Cutting overdraft fees could save Americans $17 billion a year—but banks are slow to make changes
Over a decade since the Occupy Wall Street movement took over New York City’s financial district to protest banks’ greed and growing wealth inequality, Americans are actually paying less for their banking.
Americans are spending a lot less on overdraft fees, but it still adds up to billions
American households spent nearly $11 billion on overdraft charges last year, a cost that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has labeled a “junk fee.” That number might seem staggering, but it’s actually a lot less than consumers used to pay pre-pandemic, according to the Financial Health Network’s FinHealth Spend Report 2022 released Thursday.
The federal student loan pause is saving borrowers $1.5 billion in interest each month
As the debate around student loan debt cancellation swirls, the pause on federal loan payments is having a pronounced effect on borrowers' bottom lines: It's saving them $1.5 billion each month in interest payments, a new report estimates.
2022 FinHealth Spend Report Marks First-Ever Decline in Ten Year History of Tracking Fees and Interest Paid for Everyday Financial Services
Reduction attributed to student loan debt moratorium, pandemic-related decline in credit card debt and government stimulus funds allowing many to avoid high-cost lending; but underserved populations still pay greater proportion of fees and number of factors indicate likely rise in year ahead.
FinHealth Spend Report 2022
This year’s annual FinHealth Spend Report examines how households in America managed their finances and accessed credit during the second year of the pandemic, analyzing year-over-year trends for more than two dozen financial products and services.
BNPL effects on financially vulnerable coming into focus
The use of buy now, pay later (BNPL) services has exploded over the past few years, and only now are we beginning to learn the impact of that boom. In March, the Financial Health Network released Buy Now, Pay Later: Implications for Financial Health.
One in Four BNPL Users Are Financially Vulnerable
This is according to new data released by the Financial Health Network (FHN), which has brought to light how financially vulnerable consumers are the most likely to use BNPL and are also the most likely to struggle repaying loans.
Buy now, pay later finds an audience in the financially vulnerable. ‘It’s a slippery slope over time’
What if there was an alternative to credit cards, enabling customers to finance the products they need at 0% interest? That's a real financial product, and it's called buy now, pay later (BNPL).
For ‘unbanked’ Americans, pandemic stimulus checks arrived slowly and with higher fees. But that could change.
When Renee Whittick opened a checking account last year, the smallest financial tasks became easier.
Family Caregivers Need a FinHealth Lifeline
The role of care in our economy has entered the national spotlight, yet there’s still much we don’t know about the financial and economic consequences of caregiving.
FinHealth Spend Report 2021
With this report – an evolution of our Financially Underserved Market Size Study – we shed light on how much households paid for a variety of everyday financial products and services in 2020, through lenses of financial health, income, race, and ethnicity.
Why Financial Health Disparities Continue to Widen
One year into the COVID-19 global pandemic, new data from the U.S. Financial Health Pulse shows that Black and Latinx communities are continuing to disproportionately struggle amidst the ongoing public health crisis, and that financial health disparities appear to be widening by race and ethnicity as a result of the ongoing pandemic.