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Student loan borrowers have until June 30 to meet a deadline that could lead to quicker debt forgiveness.
Here’s what borrowers should know.

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Student loan borrowers have until the end of June to meet a deadline that could lead to quicker debt forgiveness.
Some could even see their debt cleared immediately.

Those with several student loans who apply for so-called loan consolidation by June 30 — a move that packages multiple federal student loans into a single new loan — may benefit from the temporary policy.
Here’s what borrowers should know.

Combining loans can lead to earlier relief

Many student loan borrowers have multiple education loans, either because they borrowed repeatedly throughout college or returned to school at some point.
If these borrowers are enrolled in an income-driven repayment plan, it can mean they’re also on multiple different timelines to forgiveness. (Depending on the plan, borrowers can get any remaining debt excused after 10, 20 or 25 years.)
Under the temporary policy instituted by the Biden administration, borrowers who consolidate will earn credit toward all their loans based on the one they have been paying off the longest. They will also earn credit for certain periods that previously didn’t count, including some months spent in deferments or forbearances.

“This will ensure folks get the maximum number of months of credit towards student debt cancellation,” Jane Fox, the chapter chair of the Legal Aid Society’s union, previously said in an interview with CNBC.
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Consolidating while this policy is in place could be a good deal for many, experts say.
For example, say a borrower graduated from college in 2004, took out more loans for a graduate degree in 2018, and is now in repayment under an income-driven plan with a 20-year timeline to forgiveness. Consolidating before July 1 could allow them to quickly qualify for forgiveness on all those loans, experts say, even though they would normally need to wait at least another 14 years for full relief.
“Many borrowers will get complete debt cancellation, particularly those who have been paying for over twenty years,” Fox said.
Usually, a student loan consolidation restarts a borrower’s forgiveness timeline to zero, making it a terrible move for those working toward cancellation.

What to know about the consolidation process

All federal student loans — including Federal Family Education Loans, Parent Plus loans and Perkins Loans — are eligible for consolidation, said higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz, in a previous interview with CNBC.
You can apply for a Direct Consolidation Loan at StudentAid.gov or with your loan servicer. Experts say the process should take under 15 minutes.
Some borrowers who took out small amounts may even be eligible for cancellation after 10 years’ worth of payments if they enroll in the new income-driven repayment option, known as the Saving on a Valuable Education, or SAVE, plan.
Consolidating your loans shouldn’t increase your monthly payment, since your bill under an income-driven repayment plan is typically based on your earnings and not your total debt, Kantrowitz said.
The new interest rate will be a weighted average of the rates across your loans. More

Trillions of dollars in tax breaks enacted by former President Donald Trump are scheduled to expire after 2025 if Congress doesn’t take action.
The law included lower federal income tax brackets, bigger standard deductions and higher gift and estate tax exemptions, among other provisions. 
In the meantime, financial planners are advising clients on how to prepare.

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With trillions of dollars in tax breaks scheduled to expire after 2025, financial advisors are working with clients to prepare for the looming tax cliff.    
Enacted by former President Donald Trump, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, or TCJA, included lower federal income tax brackets, bigger standard deductions and higher gift and estate tax exemptions, among other provisions. 

If Congress doesn’t take action, those tax breaks will sunset after 2025. And if the TCJA provisions expire, more than 60% of tax filers could face increased taxes, according to the Tax Foundation.   
While the expirations are roughly 18 months away, “now is the time for clients to be focused on the fundamentals of tax planning,” said certified financial planner Jim Guarino, managing director at Baker Newman Noyes in Woburn, Massachusetts.
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Of course, with control of Congress and the White House uncertain, it’s difficult to predict which TCJA provisions, if any, could be extended.
Still, without advanced preparation, some taxpayers could have to resort to “Hail Mary planning” at the end of 2025, said Guarino, who is also a certified public accountant.

Here are some tax strategies advisors are discussing with their clients.

Consider ‘accelerating income’ 

The TCJA temporarily lowered federal income tax rates, which dropped the top rate from 39.6% to 37% through 2025. In the meantime, you could consider “accelerating income” before 2025 to maximize lower rates and expanded brackets, Guarino said.
For example, some retirees may take early or increased pre-tax retirement account withdrawals that are “above and beyond” their required minimum distributions, he said.

