of u.n. inspectors watching everything. julie. julie: julie kirtz, thank you so much. hip-hop singer wyclef jean stopping the music on the swan song for his haitian presidential bill and bid. the pop star now saying that he is not abandoning plans to run in his native country. jean says that he will try to get the courts to overturn a decision, disqualifying him from the race and haiti s elections board rejected his candidacy on friday and there were concerns that jean didn t meet presidency and residentsy requirements, but the board did not cite a specific reason. penalty fees, rate hikes and inactivity fees, don t you hate them. get hit with all of those for carrying a bit of plastic in your purse or wallet. the final phase of new credit card safeguards takes effect and how could that benefit you? tracy byrnes of the fox business network explains. hey, julie, well, the final phase of the 2009 credit card reform act takes effect today and that includes no more unnecessary interest r
rolling into an i.r.a. you avoid 10% penalty fees, more options you can invest from, as opposed to traditionally your 401(k) program. but there are a few options if you want to take that money out f. you re over 55 years of age and you have a 401 k., you can take it out penalty-free. if you you have an i.r.a., you can start making withdrawals, set withdrawals, substantially periodic payments. essentially, that means from over 59 1/2 or five years, you re able to take the money out, as well as you make equal payments every year or keep the value between 59 1/2 or five years worth of time. thank you, both of you. the help desk is about getting you answers. send us an e-mail or log on to cnn.com/help desk to see more financial solutions. you can also pick up the latest issue of money magazine on newsstands now.
oil and gas piped up from the damaged well on the floor of the gulf of mexico. the new technique involve pumping oil from the well onto a special ship on the surface will it will burn off. the federal reserve adopted new rules to prevent credit card customers from getting hit with sky high payments and penalty fees. the companies will not be able to charge a fee higher than $25 for paying your bill late. and no more in activity fees. the new rules kick in at the end of august. talks are going to resume between spirit airlines and the striking pilots. the union representing the pilots accepted an invitation from the national mediation board. but the union says it will not end the strike until there s an agreement. never one to shy away from controversy, republican congressman steven king of iowa appeared on j. gordon libby s radio program. the topic was illegal immigration. that s when the congressman said this. the president has demonstrated he s got a default
banks. and i want to give you a little advice here, if you want to break up with your banks, switch to a new one, there are things to keep in mind. first off, make sure you know the fees your new lender will charge, the checking account or penalty fees for overdrafting your account. be sure that your new bank s atm network is convenient for you, and next, take extra special care with any automatic transfers or automatic bill pay that you do. it s easy to overdraft your account when you re switching providers. and finally, ask for help. if you re thinking of switching, ask a rival what they might do to entice you to switch banks, some have kits to help you manage the process more effectively. tony? gerri, i can t let you go without giving a bit of preview for what s in store for your bottom line this weekend. okay. po april 15th, tax day, is just a few months away. we ll show you where to get free help with your taxes. and love is in the air this weekend, valentine s day, how to t
of the wireless companies. a $35,000 monthly payment is a really nice return on some woman s cell phone plan for one month. it s very lucrative to be able to charge people huge penalty fees and huge overage charges with no warning which your customer s legally obligated to pay. who wouldn t want a business plan like that? everybody wants the right to maximize their corporate profits. if you can maximize your maximizing by swindling your customer s particularly customes locked into a binding contract where they have to pay you for the privilege of stopping to pay you, who wouldn t want that? from a corporate perspective, swindling customers this way i m sure is awesome. it almost makes me want to glue on a fake villain mustache and twirl the ends of it just thinking about it. if something is good for a company s bottom line, if a company can make money by tricking americans, swindling people out of their money, just because a company can make money doing that, doesn t mean that that sho