Category: How to-Guide

Transfer PPF account from Post Office to SBI Bank

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

How do you transfer the PPF account from Post Office to SBI Bank? This has been a big question mark for all the PPF account holders who opened their PPF account in Post Office and now want to transfer PPF account to SBI Bank or other banks so that they can take benefits of online money transfer to their PPF accounts. Also, it becomes easy for them to do another kind of activities if the PPF account is in some bank.

Transfer PPF account from Post Office to SBI Bank

So, in this article we will see the steps required to transfer PPF account from Post office to any Bank. In this example, we will use SBI as an example. But you can use the same procedure for any SBI Bank or its subsidiaries or even ICICI Bank which has recently started providing PPF accounts.

Steps required to Transfer PPF account from Post Office to SBI Bank

 

Step 1 The first step is to make sure your PPF Passbook is updated with all the interest credited to date. You need to go to the Post Office and get it updated.
Step 2 Fill up following documents

  • PPF Transfer Form SB-10(b). Download Form to transfer PPF Account here
  • An application on plain paper requesting PPF Account transfer from Post Office to SBI Bank
  • Incase you already have an SBI Account, then SBI passbook (Will fasten the process)
  • PAN/Address Proof (Can be confirmed at Post Office)
Step 3 Submit the form to Post Office Head PostMaster, He will verify your signature with the records at Post Office and verification will be completed.
Step 4 The balance in your PPF account in Post Office will be taken out and your PPF account will be closed by Head Post Master and he will note the remark of Transfer of PPF Account to SBI Bank on all the relevant documents.
Step 5 The balance amount in your PPF account will then be remitted back to State Bank of India through Cheque or Demand Draft along with other relevant documents.
Step 6 Your PPF account will then be opened (transferred) at SBI Branch and you will be notified on this. It would be better to not wait for it and you yourself keep track of the progress.

 

Go to SBI bank after all these steps are done and collect your new PPF Passbook. Note that all the previous entries of your Interest payments etc will not be present in the new PPF Passbook. It will only have the new and current entries now. So in-case you needed the previous information for claiming tax deductions, better take the printout of the previous PPF Passbook and keep photocopies of all the documents you filled and submitted for PPF Account Transfer. Read  – How to open a PPF account at SBI Bank

What about the interest part when you Transfer the PPF account from Post Office?

Do you know How PPF interest is calculated? Its only a monthly basis , but credited yearly. Now as per PPF Rules, the bank or the post office transferring the account will add interest up-to-the preceding 31st March in the account before it is transferred. The interest from 1st April onwards will be added by the transferee office after the close of the year. As per rule 8 of the scheme the interest in the account has to be added at the end of the year and not in the middle of the year in any case. So make sure to ask and confirm from Post Office Postmaster if he will do this step or not. And once the PPF Account is transferred, at the end of the year, make sure you get the total interest in your account. Just verify it at the end of the year.

What Problems you are can you face while Transfer of PPF Account?

Problem 1: The biggest problem you will face is the ignorance SBI & Post office employees have about this whole process. I think the Post Office Employee has more information (and less ego) than SBI Employees. They might reject the whole idea and say “It’s not possible to transfer”.

In that case, take the print out of Rule 153 of this document which is at the Post Office website and clearly defines the rules to Transfer PPF Account from Post Office to SBI Bank. Another thing you can do is very humanly and in a soft voice, tell them you will file an RTI to know the process of PPF Transfer from Post Office to SBI Bank and would come back with that RTI query (Post Office and SBI comes under RTI incase you didn’t know). I am sure this will be enough to speed up the whole process.

Problem 2: Another problem you may face is documentation, I am not very sure if PAN card/Address proof is required or not and what other documents, but in that case again take the help of your Post Office Head Post Master, he will surely help you. If you are stuck at any point, use sentences like “I will file an RTI and …”. That might help you 🙂

Share your experiences, and problems you faced when you wanted to Transfer PPF Account from Post Office to SBI Bank or vice versa, were you waiting for this from many years?

What is form 26AS and how to view it online?

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Form 26AS is a consolidated statement which reflects all the advance tax paid by you personally or through TDS way. The best part about it is that you can view Form 26AS online by just quoting your PAN Number. You can view your Form 26AS online or download it in PDF or Excel format, but for that, you need to register on the income tax website.

Why do we need Form 26AS?

We all check our bank accounts when someone deposits money into it. Once we see that the amount is matching, we feel at peace and confirmed that there is no issue. Now in the same way throughout the year, we might pay the tax in parts. It can be in form of the Advance tax cut by our companies, TDS cut by the bank on your fixed deposits, TDS cut by some third party who is making payment to us. They all pay this tax on our behalf to the tax department and it is linked to our PAN card.

Now at the end of the year before filing for tax returns, we might want to check that how much tax is already paid by us through different ways and then we might want to pay additional remaining tax or ask for a refund in case we see that we paid more tax in a year.

An important point to note is, do not disclose your PAN information to someone else, otherwise, it becomes a security issue. Others can also view your Form 26AS and hence find out how much tax you paid.

How to view Form 26AS online?

Click on this website to login or register. I have attached a screenshot as to how to register in this website so that you can view form 26AS online.

