How to Make Health Insurance Work For You?

With each passing decade, as human beings make more and more progress in various fields, art, science, culture, economics, performative arts, the demands on the human mind and soul has become even more exerting. The mental and emotional stress of a person living in the city is similar to the physical stress borne by a person living in the rural areas. In order to meet this toll on the human body, the need for various health treatments has increased. But these treatments can be very expensive for most people to undertake.

So how do you manage? A health insurance can make your life a lot easier. A onetime investment can go a long way in saving you at the neck of time when the need so arises. A health insurance takes care of the insurer's medical as well as surgical costs. For some health insurances, the company will reimburse you the expenses and some other companies will agree to make the payment directly.

How to make the most of your health insurance? Read this article to find out.

• Discounts Galore! – Many health insurance plans will give you a number of discounts on various health and wellness services such as gym or spa sessions or any other free of cost programs. Read your health insurance brochure to look out for these discounts and try to make it work in your favour.

• Invest While You are Still Young- If you purchase a health insurance plan before you turn 30, it means you can reap the benefits in your older years. When you are applying for a health insurance plan at a young age, you need not be concerned about the issue of an upper age limit. This is sometimes the key factor for making the final decision by health insurance companies throughout the country. As a young person applying for a health insurance, chances are that your application will not get rejected.

• Choose the Right Plan- Ensure to pick a health insurance plan that fits your family medical profile. For example, if there are elderly people in your house, select a plan that caters to these needs or if there is a possibility of an upcoming surgery on the horizon, purchase a plan that will take care of this.

• Keep Track of Statements- After completion of treatment, you will get a statement stating all the details as well as the expense breakup. This is known as Explanation of Benefits (EOB). Make sure that all the details are in order.

These are only some of the ways that you make the health insurance cover work in your favour. The benefits of a health insurance are many to begin with. Purchase a health insurance today to explore the wonderful world of health benefits.

What are the benefits of opening an online saving account?

A savings account is the most basic form of banking, and almost every earning individual is affiliated to one or more savings accounts. Opening such an account is vital if you want to use debit cards and apply for credit cards. It also encourages saving more of your income, instead of spending heavily.

A while back, people had to visit the branch of a bank in order to open a savings account. However, this process has become much more streamlined after the introduction of the online banking system. Here is a look at some of the benefits of online saving account opening.

1. Saves time and money
Money is spent if you choose to travel to the bank branch in order to open a savings account. However, apart from money, you also need to spend a considerable amount of time in order to visit the bank. Time is a precious commodity, and the online procedure helps you cut down on both the money and time spent for opening a savings account. You can sit down at home on a computer or on your smartphone and create an account in almost no time.

2. Compare the interests
Each bank may offer a slightly different rate of interest for the amount saved in the account.
When you apply for the account online, you can check the interest offered by the different banks and then apply for the one that suits your needs the most. When the account is opened offline, very few people compare the interest rates.

3. Faster activation
When you choose online saving account opening, your KYC registration is completed immediately, and your account gets activated as well. This means that you can open such an account in an emergency when you need to keep the savings in a place. However, you still have to wait in order to get the chequebook and the debit card for such an account. These will be mailed to your address in a week or two.

However, you need to keep in mind a few facts before opening an online savings account. These include some safety measures so that you do not become a target for some scams. Ensure that you open the official page of the bank where you elect to have your account. Do not trust proxy pages, which may take your personal information and then use them for criminal activities.

It is also recommended that you go through the terms and conditions before opening such an account online. If necessary, call up the bank representative and confirm what these conditions mean.

How to Find the Best International Travel Insurance?

Everybody embarks on a trip every now and then. Whether it is for the purpose of leisure or for work, travelling or taking a trip, especially by means of air travel, is extremely commonplace these days, but what are not are the uncertainties that life makes you encounter.

Travel insurances are of two kinds- domestic travel insurance and international travel insurance. Travel insurance is a plan that gives you coverage for mishaps such as a flight loss, cancellation or delay, loss of baggage, loss of passport or any kind of medical emergency that occur during the course of your trip abroad.

While your travel date is fixed, accidents are not. So be prepared for uncertainties by investing in a good international travel insurance today. But in case you are wondering how to pick the best from a sea of travel insurances available, here is this article helping you.

Travel insurance should be ideally purchased at the time of booking the trip in order to ensure full coverage of the travel. Some of the features that separate the best international travel insurance plans from the rest are listed below:

• Compensation for Flight Related Problems
This feature on the part of the travel insurance company will compensate you by giving you accommodation and also pay for your plane in case there is a delay, or your flight gets cancelled.

