Toyota, Lexus top Consumer Reports' reliability rankings for used cars
At the bottom of Consumer Reports’ rankings were Tesla, Dodge and Chrysler.
Daily 5 report for Aug. 27: How dealers adapted during the CDK outage
Reporter Paige Hodder shows how dealers adapted and the lessons they learned from the CDK cyberattack crisis. One big message: Don’t get too dependent on technology.
6 milestones and how they might change your life insurance needs
By Ryan Brady | NerdWallet
Life is full of life-changing moments. Moving to a different city, starting a new job, becoming a first-time parent (or grandparent). But it’s also full of uncertainty — and how long we have left to enjoy life’s many milestones is one of those uncertainties.
That’s where life insurance comes in. The payout from a policy can help ease the financial burden on loved ones when the inevitable happens. And contrary to popular belief, life insurance is probably not as expensive as you think, especially if you’re young and healthy. For a 40-year-old in the market for a 20-year, $500,000 term life policy, the average cost of life insurance is just $26 a month, according to Covr Financial Technologies, a life insurance brokerage.
While having life insurance is important when anyone depends on you financially, that need becomes magnified during pivotal moments in life. If you experience any of these milestones, it may be time to evaluate your life insurance needs.
For pharma, Trump vs. Harris is a showdown between two industry foes
Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have a rare point of agreement in their otherwise bitter and divisive contest: It’s up to the government to cut high U.S. drug prices.
Harris cast the tie-breaking Senate vote in 2022 for legislation that allows Medicare to negotiate drug prices for its more than 60 million beneficiaries. Before that, she was an aggressive regulator of the drug industry as California attorney general.
As president, Trump would likely retain Medicare price negotiations unless the pharmaceutical industry can come up with something more compelling that they’d put on the table, people close to him say. In his first term, he proposed various policies aimed at reducing prescription costs but had limited success with their implementation.
The drug industry could benefit, though, if Trump remains unable to advance such proposals.
“His efforts were largely fragmented and faced resistance from both the industry and lawmakers,” said Sergio Jose Gutierrez, a political strategist who has primarily worked with Democrats in the U.S. “The lack of a cohesive strategy and the limited ability to implement significant changes made his approach less effective compared to what a Harris-Walz administration could offer.”
Survey: ATM fees reach 26-year high while overdraft fees inch back up
Karen Bennett | (TNS) Bankrate.com
Accessing the money from your checking or savings account keeps getting more expensive, if you’re using an out-of-network ATM. In fact, average total ATM fees continue their climb to $4.77 this year, according to Bankrate’s 2024 checking account and ATM fee study. This reflects an increase from $4.73 last year and the highest annual amount since Bankrate began tracking ATM fees in 1998.
“If you make an out-of-network ATM withdrawal, expect to pay, and pay more than ever before,” says Greg McBride, CFA, Bankrate chief financial analyst. “Fees have increased again and you’ll typically pay two fees — one to the ATM owner and another to your own bank. Confine cash withdrawals to in-network ATMs or get cash back when using a debit card. See if your bank participates in a nationwide ATM network that can be used free of charge,” McBride adds.
Other bank fees on the rise include overdraft fees, Bankrate found, with the average having climbed this year to $27.08, up from $26.61 in 2023. This increase comes after two straight years of declines, after the average overdraft fee had peaked at $33.58 in 2021. Overdraft fees are still charged by 94% of accounts, Bankrate surveyed, and they can run as high as $38.