Step #1- To fill in the registration form, Enter Basic Details.

to register on e-filling income tax website to view your form26AS

Step #2- Once you enter the basic details, fill in the registration form.

fill in registration form to register

Step #3- Now verify your registration by entering OTP sent on your registered mobile number and email-id. Now click on validate.

once you fill in registration form ,verify your registration from otp sent on registered mobile number and email id

Step #4- Once you validate your registration, now you will have to log in so that you can view form 26AS

login in to e-filling website to view your form 26AS

Step #5- After you log in a pop-up window comes if your Aadhaar number is not linked with the PAN number. Enter details and click on Link now.

once you login, a pop up window comes if you have not linked your aadhaar number with pan. Link it now

Step #6- Now you are successfully logged in. Click on my account and again click on View Form 26AS (Tax Credit).

after login click on my accounts and then click on view form 26 AS

Step #7- To view your form 26AS, read the disclaimer and click on confirm.

once you click on view tax credit you get this window where you have to accept to there disclaimer. Now click on confirm

Step #8- Once you click on the disclaimer below window opens and again you have to click on View Tax Credit (Form 26AS).

now click on view form 26 AS

Step #9- Now select the assessment year ( for which year you want to view your form 26AS) and view as HTML and then click on export as PDF. You can now see your form 26AS.

once you click on view form 26AS this window appears. Now select the assessment year and view your form 26AS

Step #10- This is how form 26AS looks like

this is how form 26 AS looks like

Is it possible to link Form 26AS in your net banking?

Yes, A lot of banks like ICICI, SBI etc provide a direct link to your form 26AS through internet banking. On clicking the link, You can directly see 26AS.

Wasn’t this a very simple and easy way to register and view your form 26AS online. Let us know your past experience when you needed form 26AS online and how it was useful to you in the comment section.

How much Health Insurance Cover is good enough?

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

How much health insurance a person should buy? Is 5 lakhs cover enough or it should be 10 lakhs? Should it depend on job profile, city and income level? These are the most common questions which pop up when a person starts thinking about health insurance. Anil had raised this question on comments section few days back. He says –

I am recently married and look forward to start a family. Like for life insurance where you have a referral benchmark which say’s ideal insurance should be ideally be 10 times your salary, what would be an ideal coverage for us (Floater).

Now it’s not easy to answer this question, but we can brainstorm about it and get some ideas. There can be some ways you can think about how much coverage one should take while taking Health Insurance, let’s look at them one by one:

Health Insurance cover in India

1. Depends on Affordability

A big factor which decides how much health insurance a person requires depends on the premium amount. Not everyone can pay the premium for Rs 20 lacs cover, as it will be very huge. However, a person can pay some amount which fits within his expenses- affordability. Like lets say 2% of yearly income. If a person is earning Rs 6 lacs a year, he might be able to pay an amount that is up-to 2% of that yearly – Rs 12,000, which will give him decent cover from today’s standard. So a person with 3 lacs salary can pay for health insurance up-to Rs 6,000. A person with 20 lacs income can pay up-to Rs 40,000 per year. So you do not decide on the cover, but you decide on the premium which you can afford. Obviously, there is a limit above an income level. A person earning Rs 1 crore might not even need health insurance at all! He has so much of wealth already to take care of it!

2. As percentage of Income

One way to look at Health Insurance cover can be percentage of your income, like let’s say 100% of your income can be the ideal figure for your health insurance cover. Like a person earning 12 lacs a year should be covered for 12 lacs cover, a person earning 4 lacs per year income should be covered for Rs 4 lacs health cover. However, there has to be upper limit to this like say 20 lacs! This is because a person earning 40 lacs don’t need health cover of Rs 40 lacs. This percentage will depend on how you think about it, I think 100% of income is good enough, you may feel 50% is fine. As per a survey done by jagoinvestor. as high as 60% of the health insurance customers have their health cover less than or equal to 50% of their yearly income, which is quite low. Here are survey results

Health Income Survey by Jagoinvestor

3. Constant + Function(Past expenses)

If you have spent Rs 2 lacs in past 5 yrs on medical expenses and hospitals, one might want to consider it as the basis for calculating their health cover requirement. Like a person earning 6 lacs a year, who has spend Rs 2 lacs in past 5 yrs on health might be more inclined to take a higher cover than someone who has not spent anything in last 5 yrs. While the first person might feel a cover of Rs 5 lacs is important, the second person might feel Rs 3 lacs is good enough- because he has not experienced the pain of expenses on Health Insurance. So how about this

Health Insurance cover = 50% of Income + 100% of last 5 yrs expenses on Health (hospitals)

So in this case, the first guy will take a cover of 50% of income (6 lacs) + 100% of 2 lacs = 4 lacs in total. However the second person will take it for Rs 3 lacs only (50% of income).

4. Average bills these days

I think the most logical way of looking at health insurance cover can be, simply the expenses in the worst case for medical treatments these days for different kind of hospitalization. If you list down 10 things for which people are hospitalized and which are covered in health insurance and lets say the average bill of that comes to around 4-5 lacs, you can say that it can be the right figure for you.

5. Your Method

This method is your method. Each and every person has his/her own way of looking at a problem and I would like to hear how you think on this subject. So, I request you to please open up your thoughts and share on comments section what do you think should be the right health insurance cover and how it should be calculated ?

What are your thoughts on this? In your view how much health insurance cover is good enough ?

Joints Account , Nomination or Will – Which one to use ?

