awareness fridays

Awareness Fridays: Do Not Fall Prey To Fictitious Offers Of Funds Transfer — RBI Advisory

by Vinaya HS on June 4, 2010

in Finance

Having personally received one such offer through snail mail in the recent past and having witnessed a friend receive one through email, I believe this is a widespread problem. Thankfully, the Reserve Bank of India has embarked upon a public awareness campaign and has also asked banks to do the same.

From your side, please spread the word.

And, have you received such an offer too? What did you do?

Awareness Fridays is my initiative to spread awareness on topics relevant to personal finance — every Friday. I urge you to take some time off and absorb this information — it’s pretty useful. And, as always, do spread the word if you find this useful.

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Awareness Fridays: Conversion of Term Deposits, Daily Deposits, or Recurring Deposits for Reinvestment in Term Deposits

by Vinaya HS on May 14, 2010

in Finance

From the Reserve Bank of India’s Annual Policy Statement for the Year 2010-11:

Banks should allow conversion of term deposits, daily deposits, or recurring deposits to enable depositors to immediately reinvest the amount lying in the aforesaid deposits with the same bank in another term deposit. Banks are required to pay interest in respect of such term deposits without reducing the interest by way of penalty, provided that the deposit remains with the bank after reinvestment for a period longer than the remaining period of the original contract.

A precise explanation here.

Awareness Fridays is my initiative to spread awareness on topics relevant to personal finance — every Friday. I urge you to take some time off and absorb this information — it’s pretty useful. And, as always, do spread the word if you find this useful.

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Awareness Fridays: Credit Information Companies in India

May 7, 2010

According to this circular issued by the Reserve Bank of India, we’ll now have three credit information companies: Credit Information Bureau (India) Ltd. or CIBIL Experian Credit Information Company of India Private Ltd. Equifax Credit Information Services Pvt. Ltd. CIBIL is in operation since January, 2001; the other two are yet to commence the business [...]

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Awareness Fridays: Guidelines on the Base Rate System

April 16, 2010

If you have an existing loan of any sort from a bank or are planning to avail one, these guidelines on the soon to be introduced Base Rate system are a must read. I particularly like this directive: The Base Rate system would be applicable for all new loans and for those old loans that [...]

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Awareness Fridays: Payment of Interest on Savings Bank Accounts Will Now Be On a Daily Product Basis

March 12, 2010

Up to now, interest on savings account balances were calculated on the minimum balance in the account during the period from the 10th day to the last day of each calendar month. With this archaic method (introduced way back in 1987), you’d lose out on earning interest each time you withdrew money on or after [...]

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Awareness Fridays: How to Identify Genuine Rupee-denominated Currency Notes

February 5, 2010

Here’s a detailed tutorial from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on how to identify genuine rupee-denominated currency notes. My observations: It’s not possible for the common person to identify a counterfeit note on first glance. How often have you stopped to verify the genuineness of the currency in your hands? Banks themselves have started [...]

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Awareness Fridays: Be Careful About Who You Act as a Reference For

January 29, 2010

This is a guest post from Shilpa at Under the Rainbow. Though Shilpa claims that “she knows zilch about financial planning,” her posts always prove the opposite. In this post she explains why you really ought to be careful when you act as a reference for someone else’s financial dealings. I learned this lesson the [...]

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Awareness Fridays: Interest Rates on Rupee Deposits

July 31, 2009

Have you ever pondered over questions such as “What’s the interest rate payable on my Savings or Current Account balances?” or “What happens if I opt for a premature withdrawal of my Fixed/Term Deposits?” or “What happens to an account that I no longer operate?” etc., then this Master Circular on Interest Rates on Rupee [...]

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Awareness Fridays: An Insight Into How Your Bank Should Maintain Your Deposit Accounts

July 24, 2009

The Master Circular on Maintenance of Deposit Accounts issued by the Reserve Bank of India — a must read for anyone who transacts with a bank. Awareness Fridays is my initiative to spread awareness on topics relevant to personal finance — every Friday. I urge you to take some time off and absorb this information [...]

