Month: August 2016

How to correct CIBIL report mistakes in next 30 days – A step by step Guide

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

Today I am going to teach you some step by step process which will help you to correct your wrong CIBIL entries, which will, in turn, improve your CIBIL score. Most of the investors take some of the other kinds of loan and if they are not able to pay the EMI’s on time or default on the loan, their CIBIL report gets messed up and they don’t get further loans in future.

This is because once your credit history becomes bad, then lenders are not very excited to give you loans.

correct credit report mistakes

How to correct the CIBIL record?

I recently got a question from Mukesh Kumar, who saw a wrong entry in his CIBIL report. See what he says…

I have an error in my cibil report that I applied for loan in 2009.but it is wrong entry. How can it be corrected.

CIBIL report can contain mistakes either due to the investor’s mistake and their ignorance, but many a time the errors happen because of bank mistakes or manual issues.

Some reasons for mistakes in the Credit report

  • The lender did not update the correct remarks with CIBIL
  • The lender updated the wrong remark with CIBIL
  • CIBIL makes mistake in name, address, gender or date of birth while creating the report
  • The mistake happened while generating the CIBIL report
  • There was some fraud using your documents and hence the wrong entries

4 Step process of correcting the CIBIL mistakes

Let me help you with the step by step process if you want to fix the errors in your credit report. Here you go ..

Step #1 : Check your CIBIL report

You will not be able to move ahead unless you properly understand your current situation. So the first step is to apply for your CIBIL report and understand it properly.

You can go to CIBIL website and pay the fees to get your report. Once you pay the CIBIL charges, you will receive the PDF report in your mail almost instantly which will contain your credit score and the report. Below is a nice video tutorial by the CIBIL team which shows you how to read the CIBIL report.

Step #2 – Raise a Dispute Resolution with CIBIL

Once you have understood your report, you should make the list of all the errors and mistakes in the report.

After that, your first point of contact is CIBIL. You should raise something called a CIBIL Dispute Resolution at https://www.cibil.com/dispute/.

You need to fill up some details and mention the issues in your report which you think should be corrected. Once you do this, your dispute will get recorded and CIBIL will get in touch with the lenders one by one and ask them to relook at the issues if they would like to send a new update (the correct one).

Note that CIBIL will never make any changes in your report themselves. They will only do it once they get a go-ahead from the lender because at the end of the day, your CIBIL report is the collection of all the information CIBIL gets from various lenders.

How online dispute resolution with CIBIL works?

dispute resolution cibil process

It can take anywhere from few days to 30 days for your dispute resolution to get sorted out. But I suggest waiting for 45 days. If you have questions on this, I suggest you read the FAQ on dispute resolution here

This dispute resolution can be raised even if you have not bought the report yourself but got it from the lender while applying for some loan.

Now, in this case, it might happen that the lender refuses to correct some information because they think that they are correct and the investor is wrong. In which case the investor should take the 3rd step.

Step #3 – Contact lenders directly

If the dispute resolution works, then the changes will happen in the report. But at times some lenders might disagree to some point and refuse to make the changes.

At this point, CIBIL can’t do much and you will now have to follow-up with the lender yourself.

Let me give you an example.

Suppose there is a guy who checks his credit report and see that one of the loans which he paid off fully, is marked as “WRITTEN OFF”. In this case, he can raise a dispute resolution with CIBIL and let’s say the lender says that the loan was still not paid off and some amount was remaining and with interest and late payment charges, the loan becomes bigger and later they marked it as WRITTEN OFF.

In this case, the guy has to contact the lender himself and then sort things out.

He can ask for all the explanation proofs and loan statements and prove if there was any loan outstanding or not. In this case, it would have helped if the person had taken a NOC once he thought that the loan is complete and paid off.

Contact lender through email + phone

Coming back to this point, the first step is to send an email to the lender, stating your case with proper dates and the error in the report. If possible, also attach a snapshot of the CIBIL report. Then wait for a few days for their response, and if you don’t get any response, then you should visit their branch in the city.

Meet the manager there or whoever is the in-charge of the CIBIL loans section. If 30 days are over and you are not getting any proper response, it’s the time to raise an online complaint with banking ombudsman. This way you have at least raised one leg of investigation and waged a war against the lender.

