You have taken a personal loan an year ago. Interest rates have moved down since and you can get a personal at a cheaper rate. Lower interest rate means lower EMI. Without any friction, you would move to the lower interest rate right away. i.e., take the new loan at a low rate and use… Continue Reading
The Reserve Bank of India has issued master directions for Digital Payment Security Controls in its circular dated Feb 18, 2021. Among other things, the intent is to provide greater security to customers in digital transactions (internet, mobile banking, card transactions etc). The rules come into force in July 2021. The directions apply to the… Continue Reading
Paytm has launched a feature where you can pay your house rent using your credit card. Usually, we pay house rent through cheques or direct bank transfers. No credit involved. The credit card feature is interesting. From Paytm’s perspective, this feature makes good sense. House rent payment is one of the biggest monthly recurring payments.… Continue Reading
IDFC First Bank is launching credit cards where the borrowers will have to pay only 9% p.a. as Annual percentage rate (APR) or the interest rate. This comes as a healthy surprise since we are used to 36%-40% p.a. APR on credit card debt. If you are new to this terminology, 36% p.a. APR means… Continue Reading
The Finance Minister presented the Union Budget 2021 on February 1, 2021. Here are the key highlights. Tax Slabs Remain Unchanged No changes have been made to the existing income tax slabs. Interest on EPF Becomes Taxable If you contribute more than Rs 2.5 lacs to your EPF account every year, the interest earned on… Continue Reading
You just got your annual bonus. You want to decide between whether to use the bonus to prepay the home loan. Or put this money away in a bank fixed deposit or any other investment. The approach is simple. If the post-tax cost of your loan is HIGHER than the post-tax return from the supposed… Continue Reading
Loan interest rates have been going down over the past 18 months. It is also evident in the examples that we use for various illustrations in our posts. Earlier, we used 9-10% p.a. for long term loans. Now, we use 7-8% p.a. in the illustrations. If you use Amazon or Flipkart, you would have noticed… Continue Reading
I am a bit paranoid about using credit cards online. Therefore, I prefer to use wallets (such as PayTM) or UPI on new sites or the sites I do not trust much. A problem with this approach is that you cannot use wallets or UPI on international websites. In addition, there are a few minor… Continue Reading
It is a new year. And A new year brings new resolutions. Let us look at some of the credit resolutions for 2021 you can consider. # 1 Reduce Debt This applies to those who are currently struggling with credit burden. There are only two ways to reduce credit burden. Reduce the quantum of debt (Possible… Continue Reading
I spoke to a client a few days ago. She told me that she ended up spending over 5 lacs in the recent Diwali season towards all kinds of purchases including gifts. A few insurance premium payments also came due in the month of November. While she had an idea that she will run a… Continue Reading