This Week’s Money Map:

• 💔 The joint account rule you don’t want to learn during a breakup

• ⚡ The power went out. Will insurance cover the food or hotel?

• 🧑‍🎓 Your student loan plan changed. Check these three numbers

• 🛍️ Your BNPL purchases may be reaching your credit file

💔 The joint account rule you don’t want to learn during a breakup

You can deposit most of the money in a joint account and still have no control over when it disappears. In most cases, either owner can withdraw the full balance or close the account without the other person's permission.

That doesn't settle who legally owns the money during a divorce. A court may later order one partner to return some of it. That structure does mean the bank may not stop a co-owner from taking the money first.

Separate accounts aren’t a relationship failure
Keeping some money separate gives both partners independence and makes it easier to manage shared expenses.

Joint accounts also carry risks beyond a breakup. Many include a right of survivorship: the account passes to the surviving owner when one owner dies. Instructions in a will may not control that money.

A partner's debts or legal problems could also put shared funds at risk. The outcome depends on state law, the type of debt and the account title.

Try a “mine, yours and ours” setup
A practical three-account system gives each partner an individual account, plus one joint account for household bills and shared goals.

Agree on a monthly contribution, either a fixed amount or a percentage of income. Keep enough in the joint account for upcoming expenses and a modest cushion. Larger personal savings can stay in properly titled individual accounts.

This setup doesn't replace trust. It makes sure both people understand which money is shared and which isn't.

A breakup also calls for an insurance review
Combining insurance can save money, but a bundle isn't automatically the best deal. Home and auto bundle discounts can reach 23%, yet an insurer offering a smaller discount could still charge a lower final premium. Compare bundled and separate insurance quotes using identical coverage limits.

After a separation, don't remove a spouse, vehicle or home from a policy until you confirm ownership, residence and any court requirements. Losing coverage through a spouse may give you a 60-day special enrollment period for health insurance.

Check life insurance beneficiaries, too. Divorce doesn't always remove an ex-spouse automatically. State law, federal rules and the divorce order can affect the result, so review life insurance after divorce before changing the policy.

Take 15 minutes to list every joint account, credit card, insurance policy and beneficiary. Write down who owns it, who can access it and what happens after a separation or death. The right system is the one both partners understand before it's tested.

⚡ The power went out. Will insurance cover the food or hotel?

The first expense after a summer blackout may be a refrigerator full of spoiled food. The next could be a hotel room if the heat makes staying home unsafe. Whether insurance helps often depends on one detail you can't see from the thermostat: what caused the outage.

That question becomes more timely as Atlantic hurricane activity increases from mid-August into October.

Will insurance cover spoiled food?
Homeowners or renters insurance may cover spoiled food if a covered event caused the outage. Lightning that damages your home's electrical system or wind that damages a line connected to the property may qualify.

A neighborhood-wide grid failure with no covered damage to your home usually won't qualify. A refrigerator that stops working may not qualify either, unless the policy includes equipment-breakdown coverage.

Food-spoilage coverage may have its own limit. Your deductible can also make the coverage less useful. If you lose $400 in groceries but have a $1,000 deductible, the claim may produce no payment.

Before discarding food, photograph the contents. Keep available receipts and save the utility company's outage notice. MoneyGeek’s guide to insurance coverage for spoiled food explains common limits and exclusions.

What about a hotel?
Loss-of-use coverage, also called additional living expenses, may help with a hotel, extra meal costs and other necessary expenses when a covered loss makes your home uninhabitable.

The covered loss is the key. Extreme heat or a general power failure may not be enough on its own. If hurricane winds damage the roof and electrical system and make the home unsafe, hotel expenses are more likely to qualify.

When possible, call the insurer before booking. Ask whether the event qualifies, how much you can spend and which receipts you need. The coverage pays added costs above your normal living expenses, not the entire bill.

Check the hurricane deductible
Hurricane or windstorm damage may have a separate deductible based on a percentage of the home's insured value. A 2% deductible on $300,000 of dwelling coverage equals $6,000, not $2,000.

Take 10 minutes to find three items on your declarations page: food-spoilage coverage, loss-of-use coverage and the hurricane or windstorm deductible. Save the insurer's claims number in your phone. A blackout is a bad time to discover what your policy doesn't cover.

🧑‍🎓 Your student loan plan changed. Check these three numbers

A lower student loan payment can feel like immediate relief and still cost you more over time. That trade-off matters now because federal repayment options changed on July 1, 2026.

