Combining finances with a partner can happen at any stage of your relationship, even if you’ve been married to your partner for a long time. It can be a great opportunity for a couple to get on the same page about what they want their financial future to look like, especially when it comes to big considerations such as child care, homeownership and retirement. An academic study published in the Journal of Consumer Research in 2023 found that couples with joint bank accounts experience less financial conflict and greater harmony within their relationships. The study results indicated that couples who…

Hurricane Helene Aftermath Prompts Card, Cash Troubles After Hurricane Helene devastated much of the southeastern U.S., survivors of the wreckage wrought by the storm are grappling with another issue: How to pay for goods and services. Across much of the region, particularly in the hardest hit areas, credit card networks have been disabled in tandem with power and internet outages. Merchants who managed to open their doors were sometimes demanding that customers use cash only because of an inability to process credit or debit card transactions. [Payments Dive] The Buying Power of Your Credit Card Points Is Tanking Inflation is…

Marcus by Goldman Sachs’ Online Savings Account earns a competitive 4.10% APY (annual percentage yield) as of 10/10/2024. This rate is much better than the national average rate of 0.45%, and is among the best savings rates around. Also, there are no monthly fees. The savings account is offered by Goldman Sachs Bank, which is a brand of the financial giant Goldman Sachs. Marcus by Goldman Sachs high-yield savings account: rates and feesMinimum requirement to earn the high rateSavingsCash ManagementCDCheckingMoney MarketSoFi Checking and SavingsAPY4.20%SoFi members with Direct Deposit or $5,000 or more in Qualifying Deposits during the 30-Day Evaluation Period…

Mercury, Yotta, Fold, Juno, Brex, Copper, YieldStreet, and a host of additional firms all provide banking-like services, but none are chartered banks. These firms all require partner banks to provide access to the banking system, and banks are exiting the business of partner banking. Without banking relationships these firms may not be able to continue. Non-bank providers of banking services have grown considerably over the past decade, and venture capital firms have invested substantial sums. Financial technology firms directly interact with customers, and in some instances, it is difficult for customers to understand that they are not directly dealing with…

Sometimes, the mark of a good bank or bank account is that you don’t have to think about it too much: It works the way you need it to and provides the services and rates you want without costing you much, if anything. But it’s a financially healthy practice to periodically assess where and how you keep your funds. Here are five common banking mistakes that you might not realize you’re making.1. Using only a checking accountIf you have a checking account, you should also have a savings account. It’s important to keep those funds separate so you don’t inadvertently…

In the older, less polite trading floors of Wall Street there was an adage that may be paraphrased as money talks, male bovine excrement walks. When the buyside titans of the investment industry like Larry Fink from Blackrock get involved in something, then the money has spoken. Bitcoin Bitcoin and cryptocurrency are not going anywhere. On January 10th, there was a massive change in the institutional attitudes and legal categorization of Bitcoin when the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved spot bitcoin exchange traded funds (ETFs). The movement of Bitcoin into a traditional investment vehicle facilitates a potentially vast increase…

NerdWallet’s overall ratings for banks and credit unions are weighted averages of several categories: checking, savings, certificates of deposit or credit union share certificates, banking experience and overdraft fees. Factors we consider, depending on the category, include rates and fees, ATM and branch access, account features and limits, user-facing technology, customer service and innovation. The stars represent ratings from poor (one star) to excellent (five stars). Ratings are rounded to the nearest half-star. How we rate banks, credit unions and other financial service providers. Read the full article here

American Consumers Continue to Rack Up Debt American consumers are continuing to rack up debt: Overall consumer credit increased at an annual rate of 2.1%, according to the latest tally from the Federal Reserve. Even after the Fed’s long-awaited rate cut, high interest rates on those credit cards have barely budged. That could be troubling as we head into the holiday shopping season. American consumers made a big dent in our collective debt early in the pandemic. Then, around mid-2021, we started running the tab right back up, to a record $1.14 trillion in credit card debt by the second…

Best free checking accountsSoFi Checking and SavingsSoFi Bank, N.A.SoFi Checking and SavingsNerdWallet Rating  NerdWallet’s ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formulas take into account multiple data points for each financial product and service.Why we like it: SoFi’s online Checking and Savings account offers competitive interest rates on both checking and savings, and customers have access to a large, free ATM network. ProsLarge, free, nationwide ATM network. Checking account pays interest once requirements are met. Chime®Chime Checking AccountNerdWallet Rating  NerdWallet’s ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formulas take into account multiple data points for each financial product…

You’ve probably heard of the “Three Body Problem”, the outstanding Chinese future fiction novel by Liu Cixin (or the perhaps the Netflix series based on it). The three body problem in the title is a real problem in physics: the motion of two bodies can be calculated with precision but adding a third body introduces unpredictable chaos. With the arrival of non-human financial services customers just around the corner, I think we are about to see similar chaos in the universe of retail financial services. We cannot predict the trajectory of products and services when we have not three bodies…