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

There are 3 ways one can pass on his wealth to someone – joint accounts, nomination and Will. A lot of people do not know which one is more powerful than the other and when to use which one. Today let’s discuss a few points about joint accounts, nominations and will and some scenarios which will make them clear.

3 mistakes which investors make

1. Not understanding what a joint account means

If you want to make sure that after your death, your wife operates the account without any problem, then don’t just make her the nominee, better make her a joint account holder in the bank account itself.

If you choose “either or survivor” mode, she will be able to transact and do things along with you. But remember that when you make her a joint owner, she is the owner of 50% part only. If something happens to you, she will not automatically get your 50% share. It will be divided as per your WILL or will be divided as per succession laws.

2. Forgetting about old joint holders

A lot of people have joint accounts with their father, mother, brother etc years back, but now they want to pass on their wealth to their children/wife on their death, so they put their names in the nominee and also write a WILL (for full proof documentation), but once they die, the nomination and WILL be of no use, because there is still a joint account holder and their share cant be touched. So better change the joint account holder if you wish to pass on that part to someone else in the family.

3. Not changing Old nominations and WILL

A lot of people do not change the nominations of their bank accounts, mutual funds, or life insurance policies due to laziness, someone else is on the nominee list, but they want to transfer the asset to someone else. A lot of people think that making a WILL is the final solution, but in real life, there can be complications. What if the nominee and the person mentioned in a WILL are different? The nominee can take out cash from the bank or do some transactions. Then the legal owner will have to run from pillar to post to claim that money back and do all the legal work. See this classic issue of forgetting about the WILL

Hi , I am facing a big issue .. My husband had written a WILL long back stating that all the wealth should go to his brother after his death, but this happened years back, when we were having a lot of issues in marriage and fights, but after that everything was fine and things were on track. But seems like my husband never wrote another WILL after that and didnt change the WILL.  He died recently in an accident and now his brother has claimed all our property and bank balance because of that WILL . What can I do ?

Truly speaking, This lady can’t do anything … her husband was ignorant about these things and now she will pay for his mistakes!

Some best practices

  • If you are 100% sure that your wealth should go to some specific person, always have a joint account with that person with you as the primary person and also write a WILL for your share, so that it also can be passed to them seamlessly later.
  • Make sure your nominee should be the same person you want to pass on some policy proceeds or property, It does not make sense to say in WILL that your wealth should go to A, but in nominee the name mentioned is B.
  • If you have opened any accounts/properties/mutual funds/policies long back, it’s a good idea to revisit it and see that the nominee name is appearing and is consistent with what you want it to be.

Joint Accounts, Nominations and Wills are all ways to pass on your wealth to someone else once you die, so it is very important that you structure these in the best possible manner. Have consistency in all these 3 things. If you pass on your money to a person better open an account or buy the asset along as a joint owner, make sure you put his name as the nominee and also make sure that the WILL is written with clear directions.

8 tips to Improve CIBIL Score !

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Is your CIBIL report and Score messed up ? Then the biggest question you must be having is “How to Improve CIBIL Score ?”. “Bad credit score” is really a scary phrase these days. Many people are stuck with a bad credit score/report due to their own or credit card company mistakes, but most of the times I see that it happens due to poor credit behaviour and mis-management of credit officers. Everyone wants to improve cibil score, so that they do not face any issue in getting loans at some point in future. Now in this article, I will highlight few tips/points which will help you understand what makes a great credit report and good credit score. To understand this, just be clear that your credit score is dependent on several things and taking care of each point is very important. Read in detail about CIBIL Score here

1. Late payment / missed payments

The biggest reason for a bad credit score is bad loan repayment history. A lot of people pay their bills late or miss the payment completely. It’s so tempting to pay the minimum balance now and pay the balancing due later. Doing this just saves you from late payment fees, that’s all. The interest is charged and more than that you should be worried because this information is updated by your bank to CIBIL and the next thing is obvious, your credit report and score gets uglier each month because of this. So every time you miss your home loan EMI, car loan EMI, credit card payment or you make a late payment, it affects your score badly. If you have done a lot of late payments or missed payments earlier, its your time to fix it by being more disciplined from now on. Dont worry, if you now promise to pay things on time and do it regularly for next 1-2 yrs, it will surely improve cibil score for you.

Common sense Tip: Don’t pay your bills through cheque just 1 day before the last due date, because it does not mean that your payment is done. Some one will collect it, send it somewhere, then some one will make an entry for it etc, etc… This can take some time and result in delayed payment. Why not drop it 5 days earlier instead of 1 day? Please automate the payments for EMI’s and your bills. If the bills are not fixed each month, at least put a recurring reminder in your phone 5 days before the last date and then make the payment. If I can do this, why can’t you? In last 4 yrs, I have made my FULL credit card payment 48 times exactly 4-10 days earlier than the last date of payment. My CIBIL score is 831. You can also check your CIBIL score online

2. Large Number of credit cards and loans

There was a time when having 6-8 credit cards was a commonly practiced trend and something to show off, now you will pay for it! A lot of credit cards and loans above a “natural” limit is a big negative thing. That shows credit hunger and an extreme dependence on credit in your life. It shows that your life is too much dependent on external credit. Lets say you have two friends Ajay and Robert. Ajay asks for some credit from 2 people in whole year and then asks you for another Rs X and you have good friendship with him, I am sure you will think once and then may be give the money to him. But on the other hand imagine Robert who has taken a credit from 8 people in your office and 2 other people outside office, then when he comes to you and asks for even Rs X/2 amount, you will think 5-10 times before giving it to him. What kind of feelings you will be having in mind? What all doubts will be there in your mind? Some thing same happens in the loan industry, if you have more than “required” or acceptable limit of credits, it badly affects your score. Your score reduces point by point each month.

