Housing loan - Tips for Saving Money ₹...

Housing loan.. Mortgage loan.. Bank 🏦 loan.. you name it.. Read this post to save money..

There are many ways you can save your interest money when repaying your housing loan.. Here are few good ways you can save your interest money on housing loan.. 

These are small details which not all banker will give you, But I do because I would like to honor your Hard earned money.. You deserve to enjoy this. All I’m saying is, if you have a housing loan.. read this blog until the end and save money today.

A) Easy way - Change your loan interest mode from Fixed to Floating (At least take effort and check to see what mode is your loan on) Believe me many may not aware of this as you ask, even though they are paying EMI for many years..

B) Lengthy way - Switch loan to completely different bank 🏦.. Say for example.. Private to Public sector bank 🏦 this method can save interest % immediately.. + the Easy way of floating interest rate to save further in case RBI reduces the interest rate over night when you sleep.. 😇

At this point you may have a question in your mind.. Caveat: What if RBI increases the housing loan interest rate, will that increase my interest rate as well.. Yes! Increase in most loans.

Look at some trending to have a feel of the spike and dip.. 

Here’s a snapshot of all the repo rate changes that have occurred since October 2005: 

Updated On Repo Rate

22 May 2020 4.00%

27 March 2020 4.40%

04 October, 2019 5.15%

07 August, 2019 5.40%

06 June, 2019     5.75%

04 April, 2019     6%

07 February, 2019 6.25%

01 August, 2018 6.50%

06 June, 2018     6.25%

07 February, 2018 6.00%

02 August, 2017 6.00%

04 October, 2016 6.25%

05 April, 2016     6.50%

29 September, 2015 6.75%

02 June, 2015     7.25%

04 March, 2015 7.50%

15 January, 2015 7.75%

28 January, 2014 8.00%

29 October, 2013 7.75%

20 September, 2013 7.50%

03 May, 2013     7.25%

17 March, 2011 6.75%

25 January, 2011 6.50%

02 November, 2010 6.25%

16 September, 2010 6.00%

27 July, 2010 5.75%

02 July, 2010 5.50%

20 April, 2010     5.25%

19 March, 2010 5.00%

21 April, 2009     4.75%

05 March, 2009 5.00%

05 January, 2009 5.50%

08 December, 2008 6.50%

03 November, 2008 7.50%

20 October, 2008 8.00%

30 July, 2008 9.00%

25 June, 2008 8.50%

12 June, 2008 8.00%

30 March, 2007 7.75%

31 January, 2007 7.50%

30 October, 2006 7.25%

25 July, 2006 7.00%

24 January, 2006 6.50%

26 October, 2005 6.25% 

 (Courtesy - Trending Source : RBI and BankBazaar)

C) Paying off the partial capital amount (online mode) - In case if you have reasonable cash flow from valid income source.. You have two options to choose from.. Reduce the tenure.. meaning number of years (or) Reduce the amount of interest you pay monthly.. I would recommend the first option as you can soon complete the loan and live free without any worries as these are strings attached to you.. There are some restrictions here.. You can make maximum of 6 emi worth of total amount can be paid over phone ☎️ / online by calling banks customer support. Don’t need to go to bank and expose yourself outside for safety reasons (COVID!!). Also, no need to produce the proof of income if you choose the online option of 6 emi worth of repayment. All you need is some time to talk to customer care.. Make sure you have this handy beforehand, 1) Loan account number 2) Debit Account number (Aka savings account) 3)Enough balance in your bank 🏦 account so you can allow the customer care executive to perform the request immediately. This is called service request and you may need to note 📝 down the service request number at the end of your call for tracking reasons.

D) Paying off the bulk capital amount (offline mode) - In case if you have lot of cash flow from valid income source. You need to visit bank 🏦 in person and initiate this request by writing ✍️ .. Things required beforehand. 1) Letter requesting the bank 🏦 manager to do this with self attested 2) Bulk funds in your debit account (Aka savings account) 3) Proof of income (Reason: As this is probably huge like few lakhs or even few millions you are bound to produce valid proof of income for banks to process your request)

Don’t stop 🛑 here.. continue reading 📖 if you wish to hear more interesting facts about moratorium and repo rates.. 

Moratorium - if you are affected by COVID and lost job or searching new job.. or for whatever reason look out for this word in news, you could get a temporary relief from paying your loans.. His doesn’t mean you don’t need to pay.. basically pay later option but definitely a gift 🎁 for affected individuals and their family.

