https://onlinebusinesscheck.com/ Business and money news for adults 55+ and small business owners. Every fact sourced. en-US Tue, 14 Jul 2026 16:52:03 -0400 https://onlinebusinesscheck.com/articles/2026/07/14/penny-gone-cash-rounding-no-federal-rule/ https://onlinebusinesscheck.com/articles/2026/07/14/penny-gone-cash-rounding-no-federal-rule/ Tue, 14 Jul 2026 09:00:00 -0400 Rates & Inflation Your total comes to $8.43. You hand over a ten. What comes back is now, legally speaking, up to the store. https://onlinebusinesscheck.com/articles/2026/07/14/business-applications-june-2026-census-bfs/ https://onlinebusinesscheck.com/articles/2026/07/14/business-applications-june-2026-census-bfs/ Tue, 14 Jul 2026 09:00:00 -0400 Small Business Both of those numbers are in the same Census release, two lines apart. The first one gets the headline. The second one is the one that tells you what kind of economy this is. https://onlinebusinesscheck.com/articles/2026/07/14/ny-fed-survey-tariffs-small-business-costs/ https://onlinebusinesscheck.com/articles/2026/07/14/ny-fed-survey-tariffs-small-business-costs/ Tue, 14 Jul 2026 09:00:00 -0400 Rates & Inflation The Federal Reserve doesn't usually need to survey small businesses to know tariffs cost money. It did anyway — and the numbers show retailers and manufacturers absorbed the hit hardest, then handed most of it to shoppers within the year. https://onlinebusinesscheck.com/articles/2026/07/14/medicare-glp-1-bridge-weight-loss-drug-eligibility/ https://onlinebusinesscheck.com/articles/2026/07/14/medicare-glp-1-bridge-weight-loss-drug-eligibility/ Tue, 14 Jul 2026 09:00:00 -0400 Benefits CMS switched on a new Medicare program July 1 that caps GLP-1 drug copays at $50. The eligibility rules quietly do most of the work here — and they exclude more people than they include. https://onlinebusinesscheck.com/articles/2026/07/14/ftc-made-in-usa-warning-letters-small-business/ https://onlinebusinesscheck.com/articles/2026/07/14/ftc-made-in-usa-warning-letters-small-business/ Tue, 14 Jul 2026 09:00:00 -0400 Small Business The FTC mailed seven more "Made in the USA" warning letters on July 6. The letters aren't fines, and they say so in writing. That's not the same as saying they're harmless. https://onlinebusinesscheck.com/articles/2026/07/14/fed-payments-study-checks-fewer-but-bigger/ https://onlinebusinesscheck.com/articles/2026/07/14/fed-payments-study-checks-fewer-but-bigger/ Tue, 14 Jul 2026 09:00:00 -0400 Check Fraud The Federal Reserve's new payments study says checks are down to 4% of transactions. It also says they carried $24.45 trillion — more than double what every credit and debit card in the country moved all year. https://onlinebusinesscheck.com/articles/2026/07/14/tofugo-viral-tofu-snack-business-growth/ https://onlinebusinesscheck.com/articles/2026/07/14/tofugo-viral-tofu-snack-business-growth/ Tue, 14 Jul 2026 09:00:00 -0400 Small Business Caroline Dai left a finance career to sell a tofu snack. Two weeks after launch, it went viral. What happened next is a real small-business story — with one honest asterisk on the numbers. https://onlinebusinesscheck.com/articles/2026/07/14/find-us-manufacturer-tariffs/ https://onlinebusinesscheck.com/articles/2026/07/14/find-us-manufacturer-tariffs/ Tue, 14 Jul 2026 09:00:00 -0400 Small Business Everyone tells small business owners to buy domestic. Almost nobody tells them how, or admits what it costs. Here's the honest version. https://onlinebusinesscheck.com/articles/2026/07/14/june-jobs-report-fed-rate-outlook/ https://onlinebusinesscheck.com/articles/2026/07/14/june-jobs-report-fed-rate-outlook/ Tue, 14 Jul 2026 09:00:00 -0400 Rates & Inflation June added 57,000 jobs, well short of forecasts. Two months of hiring got revised down after the fact. Normally that combination has the Fed reaching for a rate cut. Its own June minutes say some officials wanted to raise rates instead. https://onlinebusinesscheck.com/articles/2026/07/14/instagram-ai-support-bot-account-takeover/ https://onlinebusinesscheck.com/articles/2026/07/14/instagram-ai-support-bot-account-takeover/ Tue, 14 Jul 2026 09:00:00 -0400 Small Business The exploit that seized Instagram accounts at the end of May didn't break anything. It just asked politely. And it failed against