Common sense tip: If you have a lot of credit cards, better increase the limit of 2-3 of them and close the other credit cards. This way you will have same Credit limit in total and have reduced number of cards. Its better to have 2 cards with 25,000 limit each, than 5 credit cards with 10,000 limit each.

3. Utilizing your full Credit Limit each month

One of the easiest way to improve cibil score is to effectively use your credit card and do not utilize it fully to the limit. If your credit card limit is Rs 50,000 a month and every month you use 40,000 or 45,000, it will affect your score in bad way. Even if you are paying your dues on time, still what it shows is that you are utilizing your limit to fullest, companies don’t know that you might be doing it deliberately to “manage” your credit effectively, but the way it is seen is that your life is dependent on credit. So stop reaching 80% or 90% of your credit limit. A 30%-40% credit utilization is well accepted and seen as “positive” and make sure its the case with all the credit cards you have.

If you have 2 credit cards with limit of Rs 10,000 in first card and Rs 10,000 in second card and you spend Rs 9,000 from first credit card, but Rs 0 from second credit card, then your 1 st credit card utilization is 90% & 0% in second. Which means that you are seen negatively on your first credit card and “positively” on second card, but what you can do is spend 5,000 from first card and Rs 4,000 from second card, so that your credit utilization is 50% and 40% on both the cards and its “positive” on both.

Common sense tip: If you are reaching your limit, either make sure you move to cash/debit card for a part of your expenses and reduce your credit card limit, but in case you can not reduce your expenses on credit card, better call your credit card customer care or write to them that you want your limit to be increased. Most of the companies will do it. Just tell that you have few things lined up in next 2-3 months and you want the limit to be increased.

On the other hand think well before closing a credit card that you are not using. Your over all credit limit will come down if you close a credit card. So make sure you think twice before closing a credit card from credit utilization ratio point of view.

4. Higher percentage of Unsecured credit

A high number/amount of unsecured credit is bad. Unsecured credit here means credit card debt and personal loan debt, which are totally unsecured and you can run away with it. If you have total 1,00,000 worth of debt and out of that 80,000 is because of credit card and personal loan, then 80% of your debt is Unsecured. This is bad. If you had 80% of Secured debt like education/home/auto loan, then it was a different thing. I believe this is very obvious, the more unsecured debt you have, the bad it looks like. It shows that your life has more “emergencies” than a normal person, which makes you hungry for immediate credit. So this makes sure your credit score takes a hit. Remember that having a good mix of credit types is a good idea. So if you have home loan, education loan and credit card, that’s 3 types of loans, which is good. But if you have 5 personal loans and that’s all, it shows too much dependence on one kind of loan.

Common sense tip: Make sure your total unsecured debt, looks small in front of your total debt. You if have 80,000 of unsecured debt out of total debt of 1,00,000, then your unsecured debt ratio is 80%. If you take 5 lacs of secured loan, then your unsecured debt comes down in percentage, that makes things look better. Or make sure you prepay a part of your unsecured debt and bring down the percentage, Its one of the ways to improve cibil score !

5. Being a guarantor without giving a thought

If I take a home loan and ask you to be a guarantor for my home loan because I have helped you with so many things in personal finance, because I have answered so many of your comments and helped in solving your queries, what would you say? Don’t think more on this, you better say “Go to hell”. Because if I default on that home loan, you are held liable and your score will go down. While my score will be affected more, yours will also take a good hit! A lot of people because of various reasons become guarantor for other’s loan and then the primary person runs away or is unable to pay off the loan. Don’t do it, unless you are really sure you want to do it. I can do it for my brother, but not for you.

Common sense tip: Don’t leave your documents here and there, if you don’t agree to become a guarantor, many people try to make you guarantor by forging documents and misusing xerox PAN card or driving licence. Signature is easy to copy these days! Also when your friend who has spent good time with you in last 3 months, asks you to become a guarantor, tell him you were thinking of asking him to be guarantor for your home loan, good way to test the friendship!

6. Duration of your credit history – more is better

Longer the history, better it is. You will trust a 5 yrs old friend more than 3 months old one. That’s true in case of credit history too. If you are paying your payments/EMI’s for all loans on time from last 5 yrs, it’s very much a proof that you pay on time, you have a good history, but if I have a good history from last 5 months, that is not that strong. So higher the duration of good payment history, the better your score will be and will help you to increase cibil score.

Common sense tip: If you do not have a credit card, there is a good reason why you should get one now and do your payments with credit card and pay in full every month, so that your payment history is built.

7. Too many inquiries in short spam of time

Making too many inquiries in a very short time is not looked at positively. Imagine you have made a credit card inquiry, a personal loan inquiry, a car loan inquiry in last 3 months itself. What does it show? It shows credit hunger, it shows that you want to snatch any credit which you can get, you want to get things in life on credit. Hence have a respectable amount of gap between each inquiry you do. Dont apply for home loan with 6 banks. Note that each and every inquiry you do is reported in your credit report and if your report is full of inquiries, your score will stink! Any lender will doubt your payment capacity when you are so much dependent on credit. So the best way to improve cibil score is to keep your enquiries minimum.

