Cashback on Loan Moratorium, Increase In Health Insurance Premiums, Buying A House and More
Contrarian Money #1
📰 Things You Must Know
Cashback For Not Opting Loan Moratorium
If you are one of those who did not opt for the loan moratorium benefit announced by our government at the beginning of the lockdown, you are eligible for a cashback on the difference between compound interest and simple interest on your outstanding principle as of 29 February, 2020. Additionally, if you opted for the moratorium benefit, you will not be charged any interest on interest for the moratorium period.
If you have or had an outstanding loan in the form of MSME loan, education loan, housing loan, consumer durable loan, credit card dues, auto loans, personal or professional loans, and consumption loans, you are eligible for the benefits.
Please make sure you ensure that you have received the eligible amounts from your lender.
Read the livemint article to learn more here.
Changes In Health Insurance Regulations
IRDA has announced major changes in health insurance guidelines which are beneficial to folks like us but has led to an increase in the health insurance premiums.
What are some of the changes you must know about?
Every policy across health insurance companies will have standard definition in the words of pre-existing illnesses, waiting period, maternity clauses etc.
Some illnesses, which were previously excluded, are now required to be covered. Some examples include - mental illnesses, genetic diseases, injury associated with hazardous activities etc.
Now, pre-existing disease will mean an illness for which a doctor has advised a treatment or diagnosed you with the disease.
If your policy has been active for 8 years, there cannot be any claim rejection unless it’s a fraudulent claim or there was a recent increase in coverage amount.
You can now buy insurance with serious illness but with permanent exclusions for those illnesses.
Waiting period for lifestyle diseases like diabetes, hypertension, and cardiac conditions has now been reduced to 90 days instead of standard 2-4 years. However, you must not have these diseases at the time of buying the policy.
All the changes have been explained in detail in this fantastic post by Jagoinvestor. So if the next health insurance bill turns out to be expensive, don’t be scared. The changes are awesome and are in your favour.
SEBI Calls For New Norms In Inter-scheme Transfers
Fund managers have been engaging in inter-scheme transfer of bonds for various purposes in the past. SEBI has restricted transfer of bonds to or from Fixed Maturity Plans with an exception of first three days after buying. Further, inter-scheme transfer to meet liquidity needs is only allowed after the fund has attempted to pay from it’s cash, borrow money to pay to investors, and sell it’s securities held in the fund. Deepak Shenoy has explained the changes beautifully in this post.
💳Best Of Credit Cards
Axis Bank has launched a very interesting cash-back product with the following features -
5% cashback on most utility bill payments
4% cashback on swiggy, zomato and ola
2% cashback on all other spends except for fuel, EMI and wallet loads
While this is a great product, the customer service remains as pathetic as ever. It’s been a week since I applied for the card but I have not yet heard from them.
You can check out the card and apply here.
American Express platinum charge card holders get 25% discount on bookings at Taj, SeleQtions and Vivanta Hotels. This is perfect if you have been planning a stay at one of those expensive properties like the Taj Falaknuma at Hyderabad or the Taj Lake Palace in Udaipur.
🔍Best Personal Finance Content On The Web
✨ Risks In Mutual Fund Investing
Every mutual fund investment comes with a risk. Freefincal has explained these risks wonderfully in a single post. The best one that stands out for me is “Just give me returns risk”
Just give me returns risk: I will not reach scheme documents, I will do not do any kind of analysis, I will not invest with specific needs in mind. I will get on Google and ask, “which are the best mutual funds for 2021?”
🧬 Do You Want To Learn Everything About Term Insurance?
If you are a personal finance enthusiast like me and would like to learn more about term insurance, Beshak.org has written a good book on the subject of term insurance. It’s free to download. I even wrote a twitter thread on this book.
🏡 Is It Time To Buy Your Dream House?
Now that home loan interest rates are low and property prices have cooled down, you might be considering to buy a house. Dev Ashish from stableinvestor explains the math behind buying a house. While you will definitely save Rs. 14-15 lacs on a 25 year term loan, you must always consider various other factors like settling down at one place.
Anupam Gupta interviewed Swanand Kelkar, Managing Director, Morgan Stanley who is on one year sabbatical from his work. Swanand is a 40 year old and loves managing money. He is currently in a sabbatical from his job and has taken the road less taken. He is on a learning spree where each month he is doing something he has always wanted to do. Very interesting conversation where they discuss the feasibility of the sabbatical financially and the different projects Swanand has undertaken during this time. Also read “Why I chose to become a ‘time billionaire’” by Swanand.
My goal is to make personal finance easy for you. Every week, I bring the best of personal finance news everyone should know, credit card strategies, awesome personal finance content on the web, awesome deals, book recommendations and summaries. I also plan to write personal finance guides from time to time cover various topics.
I am also building a community of like-minded folks who love to improve their financial lives and achieve financial freedom. Check out more about Contarian Money here. We would love to have you in the community.