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 who bought furniture from Albany Park now have until Aug. 18, 2026, to file a claim for $115 in cash or store credit under a class action settlement processed through San Diego Superior Court. The deadline, confirmed in court docket records, gives affected buyers roughly six weeks to act. Missing the cutoff means forfeiting…
Workers enrolled in high-deductible health plans face a growing share of routine medical bills out of their own pockets. Federal tax law offers one vehicle that softens that blow at every stage of the money’s life cycle: the health savings account. Under the Internal Revenue Code, HSA dollars are not taxed when contributed, not taxed…
New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s office has been sitting on roughly $10 billion in unclaimed funds, and a program launched in January 2025 now sends checks directly to verified owners of small accounts without requiring them to file a claim. Through April 2026, the Expedited Payment Program had issued more than 210,000 checks totaling…
Consumers who bought Tom’s of Maine toothpaste over the past five years can now file for cash payments without providing a receipt, part of a wave of class-action settlements distributing money this month. The Tom’s of Maine case covers purchases made in the United States between November 21, 2020, and March 6, 2026. The settlement…
Households carrying credit card debt through 2024 faced an average interest rate of 21.5 percent on balances that actually accrued charges, according to the Federal Reserve’s G.19 consumer credit release. For a cardholder revolving the national average balance of roughly $6,600, that rate translates to about $1,400 a year in interest alone, money that never…
Pennsylvanians who never filed a claim for lost money are now receiving checks in the mail, sent automatically by the state Treasury. Treasurer Stacy Garrity announced the first batch of 2026 Money Match checks, continuing a program that has already completed two earlier rounds since launching in early 2025. The effort covers single-owner unclaimed properties…
Roughly 130,000 California residents are receiving letters from the state telling them they may be owed money. The notices come from the State Controller’s Office, which holds approximately $15 billion in unclaimed property and is now using tax-record matching to track down the people most likely to have a valid claim. The effort marks a…
Savers holding cash at the largest U.S. banks are earning a fraction of what they could collect by moving that same money to an online high-yield savings account. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s published national average for savings deposits sits at 0.38 percent, while many online competitors advertise annual percentage yields between 3 and 5…
Consumers who were charged for Amazon Prime memberships they never agreed to can now file for refunds through a federal program that requires no receipts, no screenshots, and no proof of purchase. The Federal Trade Commission, which accused Amazon of enrolling people without clear consent and then making cancellation deliberately difficult, maintains an active refund…
Americans flying for the Fourth of July this year will pay roughly $830 for a domestic round-trip ticket, a 5% jump from 2025, according to AAA’s booking data for the holiday period. The increase lands as AAA projects 72.2 million people will travel during a nine-day window around Independence Day, a figure that would set…