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 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
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
You have heard of gold loans. You reach out to a bank or NBFC, pledge your gold/gold jewellery, and the bank sanctions you a loan. However, have you heard of a gold-backed credit card? I had not until I read about a gold backed credit card from Rupeek. How does it work? Simple. You pledge… 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
You have a home loan from HDFC? In April 2022, it was announced that HDFC will merge into HDFC Bank. You may ask, aren’t these the same? No. HDFC and HDFC Bank are different entities. HDFC is a housing finance company (HFC) and is the promoter of HDFC bank, the bank. If you are still… Continue Reading
Interest does not take holidays. That’s right. When you take a loan, you pay interest for every day you have borrowed. When you make a fixed deposit, the bank pays you interest for each day. For interest, there is no concept of working and non-working days, festivals, and national holidays. However, in the case of… Continue Reading
It is not easy to get a home loan. You must have the right job/profession, age, income, and creditworthiness to get a home loan. Many times, the lender is willing to offer you the loan but not the quantum you desire. And don’t pin the blame on lenders. The lenders have a reason to adhere… Continue Reading
A quick disclaimer to begin. My favourite tax-saving investment does not have to be your favourite tax-saving investment and we can always agree to disagree. We discussed “Things to consider before investing in a tax-saving product” in an earlier post. The post is a good primer on how to think about your tax-saving choices. My… Continue Reading
You want to buy a laptop online and you don’t want to look beyond Amazon and Flipkart for this purchase. Let’s further assume that, on both the sites, the laptop is listed at the same price. However, there are discounts and cashbacks on specific cards. In such a case, unless you have a preference for… Continue Reading