Main Street Dollars

Servers, bartenders and other tipped workers now have a firm answer on what does and doesn’t count toward the new federal tip deduction: an automatic service charge a restaurant adds to the bill, with no way for the customer to refuse it, is not a qualified tip, even after the money reaches the staff who…

Three credit unions closed this year, with insured shares typically paid within five days

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in Checking & Savings

A credit union chartered before World War II and a credit union serving 183 members tied to a single community organization shut down for the same underlying reason this year, five months apart, and neither event cost an insured saver a dollar. Federal regulators closed three credit unions in 2026 to date, and in two…

Woodforest Bank took an average of $94 per checking account in overdraft fees last year, more than three times Regions’ $30

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in Fees & Overdraft

A checking account at Woodforest Bank generated an average of $94 in overdraft fees during 2025, more than three times the $30 average at Regions Bank, the highest figure among the nation’s largest banks, according to a new tally of federal bank-filing data from the National Consumer Law Center. Both banks report to the same…

Four of the twenty largest U.S. banks charge no overdraft fee at all

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in Fees & Overdraft

A $34 grocery run that overdraws a checking account by even a few dollars still triggers a fee at most large banks, sometimes before the cardholder even sees the low-balance alert. Four of the twenty largest banks in the country have stopped collecting that fee under any circumstance, according to a review of overdraft practices…

Banks and credit unions collected an estimated $12.4 billion in overdraft and bounced-payment fees last year

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in Fees & Overdraft

Household checking accounts absorbed an estimated $12.4 billion in overdraft and bounced-payment fees in 2025, according to a new tally from the National Consumer Law Center. That figure covers every bank and credit union nationwide, not just the largest players, and it lands a year after Congress voted to kill a federal rule that would…

Only 40% of federal student loan borrowers are on auto pay, down from more than 80% before the pandemic

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in Credit & Debt

A payment that used to renew itself every month without a borrower lifting a finger now requires an active decision for most federal student loan borrowers. Enrollment in that automatic-payment option collapsed sometime after 2020 and has not come close to recovering, even as a new discount tied directly to it took effect this year.…

A new line on the 2026 W-4 lets overtime workers cut withholding now instead of waiting for the refund

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A line on the federal withholding form used by millions of paycheck workers quietly picked up a new function for 2026. Overtime pay already carries a federal income tax deduction created by last year’s tax law, but claiming it used to mean waiting for a refund the following spring regardless of how the money was…

Overtime must appear on the 2026 W-2 in box 12 under code TT to be deductible

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A single two-letter code sitting in box 12 of a 2026 Form W-2 now decides whether a household’s overtime pay carries a federal tax deduction at all. Under new IRS guidance, the amount an employer types next to code TT is the only figure the tax code will recognize for the qualified overtime deduction that…

Only the premium half of overtime qualifies for the new deduction, the IRS says

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