Category: Saving & Banking
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22.15% is the average rate on credit cards carrying a balance, and 90-day delinquencies are at a 15-year high
Credit-card debt is expensive even before a missed payment adds fees and credit damage. The average annual rate on bank card accounts that actually incurred interest was 22.15% in the second quarter, while serious delinquencies reached a level last seen fifteen years ago. Those two measures describe different stages of the same squeeze. The 22.15%…
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Miss the September 14 deadline and your share of SunTrust’s $240 million overdraft settlement stays with the bank
This settlement does not pay eligible people automatically. A Georgia customer who ignores the notice gives up the payment, releases the covered claims anyway, and leaves the account’s allocation with SunTrust. September 14 is therefore a real money deadline, not an administrative suggestion. The class is narrower than “anyone charged an overdraft fee” The lawsuit…
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University of Phoenix borrowers can still seek full loan forgiveness, even after taking the FTC settlement money
Cashing a settlement check normally costs you something. In most consumer cases the money arrives attached to a release, and taking it closes the file for good. The University of Phoenix payments do not work that way, and the Federal Trade Commission now says so twice on the same page: once for people whose loan-forgiveness…
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Banks and credit unions took more than $12 billion in overdraft fees last year with no federal cap
A lot of households came out of 2024 believing overdraft fees had finally been capped by federal rule. A rule really was written, finalized and published, with an effective date sitting on the calendar. It never took effect. There is still no federal limit on what a bank or credit union may charge you when…
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$5 billion in unclaimed property sits in Pennsylvania, owed to one in ten residents
Start with the odds, because they are better than almost any other place you could look for money. In Pennsylvania, more than one out of every ten residents is owed cash the state is holding and actively trying to give back. Not a lottery ticket, not a sweepstakes: real dollars from old accounts and uncashed…
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When two banks failed in July, depositors automatically became customers of the buying bank
On a Friday afternoon in July, regulators closed a tiny savings and loan in Kentland, Indiana. One week later, state officials in Kansas shut down a one-office bank in Lenexa. In both towns, the people who kept checking and savings accounts at those banks lost nothing, waited out a single weekend, and started the next…
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New graduate borrowers must cover costs above the $20,500 annual federal cap elsewhere
A graduate-school acceptance letter can now leave a much larger financing gap than the aid award once covered. Beginning July 1, new graduate borrowers generally face a $20,500 annual federal loan limit and a $100,000 aggregate graduate limit, while new Graduate PLUS borrowing is no longer available outside a narrow continuing-student exception. Tuition and living…
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Enroll in federal student-loan autopay by September 30 for a one-point interest cut
Automatic payments have become unusually valuable for eligible federal student-loan borrowers. Enrollment by September 30 can reduce the interest rate by one percentage point through June 30, 2028, instead of the familiar quarter-point discount. The savings can be meaningful on a large balance, but the arrangement works only when the bank account can reliably cover…
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More than seven collection calls in seven days may violate federal law
Federal debt-collection rules create a specific warning line for phone pressure. A collector is presumed to violate the law by placing more than seven calls within seven consecutive days about one particular debt, or by calling again within seven days after a phone conversation about that debt. The presumption is not a blanket seven-call limit…
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An unpaid personal credit line can let your bank pull money from checking
A personal line of credit and checking account at the same institution can be connected in a way many borrowers overlook. If the credit line goes unpaid, the bank or credit union may use a contractual right of setoff to take money from the deposit account. The rule depends on the agreement and debt type,…
