Financial News Features

With the disruption to traditional routines caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) and the economic uncertainty it has produced, a survey by the personal finance site Debt.com found 60 percent of U.S. consumers plan to spend less on the holidays this year.

The Annual Percentage Rate (APR) is a measure of how much it will cost you to borrow money. APR is used for credit cards and loans of all kinds, and it combines the interest you will pay throughout the year plus any fees, expressed as a percentage of your principal loan amount. APRs are useful when it comes to comparing offers from different lenders.

It’s common knowledge that the costs, in time and in money, associated with having one’s personal information stolen can be devastating. Perhaps what’s surprising is how little that information brings when it’s sold: in many cases, next to nothing, according to companies that track prices on the dark web.

Despite historically low interest rates from the Federal Reserve, many retail store credit cards still charge inordinately high annual percentage rates, or APRs.

Nothing has been normal about 2020. The holidays will be different too. With financial uncertainty, qualms about traveling and the coronavirus still ever present, should you change your approach to the holidays?

Howard Dvorkin, chairman of Debt.com and a personal finance expert, talks about college loan debt.