Common sense tip: A lot of people just apply for loans even if they really don’t need it, keep this thing in mind and deliberately make sure that there is few months of gap between 2 loan applications (at least 6 months gap would really be good).

8. Settlement of your Loan Or running away

This is the worst mistakes of all. There are people who first take on a lot many loans and then are unable to pay it. So they either ran away (companies mark it as “write-off”) or at best just made some payment and settled the loan (companies mark it as “settled”). And this will make sure you are blacklisted for at least 7 yrs. You will not be given any loan, you can cry your eyes out for that 1 small credit card and you will be treated like you are nothing.

Common sense tip: Cut your debt, when it shows a sign of going out of control. One common ground rule which can be followed it that the overall outstanding credit at any point of time should not be more than 1 month of your take home salary. There is no solution of an out of control credit card debt other than paying it in FULL. Live a life with credit card as if you don’t have one!

Each tip on How to Improve CIBIL Score has its own weightage

Note that different factors which affect your credit score has its own weightage, so one factor can be more stronger than the other, but make sure you follow all the best practices and do not make any wrong decision. Look at your actions from the lender point of you. See what kind of people you would like to give credit if you were the loan provider. Just act like what you had expected

Did you understand how you can improve cibil score ? Can you share some top to increase your credit score , incase its not covered in this article !

File an RTI application for EPF withdrawal or EPF Transfer Stutus

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Are you frustrated because of the delay in your EPF withdrawal or EPF transfer? Are you waiting from many months or years at times to get any kind of clarity on your EPF status?

Are you frustrated with your EPF withdrawal or transfer?

I have seen countless number of people on this blog and other forums really getting frustrated with waiting and waiting for years at times for their EPF withdrawal/transfer and they don’t get any information or update on the status. It is only when you personally visit the EPFO offices, you get some clarity, but even that does not help. So now if you are fed up with the EPFO office and it’s slow speed of work, what’s the final step you can take? In this article I will show you how you can use file an RTI application and successfully get lot of information and at times get your work done at a speed which you never imagined. Filing RTI application for EPF information has worked wonders for many people and they claim that it works brilliantly (if you do it right way). I know your eyes are shining, but let’s understand some background before you rush to find out how it works!

Some success stories of RTI solving the EPF issues

Case 1

I would like to share the success with RTI. I opted for EPF withdrawal about 4 months back, and did not receive my PF amount until I decided to file an RTI Application. And it was realy shocking to see the amount getting credited to my bank account within 3 days of receipt of application by K.R.PURAM, Bangalore EPFO. – Rohit

Case 2 

My EPF withdrawal issue was resolved with RTI. After submitting the forms, after around 3 months, the EPFO claimed that they transferred my withdrawal money to my bank account. However I didn’t receive the money in my bank account. I raised online grievances for 3 times. Each time I got the same answer saying that the money has been transferred and has not been returned back to EPFO, so it must have been deposited to my bank account and I should check my bank account. Around 6 months went in this process with no results. As a last option, I filed an RTI application and to my surprise, the money got deposited in my bank account in 5 days (with additional interest for 6 months) and also received a reply for my RTI application.If EPF grievance system does not work for you, go for RTI. – Manish

Case 3

Yep RTI does the trick most of the time , I got all my PF issues sorted out with RTI application and have all the written proofs with cheque numbers etc for all my previous transfers. They even informed my about my balances for current year and told that they are yet to prepare the PF a/c’s for my company for the current year , but here are your balances with us. It really helps. – Hitesh

 

What is RTI and how it applies to EPFO office?

RTI as we all know is a common man’s tool to get a speedy and clear information from any govt office. Supreme Court has clearly mentioned under article 19(1) that Right to Information is a part of Right to Speech & Expression. Now, as EPFO comes under the RTI purview, you can file an RTI application and ask anything you want about your EPF. Govt is bound to respond within 30 days to your letter with all the information you had asked. So if you are unclear about what your EPF status is or if your EPF transfer work has even started? Why did your EPF money still not credited in your bank account etc etc… You can ask all these questions and you should be getting the 100% right and clear answers within 30 days. The only point here is that you should be doing it the RIGHT way. So lets see what all you need!

Note : Before filing the RTI , a good idea would be to file a EPF grievance redressal form online

File RTI in 3 easy steps

Step 1: Buying a Postal Order of Rs 10 from Post Office

The first step is to go to Post Office and buy a Postal Order for Rs 10.  It should be in favor of Accounts Officer of the Concerned EPFO Office. Like if you are sending your EPF letter to Bangalore, the Rs. 10 postal order should be in favor of Accounts Officer, EPFO, Bangalore. The fees can also be paid by demand draft, but that would be expensive, better go for Postal order as it is commonly used for RTI.

Step 2: Drafting your RTI letter

The first step is to draft RTI letter for your EPF related queries. All you need to do is write a letter on a normal paper (better take a very high quality A4 size paper). Though there is no specific format for RTI application letter, still there are some rules of drafting it.

