2024 cyberattack has opened a cash-claim path for people whose private information was affected. The simplest option does not require bank statements, receipts, or proof of a financial loss, but it does require a valid claim by September 15. The offer is useful only to the class…
A court-authorized claims process is open for people Comcast notified after its October 2023 data breach. The choice is unusually consequential: an eligible claimant may request an estimated cash payment without receipts or document losses and time that could support a much larger claim, but the same person cannot collect both routes as separate awards….
Few requests are harder for a grandparent to refuse than a grandchild who needs a cosigner to get a car, an apartment, or a student loan across the line. The favor feels small, almost ceremonial, a signature that says the family believes in the young person. But the law does not treat a cosigner as…
When a parent or spouse dies, families rarely go looking for a life-insurance policy they were never told about. Yet policies bought decades earlier, then forgotten or hidden in a drawer no one thought to open, are exactly the kind of money that slips away. Large sums in life-insurance and annuity benefits sit unclaimed every…
Adding an adult child to a bank account usually starts as an act of trust and convenience — a way to let a son or daughter pay the bills, manage the money during an illness, or step in if something goes wrong. What often goes unspoken is that a joint owner gains full legal claim…