Kelly Dilworth

No, you’re not imagining it. Increasingly so, you’re paying more up front when you pull out a credit card. Sixty-nine percent of Americans surveyed by LendingTree in 2023 reported they’d paid an extra fee when using a credit card for a purchase. A smaller, more recent survey by WalletHub put that figure at 79 percent, with 85 percent of respondents saying that credit card surcharges made them feel 'nickel-and-dimed.'"

Are reverse mortgages scams? Not always. Some lenders do offer legitimate reverse mortgages to qualifying homeowners who are over the age of 62 and have paid off all or most of their homes. But you should definitely be on guard for reverse mortgage scams if you’re considering this type of loan. Scammers often target vulnerable seniors with phoney claims and bogus offers.

A federal law is supposed to guarantee that credit report errors get fixed. So why do some people wind up spending months or even years trying to remove legitimate errors that are ruining their credit?

Take the case of Rahul Sharma of College Station, Texas. With the Fair Credit Reporting Act in place, it should not have taken Sharma six years and a meeting with a lawyer to get errors ranging from bad Social Security numbers to accounts that weren't his erased from his credit report. But desp...

Americans have been debating the wisdom of free college for decades, and more than 20 states now offer some type of free college program. But it wasn't until 2021 that a nationwide free college program came close to becoming reality, re-energizing a longstanding debate over whether or not free college is a good idea.

If you’re one of the tens of millions of people who must start making federal student loan payments again this fall, it could be a struggle to make room for them in your budget, let alone set aside any savings.

Between inflation, other debts (now with higher interest rates) and the ripple effects of an uncertain economy, will you be so stretched after the three-year break that you’ll forgo contributing to your retirement to free up the cash?

By next year, you may not have to choose.

For many people, organizing finances is equivalent to having their teeth pulled or scrubbing a greasy oven. But if you let it get out of hand, chronic financial clutter can have steep financial and emotional consequences.

“If you’re not organized, then I guarantee you’re spending way too much time and energy chasing around random pieces of information that you misplaced,” says Jean Chatzky, financial editor of NBC’s “Today Show” and host of the new “Her Money” podcast.

If “goblin mode" is more your style than neatnik, tidying up your finances may sound about as appealing as a root canal. But you might be surprised by how powerful watching a few #cleantok videos and decluttering your home and digital life can be—not just for your personal wellness, but also for your wallet.

If you're looking for a loan to help pay for an elective surgery or emergency root canal, you won't have trouble finding one. Applications for medical credit cards, which are designed to pay exclusively for out-of-pocket health care costs, are ubiquitous at specialty health care and veterinarian offices.

But be careful, say consumer advocates. Many health-care credit cards remain fraught with risks, thanks, in part, to high interest rates that can make the costs of a procedure balloon.

Our pick for best Bank of America credit card, the Bank of America® Customized Cash Rewards credit card, offers outstanding value for a no-annual-fee card. In addition to a robust sign-up bonus, this adaptable rewards card dazzles with a generous introductory offer for everyday purchases, plus extra earnings for Preferred Rewards® members.

With federal rates stalled at a 22-year-high, APRs on most new credit card offers already tower well above the 10-year historical average of 16.43 percent. But with three more Federal Reserve meetings scheduled before 2024, it could still be awhile before card APRs peak.

Think your credit card issuer only looks at your income and FICO score when deciding what kind of credit card you deserve? Not anymore.

As millions of Americans recover from the sharpest downturn since the Great Depression, a growing number of credit card issuers are quietly testing new, more comprehensive ways to evaluate customers' creditworthiness.

If you've ever sought a mortgage, a car loan or a credit card, you've likely been advised that the best deals go to those with the best credit scores. But as a growing number of lenders and credit score developers invent new ways to measure creditworthiness, that advice may soon be out-of-date.

Some lenders are now rejecting the traditional credit score -- which is typically packaged and sold by a major analytics company such as FICO or VantageScore -- and are creating their own …

Forget about trying to keep your personal details private in today's "big data" age, says Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, co-author of the book "Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work and Think."

Organizations ranging from credit card companies to nonprofit hospitals already have access to an unprecedented number of facts about the way you live, thanks to a trail of information you leave behind ...

When writer and adventurer Ken Ilgunas was accepted into a prestigious graduate program at Duke University in the fall of 2009, he knew his options were limited. He could go into debt for the second time in less than three years and live on the cheap like many graduate students. Or he could cut his expenses even further and move into a $1,500 used Econoline van (complete with window blinds and a fold-down bed) that he figured he could park on campus to avoid paying rent.

Ilgunas chose the van...

If you’ve ever felt so moved by your financial situation that you cried over it, you’re far from alone. According to a recent survey by LendingTree, nearly 70% of Americans admit to becoming emotional over their finances.

While some say they’ve been moved to tears by joyful events, such as a financial windfall or treasured gift, many more Americans say that financially stressful experiences, such as a lost job, mounting debt or a pinched budget, were responsible for their weeping.

The survey’...