Lifestyle factors to consider: Own house or rent?

One of the biggest debates in the world of personal finance is whether or not you should buy or rent when it comes to housing.
“There are pros and cons to each side of the debate,”. “What it comes down to, though, is your personal lifestyle and what works for you and your long-term financial goals.”
Proponents of buying a home point to the fact that you have the opportunity to build equity that can serve you well in the long run. When you own a home, you own a large asset that can be useful down the road. Not only that, but there is the potential for appreciation, especially if you live in a desirable real estate market that sees home values increase at a strong annual rate.
On the other hand, supporters of a renting lifestyle point out that most homes aren’t located in areas where you’re going to see an appreciation of 5% to 10% annually. For most real estate markets, the annual appreciation is going to be closer 2% to 3%. On top of that, you have costs including interest paid, maintenance, repairs and property taxes. Many home buyers will be lucky to break even.

The reality is that whether you buy or rent a home should depend on your personal situation and your goals. What’s right for one person might not be right for another. In fact, your preferences might change at different points in your life. As you consider the choice to rent or buy, here are some lifestyle factors to consider:

                             

How long you plan to stay?

“Buying a home essentially ties you down to a location, “If you know that you are going to move around a lot in the next few years, it might make more sense to rent.”
Unless you plan to become a landlord and rent out the property after you leave, buying for a short period is likely to result in losses to your budget. Renting offers more flexibility in living arrangements since you can leave with greater ease, and you don’t have to worry about trying to sell the home before you take off for your next living arrangement.

Convenience

There are a lot of inconveniences that come with owning a home. You handle maintenance and repairs. If you have a yard, you need to take care of it. When you rent, though, many of these items are taken care of by the landlord. You don’t have to worry about maintenance, and if something breaks, it’s someone else’s responsibility.
“Many rental communities, especially if you live in a luxury apartment or condo community, come with conveniences and amenities you might not get if you buy.” Amenities like a workout room, pool, clubhouse and even walking trails might be present in some rental communities. If you like these amenities close to your home so that you don’t have to drive to the gym or if you like the idea of having nearby facilities for gatherings, renting can match your idea of lifestyle convenience.
While some suburban communities have HOAs that provide some amenities, they often cost extra, while access to rental amenities are often included in your monthly payment.

Location and market

You should also consider the location and the real estate market. If your lifestyle preferences are for a big lot and lots of privacy, buying a home outside of a city center might make sense — and be less expensive. However, if you like living near urban amenities, it might be too expensive to buy, and renting might make more sense.
In some markets, the cost of buying comes with a lower monthly price tag than renting. In these markets, even if you prefer to rent, you might be better off buying. If renting is much cheaper on a monthly basis, though, that could be the right choice for now. You can invest or save the difference in cost and later when circumstances are different, you might be able to change your approach.
“No matter your preferences, it might be worth it to rent for six months or a year before deciding, especially if you are in a new area,”  “This allows you to get a feel for the location and get to know what you like or don’t like about it. You don’t want to be in a position where you buy in a new area, and then end up leaving less than a year later — and are stuck with this house to unload.”

Risks

Finally, don’t forget to weigh the risks associated with buying and renting. “With buying, you run the risk of ending up needing to sell even if the market drops,”  “Even homes lose value, and you could be out tens of thousands of dollars.”
However, there are risks associated with renting as well. Landlords can increase rents to the point where you are priced out of your housing, and you are forced to move. You also don’t build equity. Unless you are investing (and that comes with its own risks) to increase your net worth without the help of a home, you could wind up in financial trouble down the road.
Carefully think about your financial situation, and make a decision to buy or rent based on what is likely to work best for you and match your lifestyle.

For any credit related information or advises, visit: www.cibilconsultants.com
Source: Secondary

Protect your personal information from getting misused

Identity theft occurs when someone uses your personal information to apply for a loan or credit card. If this application is successful, the individual has access to finance that you are liable for.

 

The individual who has stolen your identity will probably not pay back the misappropriated funds. Hence, the lender will update your credit information report (CIR) to say that you have defaulted on a loan.

 

What does it mean when I see “inquiries” on my CIR, when I haven’t applied for a loan?

 

Inquiries are usually made on your credit history when you apply to a lender for a loan. The lender accesses your CIR to assess your repayment capability. 

 

When you see inquiries that you have not made, it means one of 2 things:

1. The lender is making an inquiry to review your overall financial health.

2. Someone with access to your personal information may have approached a lender in order to apply for a loan. This is worrisome because the lender could believe that the applicant is genuine and may proceed to sanction the loan.

