Main Street Dollars

—

by

in Checking & Savings

No credit union member has ever lost a penny of federally insured savings, but a credit union failure still upends daily banking for a few days while the money moves. The National Credit Union Administration says insured funds are typically back in members’ hands within about three days of a credit union closing its doors,…

The CFPB is drafting a rule that would let banks charge for sending your data to apps.

—

by

in Fees & Overdraft

Millions of people connect a bank account to a budgeting app, a bill-negotiation service, or an automated investing tool without ever paying a separate charge for the privilege. That arrangement may not last. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is working on a new rule that would let banks and credit unions charge outside apps for…

Borrowers with older loans have until July 1, 2028 to pick among three surviving repayment plans.

—

by

July 1, 2028 sounds distant, but it is the real deadline the Department of Education has set for a group of federal student loan borrowers who are easy to overlook: people whose loans predate this summer’s repayment overhaul. Borrowers with loans made before July 1, 2026, who are still sitting in one of the phased-out…

The Education Department has closed loan-forgiveness buyback to anyone entering the two newest repayment plans.

—

by

A teacher who spent two years in an ineligible forbearance while the SAVE Plan worked its way through federal court assumed she could eventually buy back that time toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness. New Department of Education guidance says she can no longer count on that if she enrolls in either of the two newest…

IRS data consent speeds an income-driven student-loan application.

—

by

Applying for an income-driven student loan plan has always meant proving what you earn, and for years that meant digging up pay stubs or a tax transcript and uploading them by hand. The Department of Education says there’s now a faster path built into the same application: give the department permission to pull the number…

The Repayment Assistance Plan matches on-time payments so balances fall.

—

by

Every income-driven student loan plan before this year had the same quiet flaw: a borrower could make every payment on time and still watch their balance grow, because the payment wasn’t large enough to cover the interest piling up each month. The Department of Education says its new Repayment Assistance Plan is built to close…

Auto pay is the department’s answer to missed payments, and 120 of them is what public workers need for forgiveness.

—

by

Borrowers working toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness have one job: rack up 120 qualifying, on-time monthly payments while employed full time by a government agency or qualifying nonprofit. The Department of Education says the single easiest way to avoid the missed payment that can slow that count is enrolling in automatic payments, and the agency…

Borrowers still parked in the shut-down SAVE plan are being moved onto Standard repayment this month, often at a higher monthly bill.

—

by

The SAVE repayment plan hasn’t been a legal option for federal student loan borrowers since a court order ended it in March 2026, but millions of borrowers were still parked inside it while the Department of Education worked out what came next. That transition is happening now. Servicers began notifying the plan’s roughly 7.5 million…

The extra point off a student-loan rate runs only through June 30, 2028, and only on Direct Loans made after July 1, 2012.

—

by