Another way to leverage temporary lower tax brackets is through so-called Roth individual retirement account conversions, according to CFP Nayan Lapsiwala, director of wealth management and partner at Aspiriant in Mountain View, California.
You can use the strategy to transfer pre-tax or non-deductible IRA funds to a Roth IRA for future tax-free growth. While the converted balance incurs upfront levies, your bill is typically smaller in lower tax years.

However, before incurring extra income, you need to weigh how increased earnings could trigger the so-called net investment income tax or affect phaseouts for tax deductions or credits, Guarino warned.
Plus, with added income, you’ll typically need to make quarterly tax payments to avoid underpayment penalties, he said.

Weigh ‘lifetime gifts’ for large estates

The temporary raised gift and estate tax exemption is a key provision for high-net-worth families, experts say.
Adjusted for inflation, the exemption rose to $13.61 million per individual or $27.22 million for married couples in 2024. But those limits will drop by roughly half after 2025. 
“Nobody can control when they die, but there are benefits to making lifetime gifts,” said Jane Ditelberg, director of tax planning for Northern Trust in Chicago. 

Individuals or married couples can remove assets from their estate by making lifetime gifts before the higher thresholds expire.
“But it really only applies to those people who are in a position to make a gift of more than $7 million,” Ditelberg said.

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In his new book, “Drive: Scraping By in Uber’s America, One Ride at a Time,” Jonathan Rigsby takes the reader into the driver’s seat of ride-sharing work.
“You’re forced to work long hours at odd times and to rely on bonuses and tips and surge payments to earn a decent hourly wage,” Rigsby told CNBC. “The uncertainty eats away at you.”

Halbergman | E+ | Getty Images

Most people know very little about the Uber drivers who take them to work, school and wherever else they need to go.
In his new book, “Drive: Scraping by in Uber’s America, One Ride at a Time,” Jonathan Rigsby takes the reader into the driver’s seat. Despite Rigsby working as a crime intelligence analyst for the state of Florida, he doesn’t earn enough to pay his bills, take care of his son and save for his family’s future.

When he and his wife divorced, he was earning less than $25,000 a year after taxes, alimony, child support and other debt payments. In 2016, he decided to turn to ride-sharing to make some extra money.
He eventually wrote his memoir about all that followed.
To earn “a decent hourly wage,” Rigsby told CNBC earlier this month, “you’re forced to work long hours at odd times and to rely on bonuses and tips and surge payments.”
He aimed to make $250 a week on the road, but this wasn’t always possible. After his car expenses, he earned just $80 one week.
“The uncertainty eats away at you,” he said.

A spokesperson for Uber said compensation for a driver will vary depending on a variety of factors, such as local demand.
“The median Uber driver in the U.S. is earning more than $30 per active hour, and the flexibility to work whenever and wherever they want is a core reason why many drivers turn to Uber,” the spokesperson said.
CNBC interviewed Rigsby this month. The conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Annie Nova: You eventually decided to drive for Uber, even though you had a job with the Florida government. Can you talk about why you made that decision?
Jonathan Rigsby: After my divorce, I had to learn to juggle a lot of new expenses with fewer resources. I had alimony and child support on top of rent and student loans. I was very fortunate to have a full-time job that gave me a salary and health insurance, but the burden of all these new expenses was more than a government worker’s salary could bear. A lot of ride-share drivers are living in similar circumstances to what I experienced, without having even that minimal safety net.
 AN: What was the most you made in a single week, and the least, driving for Uber?
JR: Halloween is without a doubt the most profitable time for Uber drivers in my city. People will come from as far as Miami to party in Tallahassee because it’s cheaper. In 2018, I buckled down and drove a huge number of hours during that week. On top of my day job, I probably drove for 30 hours and made more than $700. But I spent all of the money paying off car repairs that I had been forced to put on a credit card.
Then there’s a period just after the students graduate and before summer classes start when the town is just empty. I remember panicking because I’d only made about $120 in a week, and that was before factoring in all the gas I’d burned. Once I took out my expenses, I might have made $80 for 15 to 20 hours of work.
AN: I know the cost for a ride a passenger pays doesn’t reflect what a driver makes. How does it work?
JR: The split between the driver and the company on any given ride can vary a lot. Sometimes you give someone a ride and find out that the company is taking 50% of the ride’s cost for themselves. Sometimes the driver makes 80% of the ride. Companies have been slowly increasing their average take. First, it was 20%, then 22%, then 24%. Every change has been to decrease driver pay and to push the companies toward profitability.
Even when drivers are making good hourly rates, you are taking on the cost of fuel, maintenance and wear and tear. It reduces your earnings by roughly $4 to $5 per hour, which is usually the difference between being above or below minimum wage. No one gets rich doing this except Uber’s executives.