Before choosing a plan or consolidating a loan, compare three numbers: your monthly payment, total amount repaid and expected payoff or forgiveness date.

Start with your loan dates
If you received a new Direct Loan or consolidated existing federal loans on or after July 1, 2026, your choices narrow to the Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP) and the Tiered Standard Plan.

Borrowers whose loans were issued entirely before that date may have more options for now. Some older repayment plans are scheduled to end by July 1, 2028. Borrowers previously enrolled in SAVE should follow the instructions sent by their servicer for choosing another plan.

Private student loans aren't part of these federal changes.

Don't consolidate only to reduce the number of bills you receive. A consolidation loan issued on or after July 1, 2026, can change which plans are available for your older loans. Consolidation may also capitalize on unpaid interest or affect progress toward forgiveness.

Compare how the new plans work
RAP bases payments on adjusted gross income and qualifying dependents. Required payments can start at $10 per month, and the repayment period may last up to 30 years. The plan includes protection against unpaid monthly interest when you make the required payment, plus limited help in reducing principal.

The Tiered Standard Plan uses a fixed monthly payment. The term is 10, 15, 20 or 25 years, based on how much you owe. A longer term lowers the monthly payment but increases the total interest paid.

The Tiered Standard Plan doesn't qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness. If you're pursuing PSLF, confirm that any new plan qualifies and check your existing payment count before switching.

Make this 10-minute check
Log in to StudentAid.gov and write down each loan's type, disbursement date, interest rate and current repayment plan. Use the federal repayment calculator to compare:

• Your monthly payment

• Your total projected repayment

• Your payoff date and estimated forgiveness

MoneyGeek’s student loan calculator can also show how a longer fixed term changes your payment and total interest.

Eligible Direct Loan borrowers enrolled in automatic payments by Sept. 30, 2026, can receive a temporary 1% interest-rate reduction through June 30, 2028. Check your eligibility and linked bank account before enrolling.

Finally, review private loans with co-signers. In most cases, federal student debt doesn't transfer to relatives after a borrower dies, but private loan contracts can differ. If someone could remain responsible, check the contract and consider whether term life insurance to cover the remaining balance would fill the gap.

🛍️ Your BNPL purchases may be reaching your credit file

That four-payment checkout plan may no longer be as invisible as it once was. New scoring models can use BNPL data, and some providers now report Pay-in-4 loans to credit bureaus.

But seeing a BNPL account on a credit report doesn't mean it affects every credit score or every lending decision.

Reporting and scoring are different
A BNPL plan affects a lender's decision only when three conditions line up:

• The provider must report the account to a credit bureau.

• The scoring model must be able to use the data.

• The lender must select that bureau and scoring model.

FICO has introduced FICO Score 10 BNPL and FICO Score 10 T BNPL, which incorporate BNPL repayment data. Affirm has reported its pay-over-time loans, including Pay-in-4 plans, to Experian since April 1, 2025.

Other providers may follow different reporting practices. A lender using an older scoring model may ignore BNPL data even when the account appears on your report.

You also have many credit scores. The number displayed in a banking app may not match the score used for a mortgage, auto loan or credit card application.

On-time payments may help, but there’s no promise
Consistent BNPL payments could help some borrowers under a model that uses the data, particularly people with limited credit histories. There's no guaranteed score increase.

Missed payments create a more direct risk. A provider may report a delinquency or send an unpaid balance to collections. Either could hurt a score that counts the information.

The bigger budget problem may be harder to spot: stacking several small plans. Four $25 payments can feel manageable until multiple purchases create several due dates. Add every required payment to MoneyGeek’s debt-to-income calculator to see how much of your monthly income is already committed.

Run this 10-minute check
Open each BNPL app and record the remaining balance, next payment date, linked account, reporting policy and late-payment rules.

Then review your credit reports through AnnualCreditReport.com and search for each provider. If you find an error, dispute it with both the credit bureau and the BNPL company.

Autopay can prevent a forgotten payment, but only if the linked account has enough money.

The new FICO BNPL scores are lending scores, not insurance scores. Auto and homeowners insurers may use separate credit-based insurance scores in states where the practice is allowed. A late payment or collection could still matter if it reaches the underlying credit report.

The practical rule is simple: treat Pay-in-4 as debt, because that's what it is.

Smart Cents gives you actionable tips and mindset shifts to help you reach your financial happy place. Thanks for being a part of our community.

The MoneyGeek Team

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