You do not pay any interest during the interest-free period on the credit card. But the bank cannot afford to lend you money for free. The bank must be compensated — two major ways and a few minor ways. High Interest on Unpaid Amount First, when you do not pay your bill on time, the… Continue Reading
An interest rate hike hurts all borrowers. For the same service (loan), you must pay more every month. Or pay the same amount but for a longer period. Neither is a desirable outcome for a borrower. And yes, the rate hikes hurt the borrower running a tight budget a bit more. In such cases, the… Continue Reading
The loan amount is already decided. You do not control the interest rate. The only aspects where you have discretion are: Loan Tenure Pre-EMI or Full EMI Regular home loan scheme OR Home-saver loans (such as SBI Maxgain) #1 Choosing the Loan Tenure We have this tendency to close the home loans as soon as… Continue Reading
While checking out from your favorite shopping app, you could get one of the following payment options on your credit/debit card or Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL). Full payment (no cashbacks or discount) Interest-based EMI (without cashback or discount) No-cost EMI Upfront discount Cashback Upfront discount/cashback and interest-based EMI Upfront discount/cashback and no-cost EMI Over… Continue Reading
It is common for Non-resident Indians (NRIs) to borrow in their country of residence to invest in India. They borrow to pay off loans in India, purchase real estate or even invest in stocks or mutual funds. Why do it? The borrowing rates may be lower in their country of residence. Say, you can borrow… Continue Reading
RBI has once again extended the deadline of tokenization of credit cards from June 30 to September 30, 2022. The central bank has extended the deadline multiple times now. Tokenization of cards helps make your credit and debit card transactions more secure. But what is the need? It is common for us to store your… Continue Reading
While digital lending apps are all the rage, I am a bit paranoid even about downloading and browsing through such apps. I worry about the Machiavellian design of their user interface and that I may be fooled into taking a loan I didn’t want. And while it may sound surprising, this can happen. Recently, I… Continue Reading
A few weeks back, I wrote about the impact of RBI repo rate hikes on your home loans EMIs. RBI Repo rate hikes will quickly translate to longer loan tenures or higher EMIs for the borrowers, especially if your loan is linked to an external benchmark. If there is scope to increase the loan tenure… Continue Reading
You need Rs 5 lacs to fund an important event in your family. You have 2 options. Sell your debt funds (you had built up an emergency fund using debt funds for such situations only) Take a personal loan Selling your debt funds seems a superior decision over taking a personal loan. Why? Because the… Continue Reading
The Reserve Bank has hiked the Repo rate in the first week of May 2022. If your home loan is linked to Repo rate or to any external benchmark, you will soon see one of the following things happen. EMI stays constant and the outstanding loan tenure goes up (that is the usually the default… Continue Reading