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.
A crime that seems old-fashioned has surged back with modern intensity. Thieves steal checks from the mail, chemically erase the ink to change the payee and amount, and cash them for far more than the original bill. Because the theft starts at the mailbox, a few careful habits about how and where mail is sent…
A device no bigger than a card reader, slipped over the slot on a gas pump or ATM, can quietly capture a debit card’s information in the instant it takes to pay. The stolen data can then be used to drain an account or make counterfeit cards. Because the theft happens invisibly, the best protection…
The steady stream of preapproved credit-card and insurance offers arriving in the mail is more than clutter. Each one is a slip of personal financial information that a thief can steal from a mailbox and use to open an account. A single federal opt-out system lets a person turn off those offers, cutting both the…
Catching fraud early is often the difference between a minor annoyance and a financial ordeal, and one of the best early-warning tools is free. Every consumer can review their credit reports from all three major bureaus at no cost, and the reports are now available far more frequently than most people realize. Checking them regularly…
A class-action settlement tied to a convenience-store data breach is offering eligible customers a modest cash payment with no paperwork required, or a larger reimbursement for those who can document losses. The window to file is closing soon, which makes this a timely example of how these settlements work and how to tell a real…
Another corporate data breach has produced another class-action settlement, and this one reaches shoppers of Lands’ End, the Wisconsin-based clothing retailer. The proposed deal would compensate customers whose personal information was exposed in a security incident dating to December 2024, and the window to file is open now. For older shoppers, whose longer credit histories…
Millions of Comcast and Xfinity customers whose personal information was exposed in a 2023 data breach have a limited window to collect money from a class-action settlement. The payout can be as modest as a flat cash sum that requires no paperwork, or as large as several thousand dollars for those who can document real…
Every year, banks, brokerages, and other financial companies pay penalties to settle government findings that they charged customers illegal or hidden fees. What many consumers do not realize is that a large share of that money is meant to flow back to the people who were overcharged, and it often arrives without anyone having to…
Two of the most effective defenses against a drained retirement account cost nothing and take only a phone call to set up: naming a trusted contact on financial accounts and switching on alerts for large transfers. Together they put a second set of eyes on the money, so a sudden, out-of-character withdrawal gets flagged before…
Federal law caps how much a consumer can lose to an unauthorized bank charge or transfer, but the protection is built on a clock. The size of that cap depends almost entirely on how fast the fraud is reported, and the amount at stake can swing from zero to an entire account balance based on…