Three major retailers — Dollar General Corp., Dollar Tree Inc. and Kroger Co. — charge consumers more than $90 million annually via “cash-back” fees charged to access their own funds at a register, a U.S. financial watchdog found.

While the cost to merchants for processing cash-back transactions “may be a few pennies,” fees passed on to consumers are often far higher, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said in a report. Among the examples highlighted were Dollar General and Dollar Tree, which charge $1 or more when customers withdraw less than $50 in cash.

People living in rural communities or those without nearby bank branches commonly turn to retailers to get cash. Nearly 19 million people in the U.S. were “underbanked” in 2021, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The CFPB said cash is more often used by low-income consumers, racial minorities and older people.

“Many people living in small towns no longer have access to a local bank where they can withdraw money from their account for free,” CFPB Director Rohit Chopra said in a statement. “This has created the competitive conditions for retailers to charge fees for cash back.”

Representatives for Dollar General, Dollar Tree and Kroger didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on the CFPB’s findings.

The Biden administration has been targeting charges added to consumers’ everyday purchases, labeling many of them “junk fees.” The CFPB has worked with the White House on the issue, in addition to the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Transportation.

The CFPB said it also surveyed the retailers Albertsons, Walgreens Boots Alliance, CVS Health, Walmart and Target and found none of them charge cash-back fees.

American consumer confidence rises slightly in August index

American consumers felt more confident in August as their outlook for the future improved.

The Conference Board, a business research group, said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index rose to 103.3 in August from 101.9 in July.

The index measures both Americans’ assessment of current economic conditions and their six-month outlook.

The measure of Americans’ short-term expectations for income, business and the job market rose to 82.5. July’s figure was revised up to 81.1 from its initial reading of 78.2, ending a five-month stretch below 80. A reading under 80 can signal a potential recession in the near future.

Consumers’ view of current conditions rose to 134.4 in August from 133.1 last month.

Consumer spending accounts for nearly 70% of U.S. economic activity and is closely watched by economists for signs how the American consumer is feeling.

Though the report’s topline numbers all improved slightly from July, consumers continued to have mixed feelings about the economy.

“Consumers’ assessments of the current labor situation, while still positive, continued to weaken, and assessments of the labor market going forward were more pessimistic,” said Dana Peterson, the Conference Board’s chief economist.

Lilly sells Zepbound at 50% off to meet weight loss drug demand

Eli Lilly & Co. is now selling vials of its blockbuster weight-loss drug Zepbound to patients for as little as $399 a month as it works to overcome supply shortages of wildly popular shots.

Patients with a prescription for Zepbound can purchase a month’s supply of single-use vials through Lilly’s direct-to-consumer site starting Tuesday, the company said in a statement. The vials are priced at about half of what shots cost, with a higher dose going for $549 a month.

Zepbound is typically sold in an auto-injector pen. With vials, patients need to fill syringes on their own but it saves Lilly production time, allowing more people to get the drug.

The move is part of Lilly’s “all hands on deck” effort to ramp up supply of Zepbound and a similar drug for diabetes called Mounjaro amid widespread shortages, Executive Vice President Patrik Jonsson said in an interview. It also offers uninsured patients a cheaper option for weight-loss shots that can cost upwards of $1000 a month.

Compiled from Associated Press and Bloomberg reports.