Drive: Scraping by in Uber’s America One Ride at a Time by Jonathan Rigsby.
Courtesy: Jonathan Rigsby

AN: I know Uber is not your main source of income, but it is for others.
JR: I’m fortunate to have the backstop of a salaried job, but there are lots of people out there using ride-share and delivery jobs for their basic necessities. It’s precarious and stressful. You’re forced to work long hours at odd times and to rely on bonuses and tips and surge payments to earn a decent hourly wage. The uncertainty eats away at you.
AN: Did driving for Uber make it harder to spend time with your son? What was your visitation agreement like after the divorce?
JR: In the beginning, our agreement was that I would spend Tuesday, Thursday and alternating Saturdays and Sundays with him. Even in the hardest times, I never took away from my time with him to drive. If I gave up time with my son just to work, then what was the point of everything I was doing? All of the hard work was for him. When I wasn’t with him, I was working as the ‘taxi man’ —  the name he gave to it — but I carried a little stuffed bear in my car’s cupholder with me. It was my way of taking him with me everywhere I went.
AN: During your toughest times, you write about making constant difficult decisions like whether to pay to wash your clothes or to buy food, and finding “every possible way to conceal my situation from the people around me.” Why did you feel you needed to hide your poverty?
JR: I had a full-time job with health insurance and a retirement fund and all those things they tell you make you middle class. But I was destitute, teetering on the brink of being homeless. There’s a sense that it shouldn’t be so hard to get by. You blame yourself because everything in the American ethos tells you that hard work leads to success, and if you’re struggling, it must be your own fault.
AN: You write that driving for Uber worsened your drinking problem. How so?
JR: I was out driving until 2 a.m. some nights, and the only way I could stay awake to do that was to ingest huge amounts of caffeine. When I got back to my little apartment, I’d be so wired, I’d drink myself to sleep — then get up the next morning to do it all over again.
AN: How else did the work impact your health?
JR: Sitting for long periods in your car is very taxing. I force myself to take breaks, to get out and stretch, but during really busy nights, rides come one after the other. You look at the clock and realize you’ve been sitting in one place for five hours. You’re hungry. You’re thirsty. You need to use the bathroom, but the only places that are open are fast-food restaurants. You eat cheap junk food so that you can get back on the road quickly and keep working. My blood pressure and cholesterol both suffered from the physical toll. I often worried about blood clots. 
AN: What was it about the ride-sharing that made you feel so lonely?
JR: People tap on their phones and summon this single-use servant, a person they don’t even have to talk to. You take them where they’re going and they disappear. Sometimes people are rude or mean to you for no reason, and you have no choice but to put up with it because you need the money. You’re alone when you log on, and when passengers get out, you’re alone again.
AN: Your situation changed considerably when you met another partner. What does this aspect of your story tell us?
JR: Modern American life is really precarious. Most Americans live paycheck to paycheck, and surviving on one income is becoming increasingly impossible. Having a partner helps to ease the burden by giving you a backstop, someone who can share the financial costs. Once you get a little bit of breathing room, you regain the ability to think about the future and to take a few risks. 

Author Jonathan Rigsby: Drive – Scraping by in Uber’s America One Ride At A Time
Courtesy: Jonathan Rigsby

AN: Are you done driving for Uber?
JR: I still drive on Friday nights. My driving hours are vastly reduced from what I used to do, and I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to quit driving soon. But right now, I still need that little bit of extra income. When the day comes that I don’t, I’m going to delete the apps and never do this sort of work again.
AN: How is your life different now from those days when you were driving for Uber much more?
JR: The biggest change was the ability to take care of myself and have hobbies. I’ve now learned how to paint by watching old episodes of “The Joy of Painting” on YouTube, and my apartment is full of landscapes that I painted. I’m a healthier, happier version of myself and a better, more present father for my son. There are some scars, but they’re a part of me. More

More than $32 billion in U.S. property may be affected by issues that can interfere with transferring homes from one generation to the next, according to estimates.
A situation known as heirs’ property happens when homeowners die without a will and informally leave property to multiple descendants.
Those heirs may be more vulnerable to foreclosures, tax sales or investors who try to acquire the homes for below market value.
A new philanthropic commitment from JPMorgan aims to help tackle this estate planning gap.

