??Crunched by Credit? Read this??

Consumers are starting to fall behind on their credit card and loan payments as the economy softens, according to executives at the biggest U.S. banks, although they said delinquency levels were still modest.

Indeed, profits at Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Citigroup beat analyst forecasts as lending giants earned a windfall from rising interest rates. But industry chiefs warn that the strength will tail off this year as a recession looms and customer delinquencies climb.

Worsening economic conditions could lead to "credit deterioration throughout 2023 and 2024 with losses eventually surpassing pre-pandemic levels given an oncoming recession," predicted UBS analysts led by Erika Najarian. Still, loan defaults are forecast to stay "below the peaks experienced in prior downturns," they said.

If you are carrying a credit card balance, it’s a good time to revisit your borrowing options. My favorite sites to do credit card research – and find the best options for balance transfers – including Bankrate and Nerdwallet. (This Reuters story is a little outdated, but the basic advice about managing your credit card debt remains solid.)

With interest rates rising, it’s also a good time to make some money on your savings, and both sites offer intel on CD rates and savings accounts. We had been living in a low-rate environment for so long that it feels odd to even write these words.

Even Apple is trying to attract savers with a new high-yield deposit account in partnership with Goldman Sachs amid increased competition among financial institutions for consumer dollars.

Apple said users of its Apple Card can earn 4.15% on savings accounts, or 10 times higher than the national average, citing March data from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation that showed consumers earned an average of 0.37% on savings in bank accounts.

Speaking of interest rates…

Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Chief Investment Officer Kevin Mahn says he thinks the Federal Reserve may not boost interest rates at its May meeting which is widely considered to be the last rate hike of this cycle.

Speaking of banks…

After the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank exposed cracks in the banking sector, the biggest banks will flourish in a higher rate environment, according to Amy Kong of CI Barrett Private Wealth.?

Should you trust a chatbot for money advice?

OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard are dominating headlines recently, for their generative capabilities and vast storehouses of information. Each has far more processing power than, say, any individual personal finance writer (ahem).

We asked our AI assistants-slash-overlords these classic personal finance questions including the most affordable place to live, investing suggestions and what college gives the most bang for the buck.

But I think my favorite answer is a more existential one: Can money buy happiness??

Click here to see what the bots have to say.

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