Repo Rates - RBI's 4.4% repo rate lowest ever (as of March 27, 2020 12:30 PM IST)

Over the last decade, the basis for home loans changed a lot. Meaning, tbe reference rate. Banks had Prime lending rate, then Base rate was introduced, then marginal cost of lending rate and then now external benchmark rates. So depending on when someone took loan, the rate of interest is different. If someone feels that what they're currently paying is high, they can approach banks and ask for it to be changed to latest one. But banks have been reflecting RBI repo linked rates only for new loans. Not for existing loans. They're not mandated too, till the new one i.e. repo linked rates came. So the responsibility is on the borrower to check out latest rates in market and approach bank 🏦 . This is applicable to all public and private sector banks.

Being said that if you have a housing loan SAVE MONEY ₹ 💰 TODAY..!!

Note: Past performance may not reflect the future performance.. 

Enjoy reading..!

Karthik Rajasekaran

Can a virus change your life perspectives..!!?

Answer is YES!

Here is how..

Screen time! 

Complete reverse.. What happened to the recommended screen time for kids.. Ideally there is no way we can follow this. Nothing to complain! A Kindergartner is using more than 2 hours in a day, higher standard students are forced to use more than 4 hours in a day. A college student already started working like a IT guy who sits in front of monitor more than 8 hours in a day.

Car Pooling!

This was really great idea to save environment and save gas/money! People who work in same office or same locality do car pooling in the past. In USA many states has a dedicated fast line for cars which does car pooling (I meant more than 2 people in a car can use this line). Now we say, don't do car pooling for keeping the social distance. Maximum 2 people can travel in a car with the allowed social distancing. Due to corona out break we are not sure public transportation is safe anymore. Not sure who carries what..!?

Economy!

Due to corona out break, we know economy is upside down and many listed companies are hitting the X-axis in the graph who were always stayed in Y-axis in the share market graph..!  perspective of many businesses are changing. Business who completely depend on the outside social world entertainment is become questionable and they literally don't know how to run many business without having public gathering. I have to call out few cab services/tourism/entertainment/cinema you name it.. Many market analysts has to come out of a comfort zone and think twice to boost our economy. Reopening the economy doesn't mean Govt is not going to look after the affected people.. Govt should do both at the same time. That's the best way to handle this situation. Re-open the economy safely, slowly in green & yellow zones.

Value of human life!

I really hate just reopening economy without thinking about precious human life and public safety. Sorry to say this, but this is how the perspective towards the value of human life is changed today. When all this started last December 2019 in China.. Whole world was watching and everyone was pretty scared by seeing number of people died due to pandemic - epidemic - corona out break.. Not sure if China know this or not, but they did NOT warn other countries or WHO to alert whole nation about this pandemic and stop travels and lock borders.. so the people who were affected by this covid were exported to all over the world, like how China export their infinite goods to all over the world. Then slowly this spread in whole world and USA become the biggest victim of this COVID-19. Now I am not sure, do we really care about human lives are not. All we see is how to re-open the economy to save country from bankruptcy; less worry about the human lives. Lock down is getting relaxed in many states when complete LOCK DOWN! is the only known solution to block the chain of this infection until we find the vaccine for this. As I pen this down here is how many people infected and died respectively in USA TOTAL CASES 1,092,815 / TOTAL DEATHS 64,283.

(I am really thankful to the Indian govt who really cares about human lives and working really hard to block the chain by extending the lock down as much as possible. They are one among living example today who executed the formula of lock down much early in the cycle. Beyond that general public should also be strictly conservative and choosy to go outside only for essentials)

I may be contradicting myself with an earlier statement under Economy heading. Well! its debatable.. :) Don't stop here.. keep reading and don't miss the following interesting facts. 😉

PPE's - Face Masks & Sanitizers!

Personal Protective Equipment - Moving forward Face masks and sanitizers are a minimum required for survival and must have in every house hold. Usage of face masks are mandated across many countries and cities today.. You cant even imagine how much of PPE's we are about to be consuming and how much is needed for rest of the world.. One living example of Amazon gave a public statement that  they are gonna consume 100 million+ masks and many other PPE's just for one company..

• Provided 100 million+ masks to sites 
• Added 2,298 handwashing stations 
• Added 5,765+ janitorial staffers to our typical teams 
• Provided an additional 34 million gloves 
• Added 48 million ounces of hand sanitizer 
• Added 93 million sanitizing spray and wipes 
• Procured more than 31,000 thermometers and 1,115+ thermal cameras 

Courtesy from (Amazon Blog..)

