Author: Brian Lund
-
USDA cut its grocery-price forecast for this year to 2.5 percent
Every month, USDA’s Economic Research Service updates its outlook for how much grocery prices will rise over the full year, based on the newest inflation data available. The August update, posted August 25, lowered that outlook: food-at-home prices, the government’s term for what people spend at grocery stores and supermarkets, are now forecast to rise…
-
Stores that miss new stocking rules by November 4 lose the right to take SNAP, and wait six months to reapply
For a small grocery or convenience store that accepts SNAP, missing a paperwork deadline is rarely fatal. A new federal stocking rule set to take full effect this fall changes that calculus for one specific requirement: what a store actually has on its shelves. Retailers that cannot show enough variety in a handful of food…
-
The IRS posts refund status 24 hours after an e-filed return and four weeks after a paper one
Every filing season, the same question drives more traffic to IRS.gov than almost any other: where is my refund? The IRS answered it again this week in a routine reminder about its online tools, and buried in that reminder is a specific, checkable timeline for when a refund actually shows up as trackable in the…
-
The IRS now issues a tax compliance report lenders and employers can verify
Proving to a landlord, lender, or employer that you’re current on your taxes has usually meant handing over a tax transcript or a copy of a return and hoping the person on the other end knows how to read it. The IRS has now built a purpose-made document for exactly that situation, one that carries…
-
The IRS keeps its free guided tax software open until October 15 for incomes up to $89,000
Taxpayers who asked for more time to file their 2025 return still have a hard deadline ahead of them, and the IRS is using its late-August reminder to push people toward filing now instead of waiting until the last week. Free, guided software remains open for a large share of extension filers, but the income…
-
Checks from Navient’s $120 million student loan settlement are going out, and nobody has to file a claim
Borrowers who dealt with the student loan giant Navient during its years as one of the country’s largest federal loan servicers may already be part of a $120 million settlement that started paying out earlier this year. The money comes from a federal case accusing the company of steering struggling borrowers into a costly repayment…
-
Lenders now keep reporting charged-off card debt for years, and 23 million Americans have one on file
Charged-off credit card debt is sticking around on borrowers’ credit reports far longer than it used to, new Federal Reserve research shows. New research from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York shows that lenders have become far more persistent about keeping those charged-off balances visible on credit reports long after the debt itself has…
-
Truist waives its $12 monthly checking fee for customers 62 and older
Most bank fee waivers ask for something from the customer — a certain balance, a certain number of direct deposits, a bundled product. Truist has built one waiver path into its checking lineup that asks for nothing at all except a birth date. Customers on either side of a specific age line can skip the…
-
U.S. Bank waives its $12 checking fee at $1,500 in deposits or balance
Checking accounts that once came free with a debit card and a smile increasingly carry a monthly price tag, and U.S. Bank’s flagship consumer account is no exception. The bank’s Smartly Checking account lists a $12 monthly maintenance fee in its current pricing disclosure, and unlike a flat, unavoidable charge, dodging it depends on clearing…
-
Households with someone over 60 can hold $4,500 in savings and still get SNAP
Older adults living on a fixed income often assume that having a few thousand dollars set aside disqualifies them from food assistance entirely. That assumption is wrong for a specific group of households, and it may be costing eligible seniors benefits they never apply for. Federal SNAP rules set a higher savings ceiling for households…