A potential buyer walks in to view a home for sale during an open house in Parkland, Florida, May 25, 2021.
Carline Jean | Tribune News Service | Getty Images

Owning a home can provide a way to build wealth that will transfer from one generation to the next.
But more than $32 billion in assessed values of U.S. property in 44 states and Washington, D.C., may be affected by issues that can interfere with that wealth transfer, according to estimates.

One such issue, known as heirs’ property, happens when homeowners die without a will and informally leave property to multiple descendants.
The non-formal ownership may make it difficult to pass on property, access government assistance in the event of a natural disaster and to qualify for property tax relief, according to research from JPMorgan Chase.
Those homeowners may also be vulnerable to foreclosures, tax sales, or investors who try to acquire the homes for below market value.
JPMorgan Chase on Tuesday announced it is providing more than $9.6 million in philanthropic commitments to organizations that help preserve homeownership by addressing heirs’ property issues, appraisal bias and the undervaluation of homes.
“As interest rates and mortgage costs are rising, the path to sustainable homeownership has become increasingly difficult,” Heather Higginbottom, head of research policy and insights for corporate responsibility at JPMorgan Chase, said at a Tuesday event hosted by the firm in Atlanta.

“For many existing homeowners, including many here in Atlanta, high rates of heirs’ property and appraisal bias have made it challenging to maintain homeownership and benefit from the equity of their property,” Higginbottom said.
Both heirs’ property and appraisal bias disproportionately affect communities of color.

Estimates have found that as much as half of the property owned by Black Americans is owned as heirs’ property, according to the National Consumer Law Center.
“It’s clearly disproportionately a Black and Brown problem,” said Thomas Mitchell, a professor at Boston College and director of the Initiative on Land, Housing & Property Rights. “But it’s not exclusively, by any stretch, just a Black and Brown problem.”
Meanwhile, persistent undervaluation of homes in communities of color encourages a racial wealth gap.
Homes in Black neighborhoods are valued at approximately 21% to 23% less than comparable homes in non-Black majority neighborhoods, according to research from the Brookings Institution.
JPMorgan’s philanthropic commitment will focus on preserving homeownership in targeted locations in Georgia and New York, as well as Jacksonville, Fla., Pittsburgh, and Washington, D.C.
The money will go toward organizations working to combat heirs’ property and appraisal bias issues through estate planning clinics, legal services, research and market innovations.
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That includes:

$3 million to be granted to Catapult Greater Philadelphia, a community-based nonprofit that is providing a clinic to help people who do not have a legal title to their property in their name;
$2.3 million to the Brookings Institution and Economic Architecture, two organizations that are partnering to address the devaluation of homes in Black neighborhoods;
$2 million to the Initiative on Land, Housing & Property Rights at Boston College to produce research and policy recommendations to improve property rights in underserved communities;
$889,000 for Center for NYC Neighborhoods, a community-based nonprofit that raises awareness among Black homeowners and provides free estate planning services;
$500,000 for LISC Jacksonville, an organization from the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, to expand heirs’ property and family wealth creation programs;
$500,000 to Howard University’s legal clinic, which provides estate planning and heirs’ property legal services;
$300,000 for the Alcorn State University Foundation, which will conduct research and provide recommendations for the ethical use of public heirs property data;
and $150,000 to the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund to expand legal assistance to rural homeowners in the Southeast U.S. More

Real hourly earnings, or wages after inflation, have been positive since May 2023.
That means buying power has increased for the average worker, especially those in non-managerial roles.
Real wages have been negative for two years amid fast-rising consumer prices.

Rudi_suardi | E+ | Getty Images

Americans have seen their buying power rise for a year amid falling inflation and a strong job market, which might be welcome news for households struggling to afford everyday purchases.
The average worker in the private sector saw their real hourly earnings grow 0.8% from May 2023 to May 2024, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

“Real” earnings measure the net growth in workers’ wages after inflation. In other words, the average worker in the private sector got a net raise from May 2023 to May 2024, after accounting for price growth in consumer goods and services. Their paycheck today buys more than it did a year ago.

