In 2025, the 'two strikes and you're out' rule took effect to protect consumers from repeated attempts to withdraw money

Payday lenders usually require borrowers to post-date a check or provide access to an electronic bank account

If borrowers can't pay back the loan, they can be subject to overdraft fees from their bank and other fees from the payday lender—further exacerbating the debt borrowers face.

Customers wrote just one check a year in 2024, on average

Major retailers like Target have stopped accepting checks in recent years as real-time payment systems are increasingly being implemented across the US. This shift is considered an improvement in safety—as checks are vulnerable to fraud—but can lead to some exclusion for those without access to digital devices.

Supporters of payday loans say banning them would harm low-income Americans

Many argue for a federal policy that would cap interest rates for these loans, but payday lenders say that would make it impossible for them to make money, effectively forcing them to close up shop. As a result, some argue that the policy would prevent low-income, unbanked, and traditionally high-risk borrowers from accessing credit when they need it. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

North Carolina was the first state to ban payday lending

In 2001, the North Carolina state legislature let a 1997 law that permitted the small-dollar loans expire—effectively banning payday loans. In 2005, the NC bank commissioner ruled that Advance America, a payday lending company, had been operating in the state illegally.

'Usury' is the act of lending money at an excessively high interest rate

Laws regulating predatory lending are called usury laws and vary from state to state. Payday lending has historically been exempt from some states' usury laws, and some lenders have found loopholes in state laws or business structures that allow them to provide short-term loans with high interest rates.

In 2014, there were more payday loan stores than McDonalds

That year, there were more than 20,000 payday lenders in the US, according to the St. Louis Federal Reserve, and 14,267 McDonald's locations. Politicians and consumer advocates frequently cited this statistic as a selling point for increased regulation.

In 2018, the Supreme Court sided with American Express in a case that significantly changed antitrust regulation.

The US Department of Justice sued Visa, Mastercard, and American Express in 2010 over alleged anticompetitive contracts with merchants. While Visa and Mastercard settled out of court, American Express went to trial and had its case taken all the way up to the Supreme Court—which ruled that both sides of a transaction business must be analyzed to determine a monopoly.

Congress banned banks from paying checking account interest for 80 years

Known as "Regulation Q," the act sought to stop bank competition for customers involving increasing interest rates in the 1930s. This competition led banks to make reckless investment decisions to pay higher interest rates. During the ban, banks competed by focusing on convenience (ATMs, branches), relying on fees, and building relationships.

When the US hits the debt ceiling, the Treasury uses emergency measures to avoid default

After the US reached its debt ceiling in January 2023, the Treasury deployed "extraordinary measures" to keep paying obligations. This article explains the steps, how they work, and why they last only for a limited time. (Some readers may experience a paywall.)

The 2024 Synapse collapse took $90M of people’s life savings with it

In 2024, a banking middleman called Synapse declared bankruptcy. Unfortunately, it also locked roughly 100,000 Americans out of their own money, which prompted a class action lawsuit.

The Supreme Court blocked states from setting term limits for Congress

In US Term Limits v. Thornton (1995), the Supreme Court struck down state laws that tried to impose term limits on their congressional delegations. The court ruled such restrictions unconstitutional unless added through a federal amendment.

US consumers collectively owe more than $1T to credit card companies—almost as much as they owe in auto loans.

One in five Americans has an error on their credit report, according to the Federal Trade Commission

In 2026, four US senators sent letters to two of the nation's major credit bureaus (TransUnion and Experian) after an investigation revealed that they were fixing fewer errors on consumers' credit reports.

A credit card’s grace period is a minimum of 21 days

Under federal law in the United States, an individual’s credit card payment due date must fall on the same day of each month, at least 21 days after the cardholder’s statement closing date.

In 2024, 74% of homebuyers took out a mortgage

Debt owed on mortgages made up about 70% of US consumer debt as of 2025. Mortgage collateral ensures the lender isn’t at a complete loss if the borrower defaults. Under most mortgage contracts, the property is considered collateral under the loan. This means that if a borrower doesn’t repay the loan, then the lender can seize their property.

Today, in the US, people can face years in prison for counterfeiting money

There are both federal and state laws that punish people who use or create counterfeit money. The crime can not only trigger hefty fines, but could also lead to decades behind bars.

The process of electronic funds transfer was approved in the US in 1978

An electronic funds transfer is the transfering of money from one bank account to another via computer-based systems. When it was first introduced, it was revolutionary. A video from 1980 aimed to explain the value of electronic funds transfer to consumers at the time.

The history of bankruptcy in the US dates back to the signing of the Constitution

In 1787, this founding document gave Congress the right to establish nationwide bankruptcy laws. Legislators took advantage of that power in 1800 when they passed the Bankruptcy Act of 1800, the first comprehensive bankruptcy law at the federal level.

Experts believe a Supreme Court ruling on birthright citizenship is likely in 2026

In September 2025, the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to review lower court rulings striking down its executive order on birthright citizenship. If the court takes the case, a decision is expected by mid-2026.

