Category: Saving & Banking
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The FDIC loosened rules on networks that keep balances above $250,000 insured
Money sitting in a single bank account above $250,000 has always carried some exposure the standard FDIC insurance limit doesn’t cover on its own. Banks have spent years building networks that split large deposits across many banks to close that gap without the depositor lifting a finger, and a rule change adopted at the end…
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Under the Education Department’s new repayment plan, a student loan balance can no longer grow while payments are made
Millions of federal student loan borrowers have watched a monthly payment go out and their balance somehow tick up anyway, a result of interest accruing faster than income-based payments could cover it. The Education Department’s new repayment system is built specifically to stop that from happening. Under the plan the department finalized this year, a…
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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…
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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…
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An untouched U.S. Bank account is charged $5 a month for sitting dormant
A checking or savings account that sits untouched long enough does not just quietly wait for its owner to come back. At U.S. Bank, an account classified as dormant is charged $5 every month it stays that way, a fee that can chip away at a forgotten balance long before the state ever gets involved.…
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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…
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Household debt fell $13 billion last quarter, but 10.6 percent of student-loan balances are now 90 days late
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s newest household debt report tells two stories about the same set of borrowers, and only one of them is reassuring. Total household debt fell by $13 billion in the second quarter of 2026, a 0.1 percent dip to $18.8 trillion, according to the New York Fed’s Center for…
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Student loan borrowers who switch on auto pay by September 30 keep a 1 percent interest cut through mid-2028
The U.S. Department of Education is offering federal student loan borrowers a real discount for doing something most servicers have offered for years: paying automatically. Borrowers who enroll in auto pay by September 30, 2026, or who are already enrolled, get their interest rate cut by a full percentage point starting July 1, 2026, quadrupling…
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A Missouri credit union was liquidated this month, and two more sit in conservatorship
When a small credit union fails, most of the country never hears about it, but the roughly 183 people who banked there want to know exactly what happens next. In early August 2026, federal regulators closed a tiny credit union in the St. Louis suburb of Saint Ann, Missouri, while two other credit unions, one…
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A secured credit card with a refundable deposit can rebuild damaged credit
For anyone with a thin or damaged credit history, one of the most reliable tools to rebuild is also one of the most misunderstood: the secured credit card. It works like a regular card but is backed by a refundable deposit the cardholder puts down. Used carefully, it reports positive payment history to the credit…