To give you an example, see how lender did not update the correct status with CIBIL in this case below

I have taken loan from fullerton India long back and paid the same. they have also given me NOC. But the same is still not updated in CIBIL records. My financials status is now good and I can pay loan installments regularly. I am good salaried and paying IT also regularly. Can this improve my CIBIL Score and Can I get Loan ?

In case you face any issues, feel free to contact CIBIL team. Here are the CIBIL contact numbers on this link. Call their customer care number and mention your issues, at times this can bring faster results.

Step #4 – Close your Past Dues and Outstanding amounts, if any

Finally, once you contact the lender, it might happen that there was a genuine mistake from the lender’s end. If they agree, they will update the correct status with CIBIL and your issue will get resolved in 60-90 days. But if not, then mostly the issue is due to some past outstanding amount which did not pay.

Loan Settlements and not paying EMI on time.

In most of the cases I have seen, the issue is some past loan for which 100% outstanding was not paid off by investor and it was settled for a lower amount. For example, support you owe Rs 1 lacs in the loan, but are unable to pay it and you do the settlement for Rs 60,000.
Years later then you see a remark on your CIBIL Report which says “SETTLED” or “WRITTEN OFF”. At this point the situation is very bad because most of the investors don’t want to pay this surprising amount just to fix things.

Check out this real-life case

I took Durable loan with Capital-First in Feb 2014 with period of 9 months. I paid first 6 EMI’s on time but the last EMI I didn’t paid, one fine day I got call from Capital-First Legal team and they asked me to clear rest of amount. So I paid remaining amount in single shot using Capital first online portal in Aug 2015.

Recently in Feb 2016 I pull CIBIL Report and I found the above account marked as “WRITTEN-OFF” and Raised Dispute with CIBIL, I observed in latest (in May 2016) CIBIL report that the status changed “WRITTEN-OFF” to “POST(W/O) Settled”. I discussed with Capital First Customer care many times. They just gave reply like “you paid amount in stage of WRITTEN-OFF status. so it should be POST(W/O) Settled. it won’t change further”

Is that true? and How do I remove that status from My CIBIL?

In this case, it’s very difficult to improve your score, because that bad remark will be there for many years/decades, unless you clear off the loan.

Get in touch with lender

So if possible try to get in touch with the lender and speak to them about this. Ask them how you can get a “closed” remark for a loan. At times lenders are ready to take a lesser amount and update the entry as “Closed” with CIBIL.

Once you follow all these steps and correct your CIBIL mistakes, your CIBIL score will go up over time.

I hope you got a fair step by step process on correcting the mistakes in the CIBIL report? In case there are any questions, I will be happy to take them in the comments section.

10 steps to ensure safety of your ATM/Debit/Credit Card usage

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

In the last 10-15 yrs, card usage has replaced cash transactions to a big level at least in urban India. We no longer go to banks to withdraw cash. Almost everyone prefers to pay by cards when we visit malls, grocery shops or when we fill petrol in our cars.

Increase in Card Frauds

While the ATM/Debit/Credit card usage has increased, so has the frauds related to the cards. Most of the time, card fraud happens due to negligence of the cardholder. In this post, I will talk about several things you should keep in mind which will safeguard you against fraud or any crime which can potentially happen. The things we talk about in this article will be for ATM cards, debit cards, credit cards, and even internet banking transactions.

atm safety tips

1. Destroy the CVV number on the back of the card

Once you have used your ATM card several times, it’s suggested to scratch the CVV number on the back of the card. Almost everyone will memorize the 3 digit CVV number once they have used it 5-10 times. You can also write down the CVV number in your mailbox and email it to yourself if you want to record it in someplace.

While this will not make you fully protected from fraud, but it will surely reduce the chances.

2. Change the PIN as soon as you receive the card

Once you receive your card for the first time, it’s suggested that you activate it asap and then change the PIN. Try to avoid keeping the PINs that resemble your birthday, Pincode or phone numbers. Make it a random number or some combination which you can relate to.

If you do not change your default PIN which the letter contains, it might happen that someone looks at it and misuses your card, given they have access to it. That’s the reason you should also destroy the old password document.