In the event that a loan is sanctioned by a lender, the account will appear on your CIR within 45 days.

 

What should I do when I see “inquiries” that I haven’t made?

 

The first thing you should do when you see inquiries that you have not made is to check your CIR for loan accounts that do not belong to you. If you do find discrepancies, immediately raise a ‘dispute request’ by visiting the ‘dispute resolution’ page on the credit bureau’s website. If you are informed by the bureau that the lender has rejected your dispute request, you should report the erroneous account to the relevant lender immediately so that the lender is alerted to the identity theft case.

 

How can I protect myself from identity theft?

 

The easiest way to prevent identity theft is to regularly monitor your credit history. Purchase your CIR 3-4 times a year and ensure that your credit history accurately reflects your credit usage and activity. If you see inquiries (loan applications) that you have not made, immediately alert the credit bureau via dispute resolution and the relevant lender that you have not applied for a loan. 

In addition, it is imperative that you keep your personal information, identity proofs and address proofs are stored in a secure environment.

 

If you are discarding documents ensure that the documents are shredded to prevent misuse.

Source: Secondary

India Under E-attack

Growing internet penetration and rising popularity of online banking have made India a favourite among cyber criminals, who target online financial transactions using malware, security solutions pro-vider Trend Micro said.

According to the firm, India ranks third after Japan and the US in the tally of countries most affected by online banking malware during the April-June quarter of 2014.

Japan topped the list with the highest number of online banking malware infections this quarter due to VAWTRAK. In May alone, it saw 13,000 malware infections. The US saw about 5,000 malware infections during the month, followed by India at 3,000 attacks.

“India posed for cyber criminal expansion with an average of 2.5 million malware detection in a given month. Also, 33 per cent more malicious apps were downloaded and network traffic from affected computers continued to rise," Trend-Labs director Myla V Pilao said.

TrendLabs is Trend Micro’s research and development centre.

These and many such incidents show that cyber criminals will al-ways adapt to new trends and situations whether in the use of new malware or targeted attack techniques to continue their strikes, she added. She said the severity of attacks has intensified against financial and banking institutions as well as retail outlets globally.

“Total attacks have exposed more than 10 million personal records as of July 2014 and that strongly indicates that organisations need to adopt a more strategic approach to safeguarding digital information,” she said.

Such incidents often lead to stealing of consumer’s personal information like customer names, passwords, email addresses, home addresses, cell phone numbers, and date of birth.

These types of personal privacy breaches ha-ve affected organisation’s sales and earnings, while leaving customers unable to access accounts and dealing with service disruption, Ms Pilao said.

“The pace of change in technology sector has never been as rapid as it is now, and as a result we see firms struggling to keep up with the latest developments,” she said.

Ms Pilao added that it is essential that Indian businesses treat information security as a principal constituent of business strategy as time and again it has emerged as one of the top countries witnessing cyber crime.

Learn about identity theft at www.cibilconsultants.com

Courtcsy: Asia Age 

Credit Card Frauds !

If you are one of those people who are unaware about credit card fraud risks, you should consider yourself lucky that you are not one of the victims of credit card fraud. Credit card fraud can be defined as the activity when someone obtains your credit card details and uses them to make purchases in your name over the cell phone or on the internet.

You should always keep and use your credit card with utmost care. Also you should always check your credit card statement carefully for every month to identify the charges of purchases that were not made by you.

Credit card frauds mostly occur when your credit card has been stolen or lost or if you have made purchases through unsecured online websites. It is also important for you to report these matters to your credit card company if any such things happen.

Here is how you can protect yourself from Credit card fraud:

• Ignore pre-approved credit card offers.

• Keep all your documents containing your personal information with utmost care.

• Try to use cash for purchases wherever possible. You would not exchange any personal information by using cash while making purchases.

• Beware of your surroundings while using your PIN at ATM’s while withdrawing cash or using your debit card at stores.

• Placing fraud alerts on your credit reports is a good way to reduce identity theft risk.

• Use only secure payment gateways to make purchases on the internet.

There are umpteen ways in which a Credit Card Fraud can happen, from low tech dumpster driving to high tech hacking.

Applying the above mentioned tips in your daily routine can help you protect your identity and managing your credit effectively.

Credit score can be hampered with excessive use of credit card. Learn more about credit cards and their effects and importance for determination of your creditworthiness at www.cibilconsultants.com

Source: Secondary

Facts of Identity Theft !

