Carnival of Indian Personal Finance Blogs #2

This is the second edition of the carnival of Indian Personal Finance Blogs. The first edition- though a humble effort, got a great response and the entire effort is moving towards the desired direction. Let us continue the journey.

With the launching of CIBIL in India, lenders will now have better idea about the credit worthiness of the borrowers. Prince John at Making Money Spending Money, tells us about the new credit score and credit rating system in India jointly launched by CIBIL and TransUnion. Discussing various parameters, which these agencies will use to arrive on a credit score, he tells us about a similar credit rating system, which exists in the US.

The Post Office Monthly Income Scheme (MIS) was loosing its popularity after the removal of 10% bonus on maturity clause. On 8 Dec, 2007 Government restored the maturity bonus though at a lower rate of 5% and has made 5-year Post Office Term Deposits and Senior Citizen Savings Scheme eligible for 1-lac deduction benefit under Section 80C. But the bigger issue before the investors is whether to invest in Post Office MIS or in fixed deposit, PPF and other small saving schemes offered by the banks – Anurag tells us some facts to consider before taking a decision.

Something needs to be done to avoid the worsening of PSU bank's problems. While improvement may be hard to make, but at least lets not make things worse. Ajay Shah says that privatization of PSU banks may not be possible because majority of MP’s won’t support the requisite amendment of the Bank Nationalization Act.

Chawanni raises the issue of the safety of our deposits in Citibank. Would you like to keep your life time savings or precious items in a bank that cannot take care of its own assets? Citibank has been in financial crisis from time to time and now Citibank is in big trouble with sub-prime bubble bursting. Who will rescue Citibank this time?

Jithu from The Finance Blog is talking about 500% increase in complaints against banks according to Reserve Bank of India in 12 months between July 2006 and June 2007. Leading the pack are SBI, ICICI bank and Citibank. Jithu is hoping that, "This would make the banks think a bit more about serving their customers in a customer-friendly manner."

Edward Hugh from India Economy Watch presents the risk element involved in banking sector, political and at economic stage in India.

Please feel free to add your comments, suggestions and resources.

Carnival of Indian Personal Finance Blogs #3

After the successful release of Carnival of Indian Personal Finance Blogs editions 1 and 2, we gathered a relatively large number of entries for this third edition. New bloggers like Varun, Alok Verma and Megha Pathak joined forces with stalwarts like Ajay Shah and Edward Hugh. Adhering to Greg Anderson's philosophy "Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it,” let us move forward.

Identity theft, though a relatively new incident on the Indian horizon has pestered banks in western countries for the last decade. How safe are we from identity theft when we use our credit cards, debit cards or bank accounts for that matter? Varun takes a look and suggests some proven ways to protect oneself from identity theft.

Recently RBI has put on its website the guidelines for bank recovery agents and warned them of a strict action and even banning such agents if they didn't behave. But, it looks like the thick skinned banks had little effect and their recovery agents are still with their old ways. Alok Verma takes a look how the recovery agents of a private sector bank, ill-treated J S Kalra a Delhi College of Engineering Professor, who had missed out on few loan installments.

Real estate market has reached to dizzy heights here in India. A Man from India has listed some reasons why real estate market is on boom in India with changes in the Macro economic environment.

As the financial year is coming to an end, more and more people are finding tax planning in their priority list. Personal finance blog presents the advantages of planning tax investment in advance. Investment benefits can be availed throughout the year if you manage to plan your tax investment in advance and the burden of huge investments or tax cuts at year end is definitely relieved.

Ajay Shah has a checklist of things to be done in Asian financial sector policy.

In case you require financial support for your small needs like buying gifts, going for a vacation or decorating your home for this holiday season, then a personal loan will be the best option. Kaushil takes a look at why the Personal loans are the best option for small personal finance requirements and what to do if your money requirements are big.

Megha Pathak in her blog takes a look at fixed deposits and points that any investor should not miss before making investment in fixed deposits.

SBI is the largest Indian Bank and second largest issuer of credit cards but with its huge customer base, looks like it has to improve a lot because SBI has topped the list of credit card complaints 2654 complaints and the largest issuer of credit cards, ICICI bank is a close second with 1452 complaints.

With the Indian Government's plan to take over the interest rate burden on education loan during the 'moratorium period', students will definitely feel a lot better. This will make the education loan more affordable for students belonging to middle class whose family income is less than Rs. 2.5 lakh.

Edward Hugh on his India Economy Watch blog takes an incisive look at last week decision by RBI of curbing bank loans to mutual funds by mandating that all of such amounts will be considered as the lender's direct investment in stock and bond markets.