The trend of growth in annual real earnings has persisted since May 2023, according to BLS data. It’s been especially strong for rank-and-file workers who work in non-managerial roles, data shows.
That marks a reversal from April 2021 to April 2023, when inflation spiked and eclipsed growth in the average worker’s paycheck.
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“The last year of increases in real wages is a large and important step forward for working families,” said Chris Tilly, a professor and labor economist at the University of California, Los Angeles.

“It means that they can buy more while putting in the same number of hours of work,” he added. “Or, they can decrease the total number of household work hours — for example, cutting down from two jobs to one, or having one earner reduce to part-time in two-earner families — while buying an equivalent amount.”

What happened with real earnings

Real earnings tend to grow at a positive rate during “normal” times, said Maximiliano Dvorkin, an economic policy advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
However, dynamics in the pandemic-era U.S. economy threw that equilibrium out of whack, economists said.
For one, inflation surged, peaking at a four-decade high in mid-2022.

Meanwhile, the labor market was white-hot as the U.S. economy reopened from its pandemic-induced lull. Job openings hit a record high, unemployment was near a historical low, and workers quit at record levels amid the ease of finding higher-paying gigs elsewhere.
For example, job openings peaked at more than 12 million in March 2022, up from roughly 7 million before the pandemic. That month, the average worker saw their pay growth spike to about 6% annually. Before the pandemic, average raises hadn’t exceeded 4%, according to the BLS, which tracks such data back to 2007.
The average worker got a bigger raise than they had in decades, but the raise wasn’t enough to eclipse inflation, which peaked more than 9% in June 2022. That resulted in two years of falling real wages.

However, inflation has since eased and the labor market remains strong, though it has broadly cooled since 2022, roughly to its pre-pandemic baseline.
“What we observe over the last year is a return to more normal economic conditions after the disruptive forces of the Covid pandemic waned,” Dvorkin said.
“This is good news for consumers,” since it generally equates to an increase in their well-being over time, he added.

Average “nominal” pay (i.e., before inflation) for all workers is up almost 23% to $34.91 an hour since January 2020. Pay has grown even faster for rank-and-file employees, rising over 25% to $30 an hour.
The consumer price index, a key inflation measure, is up a smaller 21% in that time.
While consumer sentiment has been improving, workers are still sour on the U.S. economy. The disconnect between the economy’s overall strength and its perceived weakness among households has come to be known as a “vibe-cession.”

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Microsoft and Nvidia will likely have a weight of around 21% in this tech ETF, while Apple will be down to about 4.5%, according to Matthew Bartolini, head of SPDR Americas Research.
The rebalance will be in effect for one quarter, even if Apple outperforms Nvidia significantly ahead of the official date.
The ETF has about $71 billion in assets under management, so a 15-percentage-point change in the fund equates to more than $10 billion.

The logo of Nvidia Corporation is seen during the annual Computex computer exhibition in Taipei, Taiwan, May 30, 2017.
Tyrone Siu | Reuters

Nvidia’s blistering rally will force a major technology exchange-traded fund to acquire more than $10 billion worth of shares of the chip giant while cutting dramatically back on Apple.
The index that the Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLK) follows will soon rebalance, based on an adjusted market cap value from Friday’s close. The new calculations show Microsoft as the top stock in the index, followed by Nvidia and then Apple, according to Matthew Bartolini, head of SPDR Americas Research.

All three stocks would have a weight above 20% in the index if there were no caps in place. But diversification rules for the index limit how big the cumulative weight of stocks with at least a 5% share of the fund can be.
As a result, Microsoft and Nvidia will likely have a weight of around 21%, while Apple will fall sharply to about 4.5%, Bartolini said.
That is a change from the prior weightings, which saw Nvidia’s weight be kept artificially low by index rules. As of June 14, Microsoft and Apple were both at about 22% each in the fund, while Nvidia was just 6%.