3. Activate SMS Alerts for any amount above ZERO

It’s suggested to activate the SMS and mail alerts for all transactions.

If you do not want any SMS for a specific amount like Rs 500 or Rs 1000, then you can set up the alerts above that amount, but make sure you do it. A lot of people who come from the old generation like our parents, uncles etc are new to these card payments and do not activate these features. Please do it for them

4. Keep the customer care number saved on the phone

It’s always a good idea to store your bank/card customer care numbers on your phone so that you can inform them about any fraud or issues as soon as they happen.

Imagine you lost your card and you are thinking – “Once I am back home, I will call customer care and share about this incident so that they can block my card”. This is not a great situation, because, within a few minutes, the who has the card can swipe it and use it (given he knows other details)

Better avoid being late in informing about the incident, because once the money gets debited from your account, then matter becomes complicated and you will spend lot of times in fixing the issue and following up

Prevention is better than cure …

5. Avoid using the ATM in night or places which are not safe

There have been instances where I wanted to withdraw cash from ATM around night-time, and my wife always tells me that we can always do it the next day in the morning because it’s better to avoid ATMs at night especially when it’s not an emergency.

I think that makes sense.

While, out of 100 times, 99 times nothing will happen. But then that one bad incident is what you want to avoid..

RIGHT?

I am not saying that never use the ATM in the night, but as far as possible, try to refrain using your cards at night at lonely places, because you never know who is keeping an eye on you.

Here is a video from Bangalore, where a 38 yrs old lady was attacked by a guy inside the ATM. Something like this is very much possible to happen if you take things lightly at night when it’s lonely.

Hence, if are going back home in midnight and thinking of withdrawing cash from an ATM which is located on a lonely road, I suggest that you avoid it unless it’s emergency. It’s always safer to come back in the morning and withdraw the money from ATM.

6. Don’t let any once enter the ATM while you are using it

If there is only one single ATM machine inside the room, then don’t allow anyone to enter the ATM when you are using it. You can directly tell the person to enter the room once you have used it.

At times, People are not civilized enough to understand that ATM usage is a very private activity and they should not enter or look at your screen.

stop atm fraud

(Image Source)

7. Never leave an incomplete transaction

There are many ATM frauds which have happened because the person left without completing their transaction. You should never leave the ATM screen unless the “welcome screen” appears back.

There are cases, where the computer hangs in between the transaction either because of a technical issue or because someone had done some trick to it. Always press the cancel button once you are finished or sense that there is some issue.

Below is an excerpt from a report from Indian express which shares more details about keypad jamming fraud in ATMs.

Keypad jamming fraud

The risk department of the banks have termed it so because the modus operandi of defrauder involves jamming both the ‘Enter’ and ‘Cancel’ buttons on the ATM machine by applying glue or by inserting a pin or blade at the edge of the button. So when the customer tries to press the ‘Enter/OK’ button after entering his ATM PIN, the key does not function and the customer can’t proceed with his transaction. At this juncture the customer thinks that the machine is not working and tries to cancel the transaction, which also does not go through as that button is also jammed. Thinking that the transaction is cancelled, he leaves the ATM machine.

As soon as the customer leaves or is prompted to visit the nearby ATM machine, the fraudster takes over the machine and since the transaction is active for around 30 seconds in most cases (some banks have reduced it to 20 seconds), he keeps the transaction active by pressing some functional buttons and in the meantime removes the glue or pin from the ‘Enter’ button to go ahead with the transaction. The fraudster then withdraws the cash from the customer’s account, leaving the customer unaware of the fraud till he checks the message from the bank.

If your ATM screen is hanged or incase of any issues, make sure you contact the security guard or at least call the customer care while you are inside the ATM.

All ATMs have a CCTV machine and it will record your activity which will help you later in case of any problem or dispute. Here is a real-life case of how ATM fraud can happen from a fellow blogger BasuNivesh.

8. Never share your debit card PIN when you shop

When you go to Petrol Pumps to fill your car or while you are dining at restaurants, try to avoid sharing the ATM PIN while making the payments. A lot of people let others enter their PIN because they don’t want to walk all the way to the swipe machine.

