Money Alerts

No free lunch this?

You will soon be making more money on the balance lying in the humble savings bank account, thanks to the RBI's recent directive. Money in savings deposits will begin earning 4 per cent interest as against the 3.5 per cent earlier. Now, this may be an incentive to save more, but wait! Claiming that this move will increase their expenses and affect their margins, banks in turn are proposing to recoup some of these additional ‘costs' through new levies. So, as you rejoice, watch out for limits on the number of withdrawals from your savings account, higher minimum balance non-maintenance charges, transaction fees and even account ‘maintenance' charges from your bank! If you are on the alert, you could save some precious bucks!

Attractive rates for short-term deposits

Now that savings bank rates have moved up, State Bank of India has hiked rates for term deposit schemes with less than 180 day maturity, to increase their attractiveness vis-à-vis the savings deposits rate. The hike was anywhere between 0.75 per cent and 2.25 per cent for select maturities. While the 7-14 days deposit rate has gone up from 4 per cent to 6.25 per cent, deposits with 91-180 days maturity now give an interest of 7 per cent p.a.

More woe for borrowers

While depositors may be a happy lot, borrowers have had no reasons to smile for some time now. More worries have come their way this week, as SBI hiked the lending rates for the second time in less than a month. The raise of 0.75 per cent, would lead to an additional outgo of Rs 45 per month for every Rs 1,00,000 loan taken on a floating rate (linked to base rate) basis and 10 year tenure. The bank's base rate (to which individual's loan rate is pegged ) is now at 9.25 per cent. But SBI borrowers are not bearing the burden alone. After the policy rate hike of 0.5 per cent by the RBI, many banks including IDBI, Union Bank, Kotak Mahindra and Yes Bank have hiked their lending rates by 0.5 per cent.

Time for some EPF activity

With effect from April this year, the EPF accounts to which no contribution has been made and which has not been settled or transferred for more than three years would become inoperative. This means that balances in such accounts would not earn any interest. If you are an account holder falling in this bracket, rush! Get it operative immediately and start earning the interest on the accumulated balance. After all, shouldn't money beget money?

Airtel Money in your town

Through Airtel Money, an m-commerce service, residents of Chennai can now make cashless payments using their mobile phones – anytime, anywhere. For this, Airtel has partnered with about 750 merchants, including Oriental Cuisines, Univercell, Poorvika, Inox, Bharti AXA and LIC. To use this service, you need to load cash onto your mobile from the Airtel retail outlets. That done, instead of paying cash, you can pay merchants using the mobile phone just like how you use your credit/debit cards. Once registered with Airtel, your existing Airtel SIM will be upgraded to the new 64K Airtel SIM with Airtel Money at no additional cost.

Improve your financial literacy

NSE together with Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation (MKCL) has launched a course in basic financial literacy. Covering topics such as taxation, savings & investment, borrowing, risk management and budgeting, the course aims at educating learners on simple concepts of personal finance. It also introduces learners to different financial products. Presently available at select Authorised Learning Centres of MKCL across Maharashtra, the course comprises of 14 modules of approx. 60 minutes each. Successful candidates in the online examination conducted at the end of the course, will be provided a certification in basic financial literacy. For more information visit: >http://www.mkcl.org/wave/Financial-Literacy/index.html

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