every account that had two-factor switched on. https://onlinebusinesscheck.com/articles/2026/07/14/small-business-hiring-picks-up-wage-pressure-cools/ https://onlinebusinesscheck.com/articles/2026/07/14/small-business-hiring-picks-up-wage-pressure-cools/ Tue, 14 Jul 2026 09:00:00 -0400 Small Business NFIB's June survey found more Main Street owners trying to fill jobs than in May. Fewer of them raised pay to do it. Normally those two lines move together. https://onlinebusinesscheck.com/articles/2026/07/14/kentland-bank-failure-fdic-insurance/ https://onlinebusinesscheck.com/articles/2026/07/14/kentland-bank-failure-fdic-insurance/ Tue, 14 Jul 2026 09:00:00 -0400 Rates & Inflation It held $3.65 million in deposits. The whole thing was over by Monday morning. But the mechanics are worth knowing, because one of them costs people money and almost nobody warns them. https://onlinebusinesscheck.com/articles/2026/07/14/wire-fraud-red-flags-seniors-home-sale/ https://onlinebusinesscheck.com/articles/2026/07/14/wire-fraud-red-flags-seniors-home-sale/ Tue, 14 Jul 2026 09:00:00 -0400 Check Fraud The FBI says scammers now target seniors specifically while they're closing on a home sale, because a wire that size doesn't look out of place. A community bank's fraud chief says the fix starts with three questions asked at the counter. https://onlinebusinesscheck.com/articles/2026/07/14/usps-postage-rate-increase-mailing-checks-bills/ https://onlinebusinesscheck.com/articles/2026/07/14/usps-postage-rate-increase-mailing-checks-bills/ Tue, 14 Jul 2026 09:00:00 -0400 Small Business The Forever Stamp went to 82 cents this week. Postmaster General David Steiner told Congress in June that the agency is out of cash and borrowing from its own employees' retirement fund. Those two facts sit on the same page. If you still mail a check, so do you. https://onlinebusinesscheck.com/articles/2026/07/14/unclaimed-life-insurance-inheritance-letter-scam/ https://onlinebusinesscheck.com/articles/2026/07/14/unclaimed-life-insurance-inheritance-letter-scam/ Tue, 14 Jul 2026 09:00:00 -0400 Check Fraud A law firm you've never heard of says a stranger who happens to share your last name died and left behind an unclaimed life insurance policy — worth, almost always, exactly $10.8 million. The FTC re-issued its warning about this letter on July 9. It's not the first time. It won't be the last. https://onlinebusinesscheck.com/articles/2026/07/14/stop-payments-fraud-act-bank-hold-times/ https://onlinebusinesscheck.com/articles/2026/07/14/stop-payments-fraud-act-bank-hold-times/ Tue, 14 Jul 2026 09:00:00 -0400 Check Fraud A bill to change that just cleared a House committee. It wouldn't stop check fraud. It would just give banks more time to catch it before the money is gone. https://onlinebusinesscheck.com/articles/2026/07/14/ftc-rentgrow-tenant-screening-settlement/ https://onlinebusinesscheck.com/articles/2026/07/14/ftc-rentgrow-tenant-screening-settlement/ Tue, 14 Jul 2026 09:00:00 -0400 Small Business A tenant screening company will pay $2.25 million after the FTC said its reports counted the same court record over and over. In one case, two records showed up as fifteen. https://onlinebusinesscheck.com/articles/2026/07/13/ai-buildout-small-business-costs/ https://onlinebusinesscheck.com/articles/2026/07/13/ai-buildout-small-business-costs/ Mon, 13 Jul 2026 09:00:00 -0400 Small Business Four out of five small firms don't use artificial intelligence. That hasn't spared them the bill. https://onlinebusinesscheck.com/articles/2026/07/13/john-deere-ftc-right-to-repair-settlement/ https://onlinebusinesscheck.com/articles/2026/07/13/john-deere-ftc-right-to-repair-settlement/ Mon, 13 Jul 2026 09:00:00 -0400 Small Business Independent shops get the same tools the dealers have. Farmers get no money, Deere admits nothing, and a judge hasn't signed it yet. https://onlinebusinesscheck.com/articles/2026/07/13/social-security-paper-checks-ending-2027-cola/ https://onlinebusinesscheck.com/articles/2026/07/13/social-security-paper-checks-ending-2027-cola/ Mon, 13 Jul 2026 09:00:00 -0400 Benefits Fewer than 300,000 people still get their benefit in the mail. If you're one of them, here's what to do — and why you should ignore every 2027 raise figure you've been shown.