I prefer to walk down and enter the PIN myself or ask them to bring the swipe machine near me.

While it surely adds to convenience by sharing the PIN, but it also exposes you to the risk of debit/credit card fraud. No one is stopping the person who has your card to note down your card number, expiry date, CVV number (most of the people don’t scratch it) and write down the PIN you shared with them. In some extreme cases, your card can be swiped to the skimming machine to steal the information and duplicate the card.

how debit and credit card skimming work

A lot of people think that just because someone has their card details, they are still secured because the OTP comes to their mobile or the 6 digits extra password is asked while doing a transaction online. However, they are mistaken.

While one will surely fail while doing the transactions in Indian websites, they will succeed while using the card on international websites, because OTP is not sent there. Also, that extra layer of 6 digit password is not asked while doing transactions at many websites outside India.

9. Never share your PIN, OTP, CVV and other sensitive details

My father in law is a senior citizen and despite being a bank employee for many years – I can clearly tell you that even he might fall prey to many online frauds related to banks because he is very new to these card payments and internet banking. He belongs to that old era and his banking is very different than today’s banking.

Like him, your parents, and grandparents and in-laws will surely be from the generation who does not understand very well how these online things work.

When they get a call from someone who says – “I am calling from Bank and …”, for them it’s a genuine call and they can’t tell a difference between fake call and a genuine one. And they are always on the list of fraudsters.

There are various online frauds going on these days, where a person poses as a bank employee and then scares the person on other end saying things like

  • “This is a verification call from the bank, please share the OTP which has just come on your mobile”
  • “You will now get a new card because the old one is canceled, please share the 3 digits on the back of the card to approve this”
  • “We notice that a 20,000 transaction has happened just now, did you do it? Please share an OTP which has come to your mobile to verify that you are the cardholder”

Listen to this YouTube conversation, where a girl is posing as SBI staff and trying to get information. Imagine if your parents or some senior citizen gets this kind of call, how will they react?

Here is a good FAQ related to fraud protection related to cards from ICICI bank

10. Don’t expose the cash withdrawn from ATM

I have done it a few times, and I now understand that it was a mistake.

When you take out cash from ATM, if it’s a big amount – many times a few people come out of ATM holding the bundle of cash without realizing that someone might be watching them.

It’s always suggested to keep a bag with you and put the cash inside it or at least keep the cash in your wallet or pocket till you reach your car or home. There might be many bad elements nearby and they will keep an eye on you. They might be behind you and later they may attack you. What they show in CRIME PETROL actually happens in real life too 🙂

Don’t Get Paranoid

While it’s suggested that you should be alert and careful while using your cards or internet banking, but I would like to also add that you should not become paranoid and start behaving like a maniac :). You should judge the situation and use your presence of mind when someone is really being helpful and when someone is trying to trick you.

Please share any other tips or suggestions which I have not added above.

Top 8 financial regrets of Indian investors (Survey with 11k participants)

Posted on by Jagoinvestor

We all make various kinds of financial mistakes, and then regret it later.

Don’t we?

I wanted to find out, what kind of regrets are widespread among Indians, so I ran a survey for many weeks & got an amazing 11,324 participants for the survey. The survey had many questions and various insights can be drawn out of the data, but today – I am just going to share one of those insights with you (more to come later in other articles)

Most common regrets investors have

When I created the survey, I was able to think of 8 mistakes & asked the participants to chose among those only (It was possible to chose more than one mistake) and here were the results

financial regrets India

Now we will look at each of these regrets and discuss them in detail

Regret #1 – Not working seriously on increasing the income

When I listed down 8 mistakes as the part of the survey, I was quite excited to know which mistake will be on the top and after I looked at these 11,324 results, it was clear that the biggest regret was – “Not working on increasing the income”

Think about it for some time…

The “income” one earns is one of the tops most important things in financial life. You will be able to build wealth over time, only if you invest the money.

The investment can only happen if you are saving a decent amount of money after your expenses happen. Which becomes possible only if you are earning good enough income.

