bankrate may need to stay at low levels for some time to come.irst phase of guidance day businesses confidence that bankrate would not the raised at least until jobs, incomes, and spending were growing as sustainable rates. as guidance involves, that remains the case. the mpc will not take risks for this recovery. with that, i will answer questions. i would be grateful if you could identify yourself before asking a question. please wait for the microphone. there are lots of you here, so in the interest of many people as possible getting a question, keep yourselves to a single question and then hand the microphone back. thank you. bbc news. last august, you set out a policy on interest rates that was linked to one indicator unemployment. now you're giving a whole range of different variables. what are borrowers to make all this? >> as i said, the first thing is that the policy we set out in august has worked. we put that policy in place at a time when the recovery was just beginning, when there was tremendous uncertainty about whether he would hav

sheyna steiner of bankrate explains why not panicking is a good thing. the basic gist of it is to show you the power of compound interest. if you stay in the market, you'll have a much better chance of making more money, than if you're jumping in and out when you hear bad news. given the current downward trend steiner says investors may be tempted to pull money out. and sometimes taking 'some" money out can be profitable. however bankrate finds if you put 10 thousand dollars in the market in 2004, it would have doubled to 20 thousand by riding out the financial crisis. thanks chuck! coming up... stock survivial guide. more on navigating this rocky market, later in chart talk. plus... plan of attack...why the post office might be getting ready to compete with banks. bill moller joins us next... for so many generations it was enough to just deliver the mail. but in the electronic communications age, well, the u.s. postal service is now a money losing enterprise. to try to staunch the red ink it's trying all kinds of things - including, becoming kind of a f

bankrate finds only 51% of people have emergency savings stashed away. so even though foot traffic has been slow in stores this winter, more people are still finding ways to spend from indoors. "well the weather has certainly kept a lot of people home, and maybe alot of people out from spending money at stores and restaurants, but the internet connections are still working and so i think the tendancy for people to spend rather than save is alive and well even if they are at home getting cabin fever. " americans could just be waiting for their tax refunds to boost their rainy day fund. td-ameritrade reports 61% of people plan to save -- not spend -- their refund this year airlines and passengers wallet's are taking a winter wallop as thousands of flights are cancelled or delayed due to the weather. gabe saglie of travelzoo is navigating the tourism industry for us. good morning to you gabe. >>good morning. >>what about these passengers? people are missing flights left and right here. >>there has been a series of flier headaches all through the winter seas

will beng the bankrate the last line of defense.k about how trajectory is going to work further down the road. that is what he wants to use first. he seemed pretty dovish. >> i think he kind of -- when carney came in, he moved into being more in line with the consensus. we do not need any extra stimulus. i'm just beginning to wonder whether he is reverting to more dovish tendencies. he is talking about this output gap. it is a hard thing to get your hands around, but he says it is larger than even the bank thinks it is. therefore, we need to use that capacity before there is a potential for a rate hike. >> let's check in on the currency market. in >> we looked at the house, let's take a look and show you what is happening in terms of the details. 166.71 is where we are trading. 1.6671 is where we are trading. we are retracing some of the losses, but cagle is still down. we're going to take a break. see you in a moment. ♪ >> it is time for the olympic edition of hotshots. winter olympics athletes battle it out in sochi. was very clos

about the march 31st deadline to sign up for health insurance under the affordable care act - a bankrate survey found 55 percent of americans actually don't know that's the deadline. ladies and gentlemen, the time to sign is now. let's talk to john divito. he's president of the private insurance exchange, flexible benefit. it's the law. don't they understand? there's a serious penalty if they don't sign. >>no i don't think people truly understand that there's a very serious penalty that sits out there if they do not buy insurance by april 1st. >>or by midnight the 31stso they hear this $95 penalty and they think that's it. >>$95 would represent someone who makes $9,500 a year because that is 1% of your pay. so the story is it's $95 or 1% of your pay. the average college student graduating today is making $40,000. 1% of 40,000 is $400so that's a stiff penalty not to have insurance. >>yeah, then they have to wait until the next enrollment period which is when? >>november 15th, 2014. and that would be in effect to january 1st of 2015. people need to realize that they have to go out and purc

they will not raise the bankrate until it is stronger. particularly businesses. idea here is to spend the .ash the movement. >> are you worried recovery may be too much based on housing? >> one member cap what is driving -- when we look at what is driving, other elements of business services have been driving it. it is almost as big as manufacturing and it includes butwhole gamut of activity not the agents. >> will they be giving any more details on how they make the forecast? many have said it's not too good. upheld in august, they at the time that you were .onsistently above most market participants and most other forecasters have been from 2014dp numbers overall. it is welcome news. cracks economists are in the best place to criticize other economists but they often don't like to. -- >> economists are in the best place to criticize. you very much. more with david 01 after this short break. yellen appears before the house of representatives yesterday for the first time. she will be before the senate tomorrow. continuity is the theme. did david agree? stay with