The financial news that actually matters
Buying a home comes with a stack of fees at closing, and one of the least understood is title insurance. Unlike the policies that protect against a future fire or storm, title insurance guards against the past — a defect in the chain of ownership that already exists on the day of purchase but has…
Homeowners insurance renewals have been arriving with jarring numbers, as premiums climb across much of the country and some carriers quietly drop policies they no longer want. Many retirees simply pay the higher bill and move on, assuming loyalty earns a fair price. It usually does not. Insurers reprice risk constantly and rarely reward a…
Homeowners who have paid premiums faithfully for decades often assume their policy stands behind them for any disaster. Flood is the great exception. A standard homeowners policy does not pay for damage from rising water, and the gap tends to surface at the worst possible moment — after a storm surge or an overflowing creek…
A bank account is one of the few things a person can arrange to pass to a chosen heir with a single form and no lawyer. The tool is the payable-on-death designation, sometimes shown as POD or “in trust for,” and it quietly overrides the will for that one account. Retirees often assume a will…
An unauthorized charge is not just a nuisance to sort out whenever there is time — it is a countdown. Federal law gives account holders real power to reverse a fraudulent or mistaken transaction, but that power fades on a deadline measured from the statement, not from the day the fraud is discovered. Miss the…
Overdraft charges quietly climbed back toward record levels after a brief retreat, and for a retiree living on a fixed monthly deposit, one misjudged debit-card swipe can trigger a fee larger than the purchase that caused it. What many older account holders were never told is that the most common kind of overdraft is entirely…
Most of the people eligible for a new $5.5 million data-breach settlement have probably never heard of the company paying it. Doxim, Inc. is a behind-the-scenes vendor that prepares account statements and tax forms for credit unions, which means it holds sensitive financial details for members who never dealt with it directly. A December 2023…
A privacy lawsuit over one of the most sensitive kinds of personal data — reproductive health information logged inside a phone app — has produced a $59.5 million settlement that is now open for claims. The case targeted Flo Health, maker of the widely used Flo period- and pregnancy-tracking app, along with Google and the…
Comcast has agreed to a $117.5 million settlement over a 2023 data breach that exposed personal information belonging to roughly 35.8 million Xfinity customers, and the window to file a claim is still open. Eligible customers can request a flat $50 payment without submitting any documentation, and the deadline to do so has been extended…
Identity thieves rarely need to touch an existing account to do damage. The more lucrative move is to use a stolen name, birth date, and Social Security number to open brand-new credit — a card, a loan, a store account — and run up debt that lands on someone else’s record. Retirees are frequent targets,…