The financial news that actually matters
A reverse mortgage lets a homeowner who is 62 or older convert built-up home equity into cash without a monthly loan payment, but the arrangement carries a consequence that surfaces only after the borrower has died. The debt does not vanish when the owner does. It comes due, and the relatives who inherit the house…
A stranger draining a checking account is bad enough, but the law adds a clock that can turn a bank’s loss into the customer’s. Federal rules give consumers strong protection against unauthorized electronic withdrawals, yet that protection shrinks the longer a fraudulent charge goes unreported, and it can vanish entirely after 60 days. Missing that…
The number on a phone’s screen is no longer proof of who is calling. Scammers routinely fake, or spoof, the genuine phone numbers of banks, the Social Security Administration, and other agencies so the call looks completely legitimate. That means a familiar name and a real-looking number tell a person nothing about whether the voice…
A Pennsylvania metals company has agreed to pay $3.66 million to 51 workers after federal labor regulators found it unlawfully kept striking employees from returning to their jobs. The package is unusually large for a single plant, and it includes something most workplace cases never touch: more than a million dollars in future wages for…
A dollar kept at a credit union is protected just as firmly as a dollar kept at a bank, even though most savers never learn which agency stands behind it. Federally insured credit unions carry deposit protection up to $250,000 per depositor, the same ceiling that applies at banks. The difference is the name on…
Former AT&T customers who were owed money for having their data speeds secretly slowed are getting another shot at a refund, this time delivered straight to a bank account through Zelle. The Federal Trade Commission is routing the payments to people who never cashed the check or accepted the PayPal transfer from an earlier round….
Federal and Connecticut regulators have moved to pull $4 million out of a Connecticut car dealership they accuse of charging customers to “certify” vehicles that were already advertised as certified and burying unwanted add-on products inside their auto loans. The proposed order, announced in August 2026, would channel that money into refunds for the buyers…
For the first time since 2018, taxpayers who itemize can write off far more of what they pay in state and local taxes. The new federal tax law lifted the cap on the state-and-local-tax deduction, long known as SALT, from $10,000 to $40,000. The change matters most to homeowners in high-tax states, where property taxes…
A new set of import tariffs aimed at drones is scheduled to hit on September 3, and the price of everything from a hobbyist’s camera quadcopter to a farmer’s crop-scouting aircraft is likely to move with it. The duties, running as high as 100 percent, flow from a presidential proclamation signed August 13 under a…
The word “Advantage” in Medicare Advantage sells a promise of extra benefits, but it hides a mechanism that Original Medicare largely lacks: prior authorization. Before a private Advantage plan will pay for a scan, a hospital admission, a nursing-home transfer, or a piece of home medical equipment, it can require advance sign-off, and it can…
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