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Awareness Fridays: An Introduction to Gratuity

July 17, 2009

This is a guest post from Shilpa at Under the Rainbow. Though Shilpa claims that “she knows zilch about financial planning,” her guest posts never fail to prove the opposite. Gratuity is a favor or gift, usually in the form of money, given by an employer to an employee in return for the employee’s loyal [...]

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Awareness Fridays: Can You Access Your Credit Information Report? (Part #2)

July 3, 2009

I’d raised a few questions when I last wrote about accessing your credit scores in India. A couple of days later, the Economic Times published an interview featuring Credit Information Bureau (India) Limited (CIBIL) addressing these very concerns. It’s a must read, especially if you’ve previously availed credit or are planning to. Awareness Fridays is [...]

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Awareness Fridays: Can You Access Your Credit Information Report?

June 26, 2009

I’ve previously written about the Credit Information Bureau (India) Limited (CIBIL). To repeat, CIBIL or Credit Information Bureau (India) Limited is India’s first credit information bureau and is a repository of information, which contains the credit history of commercial and consumer borrowers. CIBIL provides this information to its Members (i.e. banks and other financial institutions) [...]

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Awareness Fridays: Understanding Your Salary Slip and Income Tax Computation

May 22, 2009

Over the years, I have observed that a significantly high number of employed people (colleagues, friends, and acquaintances) have very little to no understanding of how their monthly salary is computed. Therefore, they have no idea if what they’re receiving each month as salary is correct or not. More often than not, they’re simply happy [...]

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Awareness Fridays: Your Bank Should Now Acknowledge Nomination and Indicate the Name of the Nominee in Pass Books and Fixed Deposit Receipts

March 13, 2009

Key excerpts from a recent circular issued by the Reserve Bank of India. The problem. It has been brought to our notice that some banks do not have the system of acknowledging the receipt of the duly completed form of nomination, cancellation and/or variation of the nomination. Further, it is also understood that in some [...]

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Awareness Fridays: Download Free Income Tax Information Booklets

March 6, 2009

The Income Tax Department of India has on it’s website provided free income tax information booklets. These booklets cover a wide variety of topics on personal income tax and provide a wealth of information on how you should compute your income tax. Read through these booklets and you might find those elusive answers to your [...]

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Awareness Fridays: Have You Heard of CIBIL?

February 27, 2009

Have you ever been rejected for a loan or some other form of credit (such as a credit card) and then wondered why your case was rejected? Though a financial institution must now tell you why your application was rejected, there is a lot more that goes on behind the scenes. Enter CIBIL. CIBIL or [...]

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Awareness Fridays: Reconciliation of Failed ATM Transactions

February 20, 2009

The other day I was trying to withdraw money from a Citibank ATM using an ICICI Bank debit card. The Citibank ATM purred along merrily but finally coughed up a “Dispenser Failure” receipt. My stars must have been aligned because ICICI Bank quickly reversed the transaction and I could withdraw the money from a different [...]

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Awareness Fridays: One Good Reason to Stop Carrying Your Credit Card in Your Wallet

February 6, 2009

Because, Indian banks are now free to charge an annual interest rate of up to 49% from credit card customers for late payment. Read the complete story here. It’s not a great idea to carry your credit-limit-beyond-what-I-can-pay (most often …) credit card in your wallet especially in these lean times. You might be the most [...]

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Awareness Fridays: Cheque Clearance Timeframes

January 30, 2009

You might have often wondered what has happened to that cheque you recently deposited. And if you enquired, your bank would have given you a whole bunch of doesn’t-make-sense-to-me reasons. Thankfully, the Reserve Bank of India recently passed a notification on cheque clearance timeframes to be adhered to by Indian Banks. I particularly like this [...]

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Awareness Fridays: Your Level of Financial Awareness Determines the Financial Deals You Get

January 23, 2009

Assume that you’re looking out for a car loan and some bank offers you the following options: Rs 200,000 for 36 months at 9% fixed plus a processing fee of Rs 150, or Rs 200,000 for 36 months at 12.75% reducing balance. Which of these two loan offers would you choose? If you chose either [...]

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