Financial institutions use 'Know Your Client' standards to prevent money laundering

KYC standards include verifying customers' identities and conducting regular account checks for high-risk clients to avoid money laundering schemes. These standards obligate banks to report suspicious customers and activity.

What is the 240 paychecks retirement rule?

Many people think about the large sum of money they'll require to retire comfortably. It can be intimidating. The 240 retirement method breaks that thinking down into paychecks. Specifically, the framework argues that the average retiree will need 240 paychecks to retire. Learn more here.

Driving forces behind pay transparency laws

Since 2018, pay transparency laws have been enacted in more than a few states and cities across the US. But what’s driving the trend, from a legal perspective? This law review article attempts to answer that question, citing factors such as the Great Recession and the gender pay gap—click here to learn more.

The story of Apple Pay Later, a short-lived BNPL service

Apple rolled out its own buy now, pay later service in 2023, but Apple shut it down the following year. Instead, Apple made changes to let its Apple Pay users make purchases and access installment loans through BNPL company Affirm.

Social Security trust funds are expected to be unable to pay full benefits by 2035

Most US workers have 6.2% of their gross paycheck taken out for Social Security. The government requires employers to match that 6.2% as well, for a total of 12.4%. This video dives into the specifics of how Social Security functions from a financial perspective.

529 savers can now roll funds into a Roth IRA

One of the key disadvantages of a 529 college savings plan is the possibility a beneficiary doesn’t end up going to college. Nonqualified withdrawals are subject to a 10% penalty. However, as of 2024, the SECURE Act 2.0 started allowing 529 savers to roll over $35K into a Roth IRA.

Since the 1990s, banks have sold some of the credit risk of their accounts to external investors, known as SRTs, or synthetic risk transfers

This means if the account defaults, the outside investors assume most of the risk in return for some regular payments, freeing up the bank's ledger. It is a form of insurance used by banks to allow them to free up capital. In 2024, nearly $100B worth of SRT notes were sold.

Despite being favored by 87% of Americans, Congress does not have term limits.

Long before Major League Baseball began allowing instant replay for balls and strikes, an umpire reluctantly used the technology to determine whether a hit was a home run, a move that inadvertently ushered in a new era for the sport.

The idea for the Federal Reserve was conceived in secret in 1910—with bankers donning duck hunt gear for disguise while traveling to a remote country club on Georgia's Jekyll Island

The story of Dollree Mapp, whose legal challenge over her 1957 conviction for possessing "obscene material" led to a major strengthening of the Fourth Amendment

The US Constitution is widely regarded as the longest-standing written national constitution still in force—see how it has influenced rights worldwide.

The first steps to rebuilding your credit score include getting to know exactly what's on your credit report and figuring out how far you are from the '700 club,' or 'good score' range.

Some coin denominations have ridges etched on their sides, partly to prevent counterfeiting, in a practice called 'reeding.'

Hedge funds, the private investment firms that trade a wide swath of financial assets, make money by imposing steep fees on investors and from the fund's investment performance.

11 people died from firework injuries in the US in 2024.

The United States has had a tumultuous relationship with Cuba since its 1959 revolution, highlighted by a nuclear crisis and a decades-long trade embargo.

Domino's Pizza's 30-minute delivery guarantee was responsible for the chain's 1980s surge, but it was discontinued after the company was found liable for delivery driver accidents.

Mark Twain spent decades feuding with the US Postal Service, convinced its costs and regulations were bureaucratic overreach.

SpaceX's S-1 or 'prospectus' revealed many previously unknown details about the company, including its unprofitability despite doing $18.7B in revenue in 2025, exactly how many voting shares Elon Musk will have in the company (roughly 85%), and more.

70 years ago today, city officials in Santa Cruz, California, banned rock 'n' roll to protect its youth from corruption after witnessing a 'provocative' concert the night before.

Dozens of S&P 500 stocks, including Coca-Cola and Walmart—known as the dividend aristocrats—have increased dividends every year for 25 years

For centuries, it was common to sleep in two shifts: a few hours at the beginning of the night, and a longer period beginning around midnight

Some renewable energy sources may weaken the resiliency of electric grids by removing outage buffers provided by coal- and natural gas-fired plants, which provide the system with more time to find a new power source if a plant goes down.

As of 2025, the most cited papers in science include a review of graphene, methods to improve image recognition, streamlining electron density calculations, and optimizing protein studies.

Brandi Chastain, the star of the 1999 US victory over China in the 1999 Women's World Cup, was a last-second choice to take the penalty kick that sealed the victory.

The Beatles' US label rejected the band's first two singles, 'Please Please Me' and 'From Me to You,' with one executive calling the band 'dead in the water.'

Explore chaos in this simulation of two double pendulums, where small differences in the release angles produce wildly different outcomes.

Sony set the standard for cylinder-shaped batteries when it repurposed manufacturing equipment used to make rolls of magnetic recording tape.

Apeirophobia is an overwhelming fear of living forever, perhaps stemming from the brain's inability to conceptualize an infinite life.

When caught in the mouths of cardinal fish, seed shrimp release glowing, bioluminescent chemicals, which alert predators of the cardinal fish, prompting the shrimp's ejection.