Identity theft protection comes in many different forms. The first step in protecting yourself is to understand a few basic facts about identity theft.

Identity theft protection services can help you monitor your account. It can remove your name from the marketing mailing lists and you shall be alerted for this. Its valuable and a time saver for many to pay a credit health company to keep track of customer’s financial health (accounts), credit reports and their personal information. Others opt out to do this in their own time.

Facts of Identity Theft:

a) Protecting your personal Information

b) Having paper shredder can help safeguard your identity (personal information) and pre-approved credit offers in wrong hands.

According to reports, Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes across India. Assuming your entire identity is the not the only way identity theft might occur. Someone using your PAN information or address or in cases a credit card or doing transactions on your behalf without your permission is Identity theft.

The Credit monitoring program will give you a credit score which is very useful. CIBIL report is most preferred across India by banks and customers

Identity theft protection shall give you a cover wherein you can secure your line of credit for any loss occurred due to misuse of your identity against your permission.

Avail your cibil report and improve your credit score at www.cibilconsultants.com

Source: Secondary

Information your Cibil report contains !

In India, very few people know about CIBIL. CIBIL maintains all the data regarding any credit taken by any individual in his entire life cycle. It provides a report known as credit report which contains all the detail regarding all the accounts taken by the individual. This report is very important because it shows our past, future and present of credit history.

All banks refer to credit score of every loan applicant as part of due diligence process. It is an important step in loan due diligence process as it gives a fair idea of the credit-worthiness of every individual. In very simple terms - CIBIL Score determines the probability of a default of a customer. A high CIBIL credit score demonstrates financial discipline and a lower likelihood of default.

Credit Information Report (CIR) contains the basic information about your credit history and any other financial related information that is available from CIBIL.

Personal information: Your name and details of ID proofs are shown here. Your PAN, Passport, Drivers License, Voter ID etc. appear in this section.

Contact information: Your recent address, phone number and email address given by you to the banks and lenders will be shown here. The address category tells whether it is permanent or temporary and official or residential.

Employment information: This section shows your occupation and income. The most recent information as provided by the lender for a particular credit account will be shown here.

Account information: This is the most important section of the report, which shows the details of your existing loans and other credit facilities. Along with this, the details such as name of the lender, types of credit facility, account number, account type and type of the ownership will be given here.

Get your credit report easily by visiting www.cibilconsultants.com

Source: Secondary

Make your business creditworthy !

Is your business credit worthy is one of the main things asked when you apply for a loan or credit card. Here are some ways to make your business credit worthy-

Make yourself personally creditworthy:
Your personal credit score pays a big role in building your business creditworthiness. If it is low, you should focus on repairing it. Pay off all your dues on time i.e. any past amounts which are due and/or also those in process of collection. Pay down any revolving balances on your credit cards and in future try to avoid carrying such debts. If that is not possible for you, then make sure you pay more than the minimum amount which is due and also make these payments on time.

Establish a separate business identity:
As and when your business starts getting settled and well established and you are looking for specific credit score for your business, then set up a separate business entity from your personal affairs. Get advice from your legal advisor or attorney on which would be the best possible legal structure for your business. Register for a federal tax ID or an EIN (employee identification no) in your state. Then lastly, establish a business banking relationship to segregate your business from your personal finances.

Establish separate credit record for business:
After you've set up a separate business identity for your business and been there for a while, you would like a separate credit record different from your personal credit record, for your business too and for this you need to apply for a separate credit card for your business.

Keep up with your business credit reports:
Most businessmen say they don’t get time to check their business credit reports when in reality they are just afraid to check them. You should not be afraid because the faster you would check the reports, the sooner you’ll be able repair them or fix any discrepancies you find. The credit reports should be checked at least annually to make sure there are no mistakes; if you have a frequently changing business situation then check them quarterly. Get your most recent credit report when applying for a loan.

Keep checking up with the credit rating:
Keep checking up with the credit rating about your reports. If you find any inaccuracies or error in your business credit reports, report to the credit bureau directly and challenge them.These bureau are supposed to contact the lenders with the incorrect information; the creditor would then, either contact the credit bureau and correct the information or would respond to you, explaining their reasons on why they do not agree with you on issue of the disputed payment.

When you settle this issue, your credit score is most likely to go up. However, keep checking it till it does.
Now that your credit score has improved it would also improve your credit worthiness. This credit line can be a safety net for your business, as it makes sure that you have required cash for your day to day business activities and for handling an emergency.

For any assistance regarding credit scores and report book an appointment now only at www.cibilconsultants.com

Source: Secondary