PERSONAL FINANCE


Sanket Dhanorkar 09 April 2010
Some major tweaks to the NPS in addition to the planned government contribution of Rs1,000 per account are set to provide a much needed leg-up to the nascent pension scheme The Centre is planning some additional tweaks to the still-nascent New Pension Scheme (NPS) to attract the...

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You can buy individual health insurance plans or you can buy a ‘family floater’. Here is why you should avoid the floaters In our previous issue, we told you about our aam aadmi, Rajeev Malhotra, who works for a State-owned bank, and how his little hidden secret of hypertension adversely...

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Health insurance companies have the highest number of pending cases of unpaid claims. Aaron Rodrigues lists five basic rules to avoid a rejection Rajeev Malhotra is a very common name in India. He works as a clerk in a State-run bank and has decided to buy a health insurance policy for his...

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Shalini Amarnani 15 March 2010
Why are subscribers to Employees’ Provident Fund favoured against those of Public Provident Fund? Asks Shalini Amarnani Imagine a scenario where you no longer have a recurring income (read salary) but your expenses rise at around 5%-7% per annum. Scary though it may sound, this is going to be...

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BG Baliga 22 February 2010
Banks are refusing to show details of gross interest and tax deducted as separate entries in the passbooks of fixed deposit-holders. This amounts to short-changing customers, finds one of our readers, BG Baliga Core banking has conferred many benefits on customers and the banking system, but...

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Shalini Amarnani 08 February 2010
Life insurance is one of the most effective ways of financial planning for your family. It can help you save for your future goals and enjoy tax benefits. It also acts as a security net for your family in the unfortunate event of your passing away.  Having made the effort to research the...

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Shalini Amarnani 25 January 2010
Before buying life insurance. Here are some surprising answers Q. Why am I buying insurance? Surprisingly, few of us ask this question. Your reasons could be: a. To save tax; b. To invest; c. To create a safety net for your family. If the reasons are (a) and (b), several better options...

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For a long time, telecom consumers needed clarity on whether they would need to go in for the lengthy process of arbitration to settle a dispute with a service provider. However, a recent judgement delivered by a consumer court makes it clear that users can go to consumer forums to settle...

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Shalini Amarnani 06 January 2010
What are ULIPs and how are they better than older insurance-cum-investment schemes? While you’re looking around for an insurance product, talk of unit-linked insurance plans (ULIPs) will come up time and again. Most insurance agents will try to sell it to you as the ‘best-selling’ product....

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Pallabika Ganguly 31 December 2009
A housing finance company feels that documents like salary slips are not the only way to judge the credit-worthiness of a potential borrower If you want a loan to buy an affordable home, but do not have enough documents (like salary slips), do not worry. Micro Housing Finance Corp Ltd...

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The life insurance plan that would suit you may not be a single policy but a combination of policies that will cover different financial needs You need to buy life insurance when you start earning. The important question is: How much? What type of plan should you invest in? Your insurance needs...

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Ms Usha Thorat, Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India said, “People are not aware of the right questions to be asked. Financial literacy and education can ensure that people are armed with the right questions. Financial literacy is an essential part of financial inclusion. Unless we are able to...

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Shalini Amarnani 15 December 2009
While most of us purchase some insurance—usually as a tax-saving instrument—few of us stop to think if the amount of insurance we have is enough to cover all our liabilities and provide for our families. While asking friends and colleagues might give you an idea, there is a better way of...

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Sanket Dhanorkar 11 December 2009
The deluge of schemes offered by mutual fund houses, insurance companies and other financial services providers have only served to confuse investors rather than easing their troubled minds. Various schemes with colourful names have been vying for investors’ attention, without actually offering...

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Shalini Amarnani 03 December 2009
Life insurance comes in a variety of plans to suit the needs of different individuals. Each insurer claims to offer its customers unique plans. Most of these are designed around some basic plans with add-on features. Here are some basic plans offered by most life insurance companies.

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What takes the judicial system years of deliberation to decide, is very brusquely undone by the FM by an amendment to the law itself - sometimes with retrospective effect. Ameet Patel describes one such feature in this year’s Budget The most talked about aspect of the Budget presented on 29...

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India’s largest lender offers attractive home loan schemes to generate demand, then loses interest when it comes to processing loan requests. One such complaint against SBI exposes the situation Customers lining up for home loan offerings better size up the uphill task ahead of them. For, even...

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Monopoly position enables international behemoths Visa and MasterCard to levy exorbitant costs on client banks; a domestic payment system would be considerably cheaper The country’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), is considering putting in place a domestic card payment system...

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The Indian government is likely to arm the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO), an investigating wing of the Corporate Affairs Ministry, with powers to interrogate and seize documents among others, following the complaints that it faced problems in probing the multi-crore Satyam accounting...

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It is probably a test mail as yet, but many of us received a missive, ostensibly from the Indian Income Tax department offering online refund on tax paid. The fake email has an authentic looking Ashoka emblem. The email id was a giveaway.   Now the Indian Income-Tax Department has been...

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