XLK Shake-Up

Company
Portfolio weight as of 6/14
Estimated weighting post-rebalance

Microsoft
22%
21%

Nvidia
6%
21%

Apple
22%
4.5%

Source: SPDR

The race to finish in the top two came down to the final day. As of Monday, market cap data from FactSet shows that all three companies are over $3.2 trillion and within $50 million of each other, though that data does differ slightly from the calculations used in the index.
The XLK has about $71 billion in assets under management, so a 15-percentage-point change in the fund equates to more than $10 billion. SPDR does not comment on specific trading strategies around rebalances.

The big shift in the XLK is an extreme example of how even passive index funds can diverge, especially when focusing on narrow slices of the market.
“Understanding how they might be weighted, where they’re allocated, what the rebalance frequency is, is really important because it can create differences in exposures and make what’s beneath the label seem different from fund to fund,” Bartolini said.
The fund follows the Technology Select Sector Index from S&P Dow Jones Indices, which uses a float-adjusted calculation to determine market cap. The rebalance officially takes effect at the end of this week.
The free-float adjustment for market cap accounts for large holders of an individual stock unlikely to be trading on a daily basis. For example, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway owns more than 5% of Apple, which could count against it in the index, Bartolini said.
“Its free-float market capitalization is reduced because you have so many controlled interests in the company,” Bartolini said.
The rebalance will be in effect for one quarter, even if Apple outperforms Nvidia significantly ahead of the official date.
On Monday, shares of Apple were up 2%, while Nvidia dipped 0.7%.

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New government inflation data shows the rate of price increases for food is subsiding.
But many Americans still report feeling financially strained from paying for groceries.

A customer shops at a Safeway store on June 11, 2024 in Mill Valley, California. 
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

The rate of price increases for food has subsided in recent months, according to the latest government inflation data.
However, shoppers still report feeling burdened by the prices they’re seeing in the grocery store aisles. To that point, within the past few years, 80% of Americans say they’ve felt a notable increase in the cost of groceries, Intuit Credit Karma reported last month.

Since the start of the pandemic, grocery prices have risen 25%, the report also found.
Some consumers have had to sacrifice necessities to afford food, the personal finance company found.
That includes 28% who sacrificed other needs like rent or bills to pay for groceries, and 27% who occasionally skipped meals. Additionally, 18% have either applied for or considered applying for food stamps, while 15% rely on or have considered turning to food banks.
Yet, 53% indicated they earn too much to qualify for food stamps or other government assistance but still have difficulties paying for necessities.
While most consumers report noticing higher grocery costs, 51% have also seen increases in gasoline prices; 39% said other bills like cable, electricity and internet have spiked; 27% said housing costs have gone up; and another 27% said dining out costs have risen.

The survey was conducted online by Qualtrics on behalf of Intuit Credit Karma, from May 7-13 among 2,011 adults.

The high cost of groceries has caught the attention of Congress.
“Grocery prices skyrocketed during the pandemic, and in many cases they’ve kept going up, even though the pandemic is over,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said at a recent Senate hearing.
Some retailers have moved to reduce grocery prices in response to consumer price fatigue. Target announced plans to reduce prices on about 5,000 items including meat, milk, fruits and vegetables. Amazon Fresh plans to cut prices on about 4,000 items online and in stores. Walmart has also increased its “rollbacks” on groceries and sales on other items.
For those who are truly struggling to cover grocery costs, finding a local food bank through FeedingAmerica.org may help, according to Credit Karma.  
For those who have the flexibility to reevaluate their spending, trying new strategies may also help.
“It’s a good opportunity to create smart shopping habits,” said Trae Bodge, a smart shopping expert at TrueTrae.com.
While food inflation is subsiding, certain categories still had notable year-over-year price increases as of May. That includes juices and drinks, frankfurters and bacon.
Avoiding categories where food costs are surging may help keep grocery costs low, experts say.
Where possible, consumers can shift their purchasing habits — by eating at home rather than dining out or by buying chicken instead of beef, for example — to limit the effects of rising costs, said Mark Hamrick, senior economic analyst at Bankrate.
“There is a range of opportunities to make choices and to substitute at lower prices and to get better value,” Hamrick said.
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Visiting different retailers — both in person and online — may help consumers find the best value available and take advantage of sales.
If a store has a loyalty program, Bodge recommends signing up for it to make sure purchases are eligible for discounts or rewards. Switching over to store or generic brands can also provide meaningful savings. Additionally, buying products in bulk may help save up to 40%, she said.
Certain websites and apps help make shopping more efficient.
Coupon sites like CouponCabin may give discounts for ordering groceries online. Flashfood may provide alerts to deals on overstocked grocery items. Martie also has offers on deeply discounted items.
“If you combine all of those things, you can save significantly on your groceries,” Bodge said.
The method of payment at the checkout counter may also lead to more savings, specifically concerning cash-back rewards through credit cards, she said.
To effectively use those perks, it’s important to maintain a balance you can pay off each month. Research from the Urban Institute shows Americans may be saddled with debt after turning to credit cards, buy now pay later programs and payday loans to pay for groceries. More

