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4 weeks ago | 
usnews.com | Greg Garrison |Sebastian Oliveira |Mark Evitt
Key Takeaways Electronic Series EE and Series I savings bonds earn interest for 30 years, but are redeemable after 12 months. You can redeem paper savings bonds through the U.S. Treasury Department or at a financial institution. Most banks only cash paper savings bonds for existing customers, and some won't cash them at all. Savings bonds can be a great way to diversify your finances and protect your money from market risk, or you might have received one as a gift.
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1 month ago | 
usnews.com | Casey Bond |Sebastian Oliveira |Mark Evitt
Key Takeaways Banks charge a variety of fees, which can eat into your savings if you aren't careful. When shopping around for a new bank account, it's important to know what fees the bank charges. Before opening a bank account, be sure you're aware of the requirements for avoiding or waiving fees. Bank fees can be pricey, and can catch you off guard when you can least afford them. Incurring a bank fee every now and then might seem insignificant, but over time these charges can add up.
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1 month ago | 
usnews.com | Austin Cole |Sebastian Oliveira |Mark Evitt
Key Takeaways An overdraft happens when you try to use more money than you have in your checking account. You may incur a fee for overdrafting. Overdraft protection allows you to avoid an overdraft fee by pulling funds from a savings account or line of credit to cover the negative balance. Setting up low balance alerts could help you avoid overdraft incidents and keep you from relying on overdraft protection.
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1 month ago | 
usnews.com | John Egan |Sebastian Oliveira |Mark Evitt
Key Takeaways Chase and Bank of America are the two biggest banks in the United States. Chase requires no minimum deposit for checking or savings and has more branch locations. Bank of America may offer better APYs for CDs and more access to wire transfers. While big banks tend to offer a lot of similar products, they have important differences that you can use to determine which one is right for you.
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1 month ago | 
usnews.com | John Egan |Sebastian Oliveira |Mark Evitt
Key Takeaways Online banking allows consumers to perform basic banking tasks like depositing checks, transferring money and paying bills on their computers, tablets or mobile devices. Online-only banks may offer lower fees and more robust online banking tools, but lack physical branches that could help when an app falls short.
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1 month ago | 
usnews.com | John Egan |Sebastian Oliveira |Mark Evitt
Key Takeaways The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is an independent federal agency that oversees and regulates U.S. banks while insuring deposits. At FDIC-insured institutions, each depositor is insured for up to $250,000 with deposit accounts like checking, savings and certificates of deposit in the event the bank fails. The FDIC does not insure most investment accounts like stocks, bonds or crypto. The agency also does not cover cases of theft or fraud.
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1 month ago | 
usnews.com | Jessica Merritt |Sebastian Oliveira |Mark Evitt
Key Takeaways You may be able to replace or refund a money order if you act before someone cashes it. If you want to track down and replace a stolen or lost money order you should contact the issuer and submit a request, though it may charge fees. You can prevent a stolen or lost money order by filling it out fully with specific information and creating a digital copy of the information for reference. A money order enables you to send funds securely without a bank account or large sums of cash.
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1 month ago | 
usnews.com | John Egan |Sebastian Oliveira |Mark Evitt
Key Takeaways The U.S. House and Senate voted through a resolution that overturns a proposed rule to cap overdraft fees at $5 for large banks. The president is expected to sign the resolution into law, aligning with the administration's efforts to scale back federal regulation. You can protect yourself from overdraft fees by enrolling in regular direct deposit, monitoring your transactions and setting up alerts for when your balance falls too low.
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2 months ago | 
usnews.com | Jessica Merritt |Sebastian Oliveira |Mark Evitt
Key Takeaways Your checking account balance should be enough to cover your bills, account fees and other unexpected expenses. If your balance is too low, you risk overdrafting your account and missing bill payments, which can affect your credit. If you have a high checking balance, you may be missing out on growing your money in a savings or investment account. Having too little money in your checking account can be a problem, but so can having too much.
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2 months ago | 
usnews.com | Dawn Papandrea |Mark Evitt |Sebastian Oliveira
Key Takeaways The stand-alone Zelle app is shutting down on April 1. You can still send money through Zelle via your bank's app. There are other apps that let you send payments quickly and these are easy to set up. The Zelle app is shutting down for good on April 1, 2025, marking the end of an era in the payment app world. Zelle has been around since 2017 and had its biggest year in 2024, when it exceeded $1 trillion in annual payments for the first time.
