Starting July 1, 2023, using your credit card abroad will involve a cashflow hit. From July 1, there will be Tax Collection at Source (TCS) of 20% on credit card payments while travelling abroad or on foreign websites. Essentially, when you swipe your credit card for USD 100 abroad, your credit card will be charged… Continue Reading
Convenience is important. However, many a times, we take it too far. Recently, I read you can use Rupay cards (debit/credit/prepaid) to make online payments without having to enter CVV. And if you have auto-read OTP feature enabled on your phone, the purchase becomes a breeze. So, you are on the Amazon/Flipkart app, you add… Continue Reading
Human ingenuity knows no bounds. And if allowed to operate freely, many of us would behave irresponsibly and misuse/abuse the system to get undue advantage. Let us consider a hypothetical situation. We know credit cards allow an interest-free credit period. You have a credit card from Bank A. Let’s call this credit card A. You… Continue Reading
Credit card frauds — nobody wants to experience one. However, there is no dearth of charlatans who want to pull one over on you. In the past, I have written many times about how to prevent credit card frauds. But this is an evergreen topic and it never harms to revisit some of the common… Continue Reading
I come across a new credit card launch every few weeks. I usually do not pay much attention to these new cards. After all, how many credit cards can you own? However, if I come across a co-branded credit card by a merchant/retailer/brand that you extensively use or browse, it is difficult to ignore such… Continue Reading
ICICI Bank has launched an EMI facility for UPI payments under its ICICI PayLater product. With this, you can scan a UPI QR code from the UPI app and purchase using an instant EMI facility. So, you purchase an item worth Rs 15,000 and instantly convert this into 3 EMIs of say Rs 5,200 each.… Continue Reading
How do you make UPI payments? 3 broad ways. Link bank account to a UPI app: Your account gets debited, and the merchant/peer account gets credited. You can only spend the money in your account. Link RuPay credit card to a UPI app: Not Visa, not Mastercard. Only Rupay card. You get credit for UPI… Continue Reading
RBI has increased repo rate from 4% p.a. to 6.5% p.a. since May 2023. If your home loan is benchmarked to RBI Repo rate, that means a hike of 2.5% in your home loan interest rate. Impact of Interest Rate Hike on Your Loan Tenure Usually, the default option in case of interest rate hike… Continue Reading
We know about ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ (BNPL). We know about platforms that allow us to pay rent using a credit card. If we combine these two products, a resulting permutation could be ‘Rent Now, Pay Later’ (RNPL). Transfer Rent on credit. And credit comes through a loan and not a credit card. Such a… Continue Reading
If you invest in debt mutual funds, the recent developments in late March 2023 would have come as a shock to you, even requiring you to relook at your financial plan. What Has Changed? The taxation of debt mutual funds will change, starting April 1, 2023. For the debt mutual fund investments made until March… Continue Reading