  • The letter subject should start as “Application Form for Seeking Information under RTI Act 2005”
  • The letter should be addressed to Central Public Information Officer, Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation, (Provide Concerned PF office address). Refer to this EPFO directory for exact address of PF office for your jurisdiction.
  • Make sure you mention your Name, Address, Contact telephone number and your Email id along with EPF account number.
  • Now, put all your queries which you want to ask regarding your EPF (putting them as bullet points is recommended)
  • As a next thing, you should have a declaration – “I do hereby declare that I am a citizen of India. I request you to ensure that the information is provided before the expiry of the 30 day period after you have received the application”
  • Finally at the end of the letter, mention the proof of payment of fees as – Proof of payment of application fee: Attached Indian Postal Order for Rs. 10 /- dated  dd/mm/yyyy  favoring “Accounts Officer of EPFO” as application fee.
  • And complete the letter by putting your Signature, Place and Date.
  • Sign the letter and Put your Postal address
  • Mention the payment details like Postal order number, issuing post office, date, cash receipt details, etc., towards the end of your application

Following is a sample RTI letter.

EPF withdrawal or EPF Transfer RTI application Template

Download the PDF format here

Step 3 : Send the RTI letter by Registered Post or Speed Post

The final step is to send this RTI letter by Registered post only, as no courier is accepted. Please make sure you keep the acknowledgement receipt carefully for all the future communication (if any). It might be required by you.  Once you complete the 3rd step, the RTI letter should reach the concerned authority in few days and then within 30 days you should be getting the reply within 30 days (as per RTI act).

Two RTI’s application needed in case of transfer of EPF

Note that in case of EPF withdrawal case , all you need to do is file an RTI query for the concerned EPF office. But in case of Transfer of EPF, there are two EPF offices involved, they are Source and Target. For example if you got transferred from Bangalore to Delhi and applied for EPF transfer, then your source EPFO office is “Bangalore” and your Target office is “Delhi”.

You will first have to file an RTI for the Source EPFO office to find out if the transfer has happened from their side or not. It might be the case that they rejected your application and you don’t even know about it. Once you file an RTI to them, you will atleast know what is the exact status. If you get a reply that the Transfer has still not happened, then they will let you know by when it will happen or give some pointers on the situation, but in case they say that they have transferred it from their side, then it means that the issue is on Target EPF office and they might not have processed your transfer yet. In that case the next step is to file second RTI to the target EPFO office.

File an RTI application for the Target EPFO and this time, along with all the details also mention about the first RTI and the response you have got from the Source, so that you show them all the proof of what you have done. Now you should get a reply from them again within next 30 days on what is their action and what is the exact status of your EPF transfer.

Online RTI Filing (For NRI’s or lazy Resident Indians)

For those who are too busy to visit Post office and do RTI filing offline. You can use the services of www.rtination.com for filing the RTI. They will help you create the RTI letter and then you need to download it, sign it, scan it and send it back to them by courier or ordinary post. They would speed post it to the concerned officer and also enclose the fee. At the moment the fees is Rs 150.

Important Points while Filing RTI application

When you file an RTI application, there are some very important points you should remember, because incase you don’t take care of some very critical points, it would mean rejection of your application and unnecessary work again. Here are some important points:

  • Do not address your RTI application to the PIO by his name, just in case he gets transferred or a new PIO is designated in his place, it will be an issue. However addressing the Officer by name has its own advantage like when it reaches his desk, by seeing his name, he might see more interest in opening it and that might mean speedy work. However in my opinion, better not put the exact name of the person.
  • Before filing the RTI, see if checking the status online helps here
  • The matter can be hand written, or typed. There is no compulsion of typing the content.
  • Be very specific while asking the questions, don’t ask unimportant or unnecessary questions, because some states like Karanataka have limits on the number of words in the RTI application (150 incase of Karnataka)
  • Check the exact fees for RTI application for the state where you are sending it. Because it can be different from states to states. Like incase of Haryana, it’s Rs 50, not Rs 10.

You can read about RTI in detail here

Can you share your experience about EPF withdrawal or EPF transfer and in case you have used RTI for resolving the issue? Are you going to use RTI to get your EPF problem solved? Please update your results once you are successful.

Should you repurchase a new Term Plan ?

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Did you buy a term plan few years back? Many of you did. Aegon Religare was the first company to launch its term plan in India and from that point, lots of companies have launched their online term plans. Recently I got a comment from one of the reader who had bought his term plan from Aegon religare long back and they increased his Sum Assured by 25% because they have reduced the premiums recently

I had taken AR iterm couple of years back. today i received an email saying my sum assured is increased by 25% of original to keep it at part with the new iterm rates. This is a good experience from AR – Says Muthu Krishnan

Term Insurance premium is constantly coming down from many months and new companies entering this online term plan business are making sure they keep down the premiums due to competition. The new entrant in this field is Bharti Axa eProtect plan which has lowest premiums compared for 25-30 yrs group at the moment.

“Term life insurance premium depends on the mortality experienced by a life insurance company,” says Suresh Agrawal, executive vice-president, Kotak Mahindra Old Mutual Life Insurance. “As the mortality experience of the insurer improves over a long period of time, it is passed on to the customers in the form of lower life premium for the new customers.”

However the point we are raising today is, what about those people who had already taken term plan 2-3 yrs back? It can be online or offline doesn’t matter, the point is that they are paying a very high premium compared to a new policy which they can buy.