Why earning good income is important

So if one has low income, then it’s not a great situation to be in, especially in today’s times. Because then your expenses itself will eat up all your income and you will not be left with enough surplus each month. You will not be able to save enough for your financial goals, for buying a house, and other necessities in life. If this continues for many years, you will be stressed most of the time thinking about the future and handling the short term demands which life keep throwing at you.

As per the Pew Research Center study, India primarily has poor or low-income families and even by world standard, we are not doing well. Not everyone in India works in Big IT parks or sophisticated jobs like you and me.

low income India

(Image source)

When most of people start earning money, they go into the comfort zone of life and don’t take enough measures to increase their income. Whatever pay-raise they get from their employer is taken silently for many many years assuming that they are getting what they deserve, only to realize years later, that they are underpaid.

As an investor, you should spend a lot of quality time on building your skills, and finding the right environment which values you and pays you good enough. You should find out various ways through which you can increase your income.

This article gives you some background on how to change your habits and mindset around money, in case you want to do something about it.

Regret #2 – Not making any investments till date

Even after many years of earning money, a lot of investors still don’t make any real investments. By real investments, I mean a considerable wealth. I am not talking about a few small Recurring deposits you did or your LIC investments which you did for tax saving. No!

Answer this …

“How much of your earnings to date, have you saved?”

There are many people who have been working for the last 10 yrs, but their savings/investments are just equal to their yearly income!.

1 in 3 investors wait for 5 yrs before they make the first investment

Here is a survey I did last year where I asked investors how late they were for making their investments. 29% of people said that they waited for 5 yrs before making their first investment and 8% of people had not invested even after working for 10 yrs.

If you add both the numbers, seems like 1 out of every 3 investor wait for at least 5 yrs before making any investment. That’s a scary number.

Here are the topmost reasons why people do not make investments for many years

  • They don’t save enough after their expenses
  • The amount of saving they do is very small and they feel it’s not worth saving that much
  • They are spendthrifts by heart and just spend the money
  • They just keep thinking – “I will invest once I have enough money”
  • They tried saving some money, but eventually used it for some purpose
  • They faced a bad experience and then decides to not invest
  • They just avoid investing because they feel it’s complicated and confusing

If you are a young investor and waiting for the right time to invest, trust me – it’s never going to come!

Start with whatever small amount you can, so that you at least teach yourself the habit of investing, see how it feels to see a few thousand in your bank account which was saved by you. That feeling will be great and the chances of that habit of saving getting stronger are high.

Regret #3 – Not focusing on a career or choosing the wrong career

Your career is a very important part of your life.

Your career will decide how much you will earn, which in turn will decide the quality of your financial life to a great extent. Your career will decide how will be your mood for 8-10 hours each day. It will decide your stress level and your health too.

Your career is like the center of your life if I am correct.

If you don’t love what you do to earn money, there will be issues in your life and many things will get affected due to that. I want you to read a few answers from quora where people have shared their views on the career mistakes people make.

career mistakes people make in India

I have often seen that a bad financial life is a result of a bad career or wrong career. Many a time, people get into a job which they don’t hate, but then they never work on making themselves skilled enough to reach the top positions.

Take an example of a software engineer, there are many people who don’t hate their job, but then they are stuck with a profile or skills which they have not upgraded and hence they are not fully satisfied with themselves.

Don’t be that person!

If I have to share from my personal life, My first and only job was at Yahoo as a systems engineer. I was recruited from the campus. I was an algorithm and problem-solving guy who was chosen for the server related work which involved everything I never enjoyed, nor I was confident enough.

Within a week of joining the job, I realized that I am in a mess.

I knew that I am stuck into something which I am going to hate like anything for the next coming years. I just survived for many years and side by side worked on this website and with a few thousand in my bank account, I told my manager that I am quitting my job.

Current Situation

I changed my career path totally. I am now satisfied with what I do for a living and to earn money. I have increased my skill levels in a totally new domain.

I know it’s not easy, but see what all actions you can do and improve things on your side.

Regret #4 – Spent too much mindlessly without thinking about future

This regret is somewhere closely related to #2 point – “Not investing anything till date”

After the first paycheck comes to one’s bank account, it’s a very special phase of life. Most of the people get into the spending spree. We all have done that and there is nothing wrong with it. After all, for so many years you wait for that day when you will have control over money and take decisions of spending without any restrictions from parents.