• Medical Emergencies
If you incur a sudden medical emergency such as an accident during your travel abroad, then truth be told you will have to bear really expensive medical costs. This can be difficult for most travellers to bear, simply because medical expenses in a foreign country are always higher than the home country. In case such a situation arises, then your travel insurance plan will bear the medical as well as hospital costs.

• The Legality of It
Travel insurance not only takes care of the medical costs but will also take off the burden of any legal hassle in the form of any expense or liability.
These are some of the basic yet key features, so to say, that you should absolutely look out for in international travel insurance.

Aside from the few pointers mentioned above, keep in mind that a travel insurance, in general, is very helpful because it gives you reimbursements for meal if the flight gets delayed, gives you reimbursements if the flight is cancelled as a whole, helps you out if you lose your baggage or your passport, transports you back to your home country safe and sound in the unfortunate scenario of an unprecedented disaster, and most importantly, makes your international trip very economic and very affordable.

Bank cards What are the different types and features

In today’s world where rapid urbanization has become the catchphrase of the day, we all need top-notch modern facilities to carry out our day to day activities. Every day new technologies are being introduced to benefit us in every way possible. Same goes for all the financial institutions in the world.

To serve you in a better way, financial institutions have come up with modern technologies to help you carry out the banking facilities in a faster, smarter and better way. Everyone out there is familiar with bank cards. These bank cards help you to withdraw cash 24*7 and anywhere in the world. These smart electronic cards do not only help us to withdraw cash, but they also help us in various payment facilities. These bank cards help to make online payments too, at your own convenience.

These bank cards are powered by many autonomous companies which provide a sense of reliability to its customers.

Types of bank cards:

• DEBIT CARDS
These are electronic cards which are issued by financial institutions against your deposits in the bank. With this electronic card, you can withdraw, pay funds anytime with your money that is deposited in the bank without having to go to the bank. They have a secure PIN code which you should not disclose to anyone in order to prevent theft.

• CREDIT CARDS
This type of bank card doesn’t require a bank account for you to pay for expenses incurred. The amount you use through the card is given on credit, so you need to pay it back at specific intervals. When the amount is withdrawn, paid back in full and on time, there is no interest charged against it.

FEATURES OF BANK CARDS

 Prompt cash
ATM cards or bank cards help you to withdraw cash at any place or any time, hassle-free. All you need is an ATM (Automatic Teller Machine) outlet.

 Easy mode of payment
Not just cash withdrawals, you can pay your bills, book tickets and whatnot with these bank cards. You do not have to go to various offices for payments now. You can pay anytime and anywhere you want.

 Universal acceptance
The bank cards have universal acceptance with respect to ATM outlets. International cards can be used in any country which minimizes the need for you to carry cash in person.

 Convenience
With the help of the various bank cards, you can withdraw cash and pay your bills whenever you want, and anywhere you want. Their customer support is also available at all times, and during an emergency or theft, the financial institutions will secure you no matter what.

All that you need to know about pune tax payment

In any state or district of any country, taxes are to be paid. We pay taxes to obtain various basic facilities and for proper distribution of wealth. Taxes are the main form of government revenue through which they serve us in terms of education, transport, healthcare facilities, employment opportunities etc. Hence to ensure that taxes are paid in an efficient manner, each state has its own municipal corporation. A municipal corporation is a local governing body that follows various changes in legal autonomy and these corporations help to reduce the bureaucracy of the governing bodies.

BENEFITS OF PAYING TAX

 Good credit return
A proper income tax return ensures many benefits to an individual. Income tax returns help you to acquire various forms of credit hassle free and you have a good credit rating as well. The higher income tax you have, higher the credit rating you get.

 Investor value
While acquiring investors for any purposes, investors always look into your financial records. Having a truthful tax record will build up trust and reliability by which investors will invest in a diligent manner.

 Civic sense
Paying taxes builds a civic sense among the people who are paying taxes. Since the taxes are being paid with their hard earned own money, people have a questioning attitude to ensure that the funds are utilized in a proper way.

 No fear of penalties
If you pay your taxes in advance then there will not be a possibility of penalty on you for tax fraud. The government takes these kinds of fraudulent activities very seriously and one might face losing all their assets and might also end up in prison.
The same is also applicable for Pune tax payment.

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW FOR PUNE TAX PAYMENT

 Log in via a simple process
In order to perform Pune tax payment, you need to log in to the Pune Municipal Corporation website and register as an user for which you will get a username and password. 

