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.
Patients on high-deductible health plans who pay for Ozempic based on its sticker price are set to see their monthly costs drop by roughly a third. Novo Nordisk announced it will cut the U.S. wholesale acquisition cost of Ozempic by approximately 35%, bringing the list price to $675 a month starting January 1, 2027. The…
Anyone who has ever had a credit card opened in their name by a stranger knows the damage can take months to untangle. Federal law now gives every consumer a free tool to stop that from happening: a security freeze placed at Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. The three nationwide credit bureaus must place, lift, or…
Millions of credit-card holders who pay their bills on time each month can still watch their credit scores drop for a single reason: carrying a balance that eats up too much of their available credit. Federal consumer guidance puts a clear number on the safe zone, advising that revolving balances stay at or below 30…
Maryland residents who pay electric bills through Pepco and other state-regulated utilities can expect roughly $150 a year in savings after Governor Wes Moore signed the Utility RELIEF Act into law. The measure, introduced as HB 1532 during the 2026 Regular Session and enrolled as Chapter 353, shifts infrastructure upgrade costs onto data centers and…
Savers who buy a Series EE bond from the U.S. Treasury and hold it for 20 years are guaranteed to receive at least double their purchase price, a promise backed by the full faith of the federal government. That guarantee has been in place for every EE bond issued since May 2005, when Treasury replaced…
Amazon shoppers who were charged a second time after receiving a refund may soon have a path to file claims through a settlement process, but the route to relief is tangled with other Federal Trade Commission programs that could slow them down. The FTC’s dedicated Amazon Refunds page, tied to an earlier Prime enrollment and…
Every person in the United States can now pull a credit report from Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion once a week, every week, at no cost. The three major bureaus made this access permanent through AnnualCreditReport.com, expanding on a federal law that originally guaranteed only one free report per bureau per year. For anyone applying for…
More Americans are missing credit-card payments than at any point since the aftermath of the Great Recession. Federal Reserve data for the first quarter of 2026 show the delinquency rate on credit-card loans at commercial banks climbed to 3.82 percent, the highest reading in roughly 15 years. The figure caps a steady rise from pandemic-era…
More than half of American credit-card holders are now charging groceries, utilities, and other basic costs they once paid for with cash or debit, according to a 2026 survey conducted by Achieve. The finding, which puts the share at 53%, signals that years of elevated prices have pushed routine spending onto revolving plastic for a…
American credit-card holders collectively paid a record $253 billion in interest and fees last year, roughly triple the total recorded in 2021. That figure, derived from aggregating quarterly bank regulatory filings across all reporting institutions, reflects the combined pressure of higher revolving balances and elevated interest rates on household budgets already strained by years of…