For instance, someone who had bought a policy with sum assured of 50 lacs before 1-2 yrs must be paying around 7,000-8,000 premium, however if they dump their old policy and take up a new policy they will get it much cheaper despite their higher age now. So the good idea would be to look back at your term plan and see how much are you paying and how much is latest premium in the market for the same company or some new company?

Important point before you take a new term plan and change your Policy

1. Older the Policy, better it is

A very important point worth noting here is that in Life Insurance any claim which comes within 2 yr is considered as “early claim” and it’s scrutinized in detail, very detail. However a policy which is more than 2 yrs old does not come under “early claim”. So, if you have already completed 2 yrs or close to completing 2 yrs, this is one thing you will lose out when you take a new policy. However its just a point you should know, it’s not something which should stop you.

2. Look at your health changes

You need to see how your health has changed after you had taken the term plan, if you have developed any illness in between then for you the premium will increase (loading) after the medical tests. So even if the premium might show cheaper on the calculator, after you do the medical, the new premiums can actually be much higher than your old premium. So better look at that aspect.

3. Take a new term plan and then close the old one

The best way of moving ahead with new policy and dumping your old one is to first apply for the new term plan and once you get it, then close the old one. Do not just close the old one and then take a new one because in case there is some issue in getting a new term plan or if you are unsatisfied in between, it will be a bad situation to be in.

This topics brings another question in mind – Should there be Life Insurance Portability in Future ? Do you think its something desired or not ? Did you understand when you should switch to a new term plan ?

How to Create your own Child Policy with this Calculator

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Everyone is so desperate to buy a child plan (example). The features of so-called children plan are bundled in a way that it looks magical, as if there can’t be any other product like a child plan and hence, we pay much more than the price it really deserves most of the times. So today we will see how we can create your own child policy by combining term plan and other investments like PPF, FD or a Mutual Fund.

When you hear “Child Policy”, It looks extremely attractive. It gives you money on your death, It gives yearly income and it also gives you money on the maturity of the plan (generally when you child is ready for higher education) . So the point is that a child policy is so much in demand and attracts investors because of its features. However there are some issues with child plans in market. They come with high costs, rigid structure and very less control over it. Traditional Children plans (which are endowment or money back type) mainly do not deliver of returns front and ULIP children plans come with high cost .

So what can you do now ? Can we create a child policy on your own by combining Term Plan and Investments in some separate instrument, in a way that the Term Plan will take care in case of your death and investments will take care of higher education cost in case you survive.

So just like you pay a yearly premium for a Child policy, even in this case you will pay a fixed amount every year. A part of it will go as Term Insurance Premium and rest will go into investments. But in this case the term plan will also open ways for yearly income, as well as future big time expenses for child higher education as well.

When you are not there, the amount received by family from term insurance can be invested in such a manner, that it can provide a yearly income + lumpsum money NOW  + Lumpsum money in FUTURE. Lets us take an example and see how it will look like. Suppose you have a 1 yr old daughter for whom you want to create a Child Policy like structure, and you want to achieve these 3 things.

 

1. Lumpsum Money If you are no more , family gets 50 lacs upfront as lumpsum.
2. Regular Income  After your death, your family should get Rs 50,000 per year separately for your daughter education for next 20 yrs and this Rs 50,000 should increase every year by 9% (so that inflation is taken care of) and assuming this money will grow at 8% return (FD)
3. Money for Higher Education When your daughter turns 21 yrs old and is ready for her higher eduction, she should get another 25 lacs at that time.

 

In order to achieve the 3 things mentioned above , you need to buy a term plan for Rs 65 lacs (Sum assured) and start investing Rs 50,000 per year in something which gives 8% return on annual basis. Apart from this, you will need to clearly define to your family what actions they need to do once you are no more (these are simple tasks like opening a FD or investing money in PPF or balanced funds). The yearly premium for this structure would be around Rs 60,000 (50,000 investment + 10,000 premium for term plan) . Lets us see how this structure will be helpful .

If case of death (Your family gets 65 lacs)

  • 50 lacs can be taken out as lumpsum
  • 5 lacs can be invested one time to get 25 lacs at the end of 20 yrs
  • 10 lacs can be invested one time to get a yearly income of 50,000 increasing by inflation figures!

Incase you survive

  • Your investments of 50,000 annually will create a corpus of 25 lacs at the end of 20 yrs anyways

Lets us see this same example through a picture, which will clearly illustrate how this 60,000 premium payment will create a Child policy kind of structure and how it will help you in case of death and survival.

Children Policy Example

So using this structure you can achieve what a child policy provides. However this whole method has its own pros and cons. There is a lot of flexibility in this structure which a child policy does not have. However this kind of structure would need some level of trust and you will need to instruct your family about it and what they need to do incase you are not around. I think if you are preparing a will, you can clearly mention what needs to be done with the term plan money, so that family members can take those actions.

Download the Calculator and Start Planning your child Policy

Below is a calculator which you can download and punch in your numbers, the calculator will tell you how much term plan you need to take and how much investment has to be done per year. The expected return and inflation is decided by you. So if you want your family to put the money in FD or PPF after you are there around, then put the return expected as 8%, if you want it to be in Balanced Funds put 10-11% and incase of Equity Mutual Funds, put 12-15%. Also note that the premium for term plan will depend on the company you choose for taking a term plan (LIC is coming up with its term plan in few weeks as declared by them recently).