 Necessary details
You need to select the Assessment Year (the year when you are actually paying the tax) and the Financial Year (the year for which you are paying your taxes).

 Generate your Challan
Challan is the receipt that shows the type of income tax you paid (corporate/property etc.) and  now this challan needs to be taken to the bank via which you can make your payment with demand drafts, cheques, debit/credit cards etc.

 Confirmation
The final receipt of the PMC (Pune Municipal Corporation) will be handed over to you along with an acknowledgement with the challan itself.

Wire transfer and Telegraphic Transfer- What is the difference

In the earlier days, transferring cash from one place to another was a hefty process. The most common form of fund transfer in earlier times was through post offices where the money was mailed to the recipients. With rapid urbanization and introduction of modern technology, we now have facilities like National Electronic Fund Transfer (NEFT) and Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) which have made transferring funds much easier. These facilities ensure secure and authentic fund transfer from one place to any other place in the world. There are domestic and international forms of payment and these systems also help in EMI facilities, payment of salaries etc.

What do we mean by wire transfer and telegraphic transfer? 

Wire transfer
Wire transfer is a mode of fund transfer from one individual/group of individuals to another entity. It is basically a form of linked bank accounts by which you can transfer funds. This is a fast mode of transfer of cash like NEFT or RTGS.

Telegraphic transfer
Telegraphic Transfer (TT) is also a form of electronic fund transfer which is mainly used for transferring funds for overseas wire exchanges. Telegraphic transfers are used commonly for Clearing House Automated Payment System (CHAPS) in the U.K. This mode of fund transfer was used there before the 1990s.

Differences between wire and telegraphic transfer
Mode of operation

Wire transfer helps to transfer money from one bank account to another bank account. It can be used to transfer cash at a cash station. This mode of transfer is affected by SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication), and each bank has an identification code.

Telegraphic transfer was used in the earlier days where overseas payments were made via telex messages between the financial institutions. Telegraphic transfer system uses a system of cable messages. Therefore, it ensured fast fund transfer before RTGS or NEFT.  

Systems used
Wire transfers use a system of unique bank identification codes which makes it clear that any individual who chooses to transfer funds, does not require having a bank account with that respective bank. This means that fund transfer can take place between any two banks.

Telegraphic Transfer uses a system of cable messages or telex messages. This form of transfer was used in earlier times where all the banks had to be linked with a messaging system. When funds are being dispatched from one bank to another, both the banks get a confirmation via the telex message about the transfer of cash.

Toll recharge is now made easy with this option

There are various forms of taxes, and one of the taxes that we pay is known as toll tax. Toll tax is a system of taxation where public and private roads are maintained and constructed with a fee/ toll paid by the citizens who use the roads. This is a road pricing to maintain cost and maintenance of roads, flyovers, highways etc. We pay highway toll to ensure that these roads are regularly maintained, and we get the best of transportation services out of them.

There are new systems by which individuals, who make long journeys by roads, do not have to pay toll taxes daily. These individuals can acquire a toll card. This is a smart card to eliminate the hefty process of paying these taxes daily and via these smart cards, they are automatically paid at regular intervals. There is also a system of toll recharge where you can track your taxes for toll as well.

FASTag 
FASTag is a rechargeable tag or a smart card which helps you to deduct the taxes automatically and lets you avail the toll passes without stopping for a cash payment of the toll. FASTag is linked to your prepaid account which you can recharge at your own convenience and it has a system of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) which is placed on a vehicle after the FASTag account is active and verified.

FASTag ensures that toll recharge and toll tax payments are made easy. It serves us with the following benefits:

 Hassle-free payments
Now you don’t have to waste your valuable time to stop and pay taxes while you are on the go, the tag card deducts the money automatically from your account and lets you travel hassle-free. Also, you do not have to worry about carrying cash; thus, this mode of system saves a lot of time.

 Convenience
As FASTag is a prepaid account, you can pay and recharge at your own convenience. You can choose to recharge for a flexible amount and not more than what you want.

 Advance alerts
The FASTag system also sends notifications to its users. You can avail SMS alerts for toll payments, alerts for low balance on account etc.

 Online services
You can recharge your toll card online by using your credit/debit cards, NEFT, RTGS or Net Banking facility. You do not have to go to any office and fill out forms or wait in queues; you can now pay whenever and wherever you want.

 Incentives
By promoting digitalization, you can earn cash back point, various discounts etc.