The Federal Reserve signaled that just one cut is expected before the end of the year, which means anyone who carries a balance on their credit card won’t get much relief from sky-high interest charges.
Rather than wait for a Fed move, consumers should take matters into their own hands, experts say.
Here are the best ways to lower your credit card’s annual percentage rate.

The Federal Reserve left rates unchanged last week and signaled that only one cut is expected before the end of the year. That means anyone who carries a balance on their credit card won’t be getting much of a break from sky-high interest charges.
“Consumers need to understand that the cavalry isn’t coming anytime soon, so the best thing you can do is take things into your own hands when it comes to lowering credit card interest rates,” said Matt Schulz, chief credit analyst at LendingTree.

The good news is there are options out there, especially if you have solid credit, he added.

Since most credit cards have a variable rate, there’s a direct connection to the Fed’s benchmark. In the wake of the recent rate hike cycle, the average credit card rate rose from 16.34% in March 2022 to almost 21% today — near an all-time high, according to Bankrate.
“As long as interest rates remain relatively high, it’s important that consumers continue to use credit smartly, especially when it comes to higher interest products such as credit cards,” Michele Raneri, vice president of U.S. research and consulting at TransUnion, recently told CNBC.
“It’s best to only use these cards to the extent there is confidence they can be paid off relatively soon, as interest can pile on quickly, particularly at the higher rates of today,” she added.

How to lower your credit card APR

Annual percentage rates will start to come down once the Fed cuts rates, but even then they will only ease off extremely high levels. Since the central bank now projects it will cut interest rates just once in 2024, APRs aren’t likely to fall much, Schulz explained.

“Those anticipating a dip in new credit card APRs in the near future should probably adjust their expectations,” Schulz said.
Rather than wait for a modest adjustment in the months ahead, borrowers could call their card issuer and ask for a lower rate, switch to a zero-interest balance transfer credit card or consolidate and pay off high-interest credit cards with a personal loan, Schulz advised.
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Cards offering 15, 18 and even 21 months with no interest on transferred balances are still out there, according to Ted Rossman, senior industry analyst at Bankrate.
“The fact that zero-percent balance transfer cards remain widely available, is, on its face, surprising,” said Rossman, particularly given the amount of inflation and the number of interest rate hikes the credit card market has weathered since the pandemic.
Meanwhile, U.S. consumers are carrying more credit card debt.
Total credit card balances have been above $1 trillion since August 2023 and are currently hovering around $1.12 trillion, according to the most recent report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
But that hasn’t deterred credit card issuers from offering generous terms on balance transfer cards, Rossman said.

“It’s actually a very profitable time for credit card issuers because rates are up and more people are carrying more debt for longer periods of time,” Rossman said. “But most of those people are paying that debt back. If we were to see the job market worsen or delinquencies to go up even more, that’s when I think issuers get nervous. But right now, it’s kind of a Goldilocks environment for credit card issuers.”
It’s also an ideal time for consumers to take advantage of all the options credit card issuers are offering.
“Balance transfer cards are still your best weapon in the battle against credit card debt,” Schulz said.
A balance transfer credit card moves your outstanding debt from one or more credit cards onto a new card, typically with a lower interest rate.

Alternatively, “consumers should consider exploring lower interest products to help consolidate their higher interest debt and lower their monthly payments,” TransUnion’s Raneri said.
Currently, the interest rate on a personal loan is just above 12%, on average, according to Bankrate.
“If you don’t have good enough credit to get a zero-percent balance transfer card, a personal loan can be a good alternative,” Schulz also said.
And consolidating comes with the added benefit of letting you simplify outstanding debts while lowering your monthly payment.
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