Think twice before wasting a face mask / gloves / disinfectant wipes for non essentials.. Not just you need to go out only for essentials same way you need to consider using these PPE's only for essentials.. Please prepare your mind!

You Believe it or not, in my house hold I have all of these PPE's limited supply and its hard to get them outside now, it takes month time for delivery as these are in rocket high demand.

Cinema - Big Screen Entertainment!

Oscars change eligibility rules - With cinemas closed for the foreseeable future throughout most of the world, the Oscars are removing the prerequisite that films must have a theatrical release to be eligible for an Academy Award. This also means that we may not see movies for several years in a big screen rather.. We may be sitting in our couch with a bowl full of popcorn in your hand in front of your big flat LED screens to watch the digital release of movies (with a reasonable subscription possibly!) even though you will definitely miss the huge crowd cheering and laughing at a good scene Vs a great savings on the unreasonably priced food which we buy at the cinemas (Did we ever thought about how much we spend at food counter attached with a cinemas.. At least to my personal experience I spent more at the fooood counter than I pay for my movie tickets 😕 ..)

Family / Friends / Relatives!

Family is more closer than before. The evenings and whole weekend I can spend with my family. My wife and daughter is more happier than before.. The one known complaint my daughter puts in the table always is you are not spending time with me. Now that's solved! Me and my Daughter was able to do Jumba dance and I thought my daughter chess game.. I know its difficult but she is definitely picking up slowly. Also with my daughter playing cards now we have a extra hand. Some interesting games with playing cards. The two packs we had in our home was pretty old with many missing cards.. Then we ordered two pack of cards from Amazon shopping, when usually prime can deliver next day. It took more than two weeks to reach us as they are non essentials (understood!) Our whole family was eagerly expecting the delivery from Amazon and counting down the days to get that two new packs. Bokaro & Seven Cards are our favorite games are. Amazing feel..
Thanks to Zoom & Google hangout and many other free video conferencing apps.. Friends and relatives are more closer than before like close to our heart.. Even though we are far away from each other physically.. Virtually we are connected.! Wow! what a feel.. Group chit chats, Group calls, Group sharing their feelings each other. TRIVIA nights. People are more softer than before.. Giving importance for human and never take anything for granted. Even in my official calls first 5 mins are allocated for humans :).. We are caring each other more than before. Need of an hour though! 

World outside!

Pollution free, Population free, Congestion free, Accident free, Theft free, Robbery free, Abuse free..! At the same time our beautiful other living beings are enjoying the people free world with maximum happiness and for the first time ever after so many years the other living beings lived their life  to maximum extent peacefully.. As that's where their generation might have lived decades ago. Now we occupied their space and celebrating as ours.. Global warming may reduce during this pandemic. Ozone layer need some breathing time without too much carbon monoxide. We have polluted the world enough and world need some rest from it.

Accept the change of living!

This may be a sample of third world war.. Who knows! Think in that perspective. Forgot all non essentials for rest of your life. Look for only essentials and save money! Not just now.. Even after pandemic ends. Make us feel better. I think this will change or teach human the way we live.. no more luxuries.. stay simple and safe at home.. When business re-open, the social distancing still strictly need to be followed. Don't step out your home without a face mask and a hand glove. Spend for your safety not for luxury. If you have money for luxury consider donating them for COVID-19 relief fund :). Remember - social live is no longer physical, its virtual until we put a full stop for covid.

Robotics can help now! 

Its time we extend the usage of robots as they are resistance to this COVID or any other virus (Not computer virus though!). This is where companies can invest in and forcible future. You may think I am joking. This is true, we have a living example as Fortis hospital in Karnataka is using Robots for COVID-19 screening and beyond. Courtesy from Fortis Screening Robots

Thanks and Salute!

Our heart felt thanks to Doctors, nurses risking their life to save us, this is a real self less service.. Police who risk their life to keep us safe at home. Health ministry who work day and night to keep us healthy at the same time planning for everyone's betterment.. Thanks To all custodial and sanitation workers.. Thanks to all farmers, and for everyone who do social service during this pandemic.

Everything I said here is out of my personal and public knowledge. Hope things will change in few years realistically and we all be back to our regular social life. I am waiting.. (Illiya thalapathi style) Good luck to us!

#stay home #save lives

Happy Reading..

- Karthik Rajasekaran