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Radhika passed her graduation with flying colors. She had always dreamt of doing her master’s in international business from a prestigious university abroad. She did her spadework and realized that the course fee and the living expenses could easily cost her around 40 lakhs for the 2-year course.  It was a huge amount for her parents to fund on their own.  That’s when they learned that loans are available for higher studies. 

With increasing needs and consumerism, we all wish to buy fancy vehicles, luxurious homes, get a degree abroad and much more. But sadly, not everything is within our reach, hence we need credit in the form of a home loan, vehicle loan or even obtaining a credit card. Credit score has become as essential as a PAN number or a mobile number. 

As much as we wish that money was not important, it is hard to deny that finances are extremely important in our life. If not used efficiently, lack of financial resources can put you in a bad spot. But of course, mistakes are made at times, but they are always corrigible. Let us see how simple lifestyle changes can put your finances back on track 

Credit Utilization ratio is one of the main components of a credit score. Your earlier score would have been calculated as per your existing credit utilization ratio. However, if there has been a consistent increase in your credit utilization ratio your credit score would have dropped down. Higher utilization is an indicator of poor credit habits.  

Your credit score is aggregated from the data provided in the credit report. It is the outcome of your credit behaviour. The lenders periodically pass on your credit information to the credit bureaus. As human work is involved while reporting the credit data, the chances are high for errors to occur. When there is an error, it can even be related to any one of the criteria that affect your credit score

If you have been a card (credit or debit) user for some years, you must remember how earlier cards needed to be swiped to carry out a physical transaction, whereas now they need to be dipped into the Point of Sale machine.  What do you think is the difference between the two?  

The convenience of shopping/ transacting with plastic money is undeniable.  However, there are pitfalls involved in using a credit or a debit card. With a credit card, there is a danger of overspending and getting into the spiral of revolving credit and paying high-interest charges on unpaid amounts.

The power of credit cards cannot be undermined. They not only bring about convenience but also help you tide over shorts periods of financial crunches. But if not used in the right manner, these cards can turn into objects of financial destruction. High-interest costs and revolving debt can prove very costly for anyone.   

Ever thought your signature can be of more value than you imagined? Yes, it is going to be! You can soon get a loan by securing your signature as collateral. While this is something not prevalent in our country, it is important that you get a picture of how this loan works.  

Kannan’s wedding was fast approaching. His hard-earned savings wasn’t sufficient to cover all the expenses of his wedding preparations. Having no time to think of the best way to gather money, he applied for a personal loan in a hurry. Being the first-time borrower, the lender agreed to sanction him a loan at an interest rate of 17%, which he immediately accepted it due to the circumstances.

Home loans are big ticket long term commitments often extending to as many as 20 years. Did you know on a Rs 50 lakh availed for a tenure of 20 years, you end up paying as much as the principal amount as interest? Home loans make the burden of owning a home easier, but due to the longer tenures of these loans, a lot is spent just in interest cost.  

Gone are the days when payments had to be made by using the same city cheque or a demand draft. With a variety of transfer options like NEFT, IMPS etc, instant money transfer has been made possible. All it requires is a bank account holder's name, account number, and the bank IFSC code.  

We have written many times about how useful a credit card is. Recent demonetization and booming e-commerce transactions have increased the usage of plastic money. Improper use of a credit card can often land you in financial troubles. We bring you, pointers that will help you make the best use of your credit cards.  

With the ongoing Independence Day celebrations, the biggest e-commerce companies such as Amazon, Flipkart have launched a week of ‘Big Freedom Sale’. With the festival season around the corner , it indeed is the time of raining offers. Find out to know what this Independence Day has in store for you!

As convenient as loans or any credit instruments are, the truth remains that they are to be repaid and that too with interest.  Once you are done through the process of availing the loan, starts the process of repayments and EMIs. Life throws up many surprises at you which may offset your financial balance in spite of all the planning. But there are always smart ways to reduce the loan burden without stressing your wallet. Let's see how! 

Financing options like loans help us tide over many situations, higher education being one of them. The circumstances in which you avail a loan may not have been a favorable one and hence you might have availed a loan at a higher rate of interest. Education loans are big-ticket loans and servicing such loans on a high rate of interest may upset your finances as you start working or the tenures may be longer/shorter than you expected. So is there no exit from such situations? 

There are hundreds of credit cards available in the market each catering to different needs of individuals. This definitely confuses credit card aspirants on what could be the best card for anyone. We at Credit Mantri have put out this simple guide which you can use to select the best credit card to suit your needs.

While the utility of credit cards has been proven time and again, it is very easy for someone to use a credit card recklessly and land up in unsavory conditions. Credit card usage can become more expensive than you think when you continuously pay the minimum due amount or default on the bills. Eventually, it could carry the highest rate of interest when compared to other credit instruments.   

Are you among those who check for updates on your WhatsApp, Facebook or any other social media account often? This often becomes obsessive. Going along the same lines, Ankush Tiwari, an architect from Hyderabad loved checking his credit score. He was happy that he did not have to pay for the scores anymore and checked his credit score online

Real estate as an avenue of investment always holds its own charm. Many individuals look beyond owning a home for varied reasons such as owning a second home in home towns or in places of work, as a vacation home or for renting it out

For many of us, credit score may seem like a nonconsequential thing. There are some of us who have not even heard of credit scores and there are some who know something about credit scores but do not think it is important enough. For all those and many others who think that credit score is not important, we beg to differ.