RENT-NOW-PAY-LATER (RNPL)

Rent is eating paychecks, and a new class of companies has stepped into the gap: rent-now-pay-later providers that front your landlord the rent and collect from you later, plus a fee. The pitch is cash-flow flexibility. The structure is a short-term loan with the word 'loan' scrubbed off.

Ariel Nelson at the National Consumer Law Center flags the core problem: because these companies charge flat fees instead of interest, they slip past the Truth in Lending Act (TILA), the federal law that forces lenders to show their cost as an APR (Annual Percentage Rate) so you can compare products side by side. Without that number, a $40 fee on a $1,500 rent advance due in 30 days looks like a small convenience charge. Annualized, it's roughly 32% APR — in the neighborhood of a high-rate credit card, and well above a credit union emergency loan.

The product also gets framed as a 'landlord payment service' rather than credit, which dodges payday-loan rules, ability-to-repay checks, and state usury caps (legal ceilings on interest rates). The cost is real; the disclosure isn't.

Strategy: Before signing up, do the math: total fee ÷ amount advanced ÷ days until repayment × 365 = your real APR. If it tops 36%, try a credit union emergency loan, a written landlord payment plan, or 211.org for local rental assistance first.

Source: NCLC (via USA Today) →

MORTGAGE ESCROW INTEREST PREEMPTION

When you pay a mortgage, the servicer usually collects extra each month into an escrow account to cover property taxes and homeowners insurance. That pool can sit at several thousand dollars for months. In states like New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, Minnesota, and Oregon, state law required lenders to pay you interest on that idle money.

On May 19, 2026, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) — the federal regulator for nationally chartered banks — published a preemption determination (federal law overriding state law) saying those state interest-on-escrow rules no longer apply to OCC-regulated banks. Same goes for state limits on escrow fees. The bank keeps the float earnings. You get nothing. No new disclosure is triggered.

The timing matters. Cotality data shows 65% of homeowners now have escrow shortages averaging $2,157, driven by property taxes up 15% since 2019 and insurance up 70%. Escrow balances are larger than ever, the interest on them is real money, and for customers of nationally chartered banks, a state-level protection just quietly disappeared from the balance sheet — yours, not theirs.

Strategy: Check your servicer's charter at occ.gov/topics/charters-and-licensing. If it's OCC-regulated and you're in a state that mandated escrow interest, ask in writing whether you're still receiving it. When refinancing, ask brokers directly — state-chartered credit unions and banks may still owe it.

Source: Federal Register →