After all, there are so many unfulfilled wishes and desires we all have.

However, there is one problem

Many investors never stop their spending spree and continue it for many years, without looking back on how it’s affecting their financial life.

They are busy enjoying life, buying expensive gadgets, taking vacations they can’t afford, and eventually get into debt trap and keep paying a big portion of their income into EMI’s

No, we are not talking about spending money on needs and enjoyment. We are talking about people who go overboard and cross their limits. We are talking about that person, who earns Rs 5 lacs a year, but lives the lifestyle of a person who earns Rs 10 lacs/year.

  • If their financial status allows them to own a Maruti Wagon R, they buy Honda City.
  • If they can afford eating out twice a month, they do it twice a week
  • If they can afford to call 50 people for a family function, they call 500 so that they “look good”

And this continues for years and years … and once they get married or once they have kids, then they start wondering about the future.

That’s when they wake up and realize that they have messed up.

spending money

If you want to do mindless spending and never restrict yourself, then better earn like hell.

Make sure you take your income to a level, where “how much you spend?” does not matter. But most of the people earn a fixed income whose growth is going to be linear over time. Better control your spending beyond a level if you can’t earn enough.

Regret #5 – Lost a lot of money in bad financial product

Investors trust close relatives and friends while investing their hard-earned money and invest money based on relations, hearsay or recommendations and don’t think enough before writing that cheque.

So the family uncle becomes the insurance advisor and the tax-saving expert, and the friend in the next cubicle is your financial advisor at times.

In the name of the tax-saving rush, investors commit themselves for years of premium payment in a useless product which is packaged very well and then many years later, they realize that they invested in a dud product.

Check the poll results below were 920 investors have shared why they bought a financial product which they realized is a wrong one for them. People buy it because they trust others easily, or its pressure from family/relatives at times.

Reasons for misselling

The worst thing is the time lost and not exactly the money only.

If you invested Rs 50,000 each year for 10 yrs and finally realized that you only have Rs 4 lacs back out of 5 lacs paid, Your loss is not just 1 lac, its 5-6 lacs, because your 5 lacs could have become 10-12 lacs over these 10 yrs, think about the opportunity lost too.

Regret #6 – Trusted others too much and lost a lot of money

This is just a subpart of the point we just discussed.

A lot of people have lost a lot of money because they trusted someone. It can be a friend/relative or completely unknown person. There are various scams that happen in our country and worldwide. There are chit fund scams and get quick rich kinds of scams and people put their hard-earned money without thinking much.

Here is a recent case where a woman trusted a person and transferred 11 lacs to their account and later realized that she has been duped.

lost money phishing

I am not recommending that you become paranoid about your money security and just never trust anyone, but when you are investing your money, make sure you do the background check of the person you are dealing with, do your homework and understand what you are getting into.

Regret #7 – Didn’t buy a house even when it was possible to buy

13% of people from 11,324 people who took the survey said that they regret not buying the house when it was possible for them. I am not sure what percentage of these people don’t have a house at the moment, but I am speculating that many people had the money to commit for down payment and take a loan, but they didn’t do it and finally prices went up and they could not buy the house later due to rise in prices.

(Check this interesting article discussing software engineers and house ownership pattern)

My suggestion is that if one has the potential to make a down payment for the house and can afford to pay the EMI, then one can buy the house for consumption purposes (if not for investment purposes). Once you buy the house, a big pending task of life seems to be completed. But then this is a personal choice.

Regret #8 – Took too much loan in my life

Only 11% of people chose said that they regret taking too much loan.

It does not mean that people are not taking a lot of loans, just that they are ok with it or deal with it properly and don’t consider it as an issue. A lot of people prepay their loans before the original tenure.

My recommendation is to not take unnecessary loans for consumption purposes like vacations, alliances etc. The only two loans which to me make sense are Education loan and Home loan. At times car loan is fine, but then no other loans. Personal loans should only and only be taken in case of emergency and never otherwise.

What is your financial regret?

I would like to know from you what has been your biggest financial regret? Have you committed some mistake which you repented for years? If you had avoided that mistake, you would have a different financial life today?

Please share it in the comments section!