Stephanie Zimmermann
Consumer investigations reporter
Stephanie Zimmermann is an award-winning investigative reporter who focuses on consumer issues, defined broadly to include credit and debt, insurance, food, housing, health, transportation, technology, unsafe products, scams/frauds and other issues that affect everyday people.
Consumers have lost billions through unwanted wire transfers, which don’t carry the same legal protections as debit or ATM transactions. The banks say they’re doing all they can to warn people about scams.
The units made by Gree Electric Appliances are linked to house fires and four deaths. It’s the latest recall for a company that’s faced civil and criminal cases over its dehumidifiers.
A new study backs up a Sun-Times Watchdogs report and comes as rates across the state continue to skyrocket. The study found bad credit means you pay more for car insurance.
The Semrad Law Firm, which advertises as DebtStoppers, got millions in taxpayer-backed PPP loans while cutting U.S. staff and employing a Bulgarian company in which the law firm’s leaders have an ownership stake.
An estimated 1.7 million other vets who’ve qualified for benefits under both the Montgomery GI Bill and the Post-9/11 GI Bill could get more college money if James Rudisill, who’s now an FBI agent, wins.
A pregnant woman from Edgewater had to quickly find another ride to the hospital to give birth. An Albany Park man says reading that he wasn’t alone helped him “feel less like a victim.”
Thieves have taken more than 17,000 in Chicago since 2019, and that’s surely an undercount. Of those reported thefts, only 34 had an arrest, a Sun-Times analysis finds. How you can protect yours.
From cookies to toilet paper, manufacturers have quietly shaved weight off food and household products even as prices have stayed the same. The phenomenon exploded last year and shows no sign of slowing.
State Rep. Will Guzzardi wants to require getting prior state approval for rate hikes, ban “excessive” increases and outlaw consideration of gender, occupation and credit scores in car insurance pricing.