Have you saved up any US dollars from a recent foreign trip and never had time to change them into rupees? Now's the time to do it. After the recent depreciation spree, the rupee stands at Rs 48.97 to the dollar when it had been at Rs 44.65 to the dollar in January. Quite similarly, the rupee is at Rs 66.89 to the euro now, while it had been at Rs 59.8 at the start of 2011.

Festive Offer

It's not just jewellery or sweets which are hogging the festive offer limelight. Corporation Bank has launched ‘Grand Festival Offer' on home, vehicles and personal loans. The offer will be open for three months up to December 2011. Under this offer, there will be reduction in interest rate between 0.35 per cent and 1 per cent for different housing loans.

And that's not all. There is 50 per cent waiver of processing charges as well for housing loans. On auto loans, there will be a reduction of 0.25 per cent. Customers whose salary accounts are routed through Corporation Bank will get a 1.75 per cent concession on their personal loans.

Home loan with a difference

If all goes well, you may no longer need to liquidate the savings you have meticulously scraped together to meet your down-payment on home loan. Edelweiss Housing Finance Co proposes to launch a product, which does not require a down payment, allowing the entire property value to be taken as a loan. Under the scheme, you give your investments in shares and mutual funds as collateral. The lender will carve out a margin from this investment and will lend you up to 100 per cent of the value of the property. But before you exult in delight, keep in mind the value of investments could depreciates significantly. In such a case, the lender could call for topping up of the portfolio.

Deposits on offer

Tamil Nadu Transport Development Finance Corporation, a State public sector unit, has come up with deposit schemes. It is offering a quarterly payout option for a 24-month period with a 9.58 per cent rate of interest. Monthly payout and annual payout options are available for three, four and five-year deposits with the rate of interest between 10-10.47 per cent. Cumulative options are also available for deposit with maturities of 1-5 years. Senior citizens will get an additional 0.5 per cent rate of interest.

An Aadhar benefit

As the UID (Aadhar) system expands and collects citizen data, benefits of signing up for it seem to be beginning to fall in line. A letter issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India containing details of name, address and the Aadhar number will be considered a valid document for opening all bank accounts. The Aadhar letter will be treated as a complete KYC document for opening accounts; the stipulation that it be used only for ‘Small' accounts has been removed.

Online tutorial

If you have wanted to gain an understanding about investing and trading in stocks, here's a forum for you to do it online. ICICIdirect, in its Centre for Financial Learning has launched an online tutorial platform called Webetorial, a financial learning programme. Registration is a must for these tutorials, though you don't have to be a customer of ICICIdirect. There are two kinds of programmes on offer – the more detailed premium programmes which have to be paid for, and free knowledge programmes. You can even wax nostalgic over your schooldays with interactive features like “raise your hand”. The premium programme costs Rs 1,800 for four sessions of two hours each and a web demonstration session of one hour.

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