Download Child Policy Calculator Here

Comparison with Child Plans in Market

It’s important to see what is the difference between the child plans in market and this custom-made child policy by combining term plan and investments

Child Plan Comparision

Comparing it with LIC Jeevan Ankur

Lets compare this with LIC Jeevan Ankur Policy. If a 30 yr old male has to take a 25 lacs policy for a tenure of 20 yrs, He will have to pay premium of Rs 1,00,000 per year (approx) . In case of death, his family will get 25 lacs + 2.5 lacs income per year till maturity + 30 lacs of maturity (assuming 20% loyalty addition) , incase the person survives, he will get 30 lacs anyways on maturity.

This same thing can be achieved if a person does a 60,000 per year investment in PPF or FD (assuming 8% yearly return) and taking a term plan for Rs 55-60 lacs for a premium of say Rs 10,000 per year (for most company, the premium is 5,000 but lets assume LIC online term plan is taken which will come in few weeks now). So he has to pay total 60k + 10k = 70k per year to achieve the same results, with a lot of flexibility.

Do you think this whole strategy of creating your own child policy is of any use? Do you think it’s too complex? Share your views.

How PPF interest is Calculated (With Calculator)

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

There is a great confusion among investors on how PPF interest is calculated ? Just because a lot of investors don’t know this , they have questions like “what is the best time to invest in PPF to get maximum interest” or “Should they invest in lump sum or monthly?” . Once you know the procedure and exact ppf interest calculation method, life will be easy. Let me explain with examples how its done and also give you a ppf interest calculator in a excel sheet format at the end.

To explain in one line – “PPF interest is calculated monthly on the lowest balance between the end of the 5th day and last day of month, however the total interest in the year is added back to PPF only at the year-end” 

Excerpts from Official PPF page

8. Interest – Interest at the rate , notified by the Central Government in official gazette from time to time, shall be allowed for calendar month on the lowest balance at credit of an account between the close of the fifth day and the end of the month and shall be credited to the account at the end of each year

What this means is that the interest is not compounded monthly ! . While there is no ppf interest calculation formula, but the way its calculated is very simple ! . The interest earned in a year will added back to final amount only at the end of the year. Thats the only catch ! .

So lets see 3 different kind of cases where money is invested in PPF differently and see how the interest is calculated and added back to PPF account at the end of the year. We will see these 3 cases

Case 1 : Rs 60,000 deposited once on 1st Apr

Case 2 : Rs 5,000 deposited before 5th of every month

Case 3 : Case 3 : Rs 5,000 deposited after 5th of every month

The following examples give all the 3 cases examples assuming investment of Rs 60,000  in a year , but invested differently. I have taken interest at 8.6% per annum . Recently the PPF interest rate was increased to 8.6% and the limit was raised to Rs 1,00,000 and its now applicable from Dec 1, 2011 . So if you have  invested Rs 70,000 earlier in this year , you can still invest Rs 30,000 more in your PPF account.

PPF interest calculator

Note : Interest assumed is 8.6% for all the 12 months. However in reality it might happen that it may change in between for some months due to changes from govt.

Some Important Points on PPF Interest Calculation

  • If you are investing in PPF on monthly or several times a year, before 5th or after 5th will not matter a lot , it would be just few hundred rupees.
  • If you are investing your money in lump sum on yearly basis, it would be better if you can invest before the 5th of April, this will make sure that you earn interest on more balance for the month of Apr.
  • The interest on a particular month depends on the interest rate applicable for that month, if PPF interest rates change in between , then there might be different rate applicable from a point onwards.

Download PPF Interest Calculator Here

How to Check EPF Balance online ?

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

A lot of us do not have even an idea on how much money we have in our Employee Providend fund account (EPF) and how to check EPF Balance online or offline. So in this post we will see how one can check his EPF balance online and get the details back through sms . Earlier I used to search a lot on checking EPF balance online and I came across some links , but most of them never worked. But few months back I successfully got sms with my EPF balance status. Let me show you that.

How to check your EPF balance online ?

  • Go to this EPFO website link
  • There will be a link below the page to check your EPF account balance status online , click on that (direct link)
  • You will see a drop down there to select the PF Office State ( like Maharashtra, Karnataka , Delhi etc) . Select your PF office .
  • Once you select the State , you will see a list of different cities office, like for Karnataka , you can see one of the options as “Bangalore” along with the “data available upto” date , so you can get your PF balance till that date only .
  • Choose the city office
  • You will be taken to the page where you will have to fill in EPF account number , Your Name and mobile number and Submit.

How to enter your EPF account detail ?

For an example lets say Manish Chauhan worked in Bangalore and had a  Employee Providend Fund account with number KN/62345/876 . This name “Manish Chauhan” is the name appearing in EPF slip .

In that case 62345 will be the Establishment Code (which will be first blank column) and 876 will be the account number (third column) . The second column will be blank in most of the cases , it’s actually the sub code or extension of the establishment code.

EPF balance Online

 Important Points

  • Note that the name should be exactly same as it appears in EPF slip
  • The office and state have to be selected properly , In a single start there can be many offices , make sure you choose the right one.
  • The SMS can come a little late , so please be patient
  • The amount can be only upto a certain date which will be mentioned in the SMS

Can you share if you have are waiting for your EPF money from long time ? Are you facing problem in getting right information on why your EPF money has not reached you ? Were you successful in the enquiry of EPF Balance online ?