This refers to the story on loans against property (One House for all Loans, 6 September). You have mentioned that under the reverse mortgage scheme some banks provide lump-sum amounts for a tenure of 10-15 years. Please let me know which banks are offering this facility and how to contact the authorities concerned.
UN Ananthan, Bangalore
Two institutions — Dewan Housing and Punjab National Bank — offer reverse mortgage schemes in your city. The scheme names are Saksham and Baghban respectively. We have e-mailed you the name and contact numbers of the persons concerned.
The story on calling cards, (Calling Home, 6 September) did not give complete information on the subject. Roaming SIM cards are available from Matrix, Uniconnect and all other mobile providers of our country. They require a huge amount as deposit and have monthly roaming charges. The amount varies from Rs 4,000 for a Hutch card to about Rs 7,000 for Airtel. Call rates are also high. Country-specifc cards are much cheaper.
For example, in a Uniconnect card, all incoming calls are free but outgoing calls are costly. Weekly charges are only about Rs 250. But using these cards means that nobody can contact you. Cheaper calling cards are available in countries like the US but when you travel it is better to carry one from India to use as soon as you land.
V Jacob Jose, Vellore
Country-specific SIM cards do not require any security, are reasonably priced and can be used for both incoming as well as outgoing calls. But you have to return the SIM card after coming back to India. Mobile service providers like Airtel and Hutch add the international roaming facility to a subscriber’s pre-existing number. In this case you need to deposit some security and the international roaming charges are very high.
I have recently started reading your magazine and use your website extensively too. The articles published in the previous issues are very useful. Is it possible to acquire specific past issues from your Delhi office?
I have also registered myself for newsletters and email alerts through your web site, but am not receiving any. Please check if all links are functional. Also, I am interested in getting my finances analysed by your experts. Please let me know how to go about it.
Garima Dave, e-mail
We are glad you find our stories useful. All previous issues are available on the Net and can be accessed anytime. Thank you for pointing out the problems in our website. The newsletters are being sent regularly but not e-mail alerts. For the financial analysis, please mail us your investment details for our Portfolio Doctor section.
I think your magazine does not cover investing issues adequately. For instance, there is scope to add more information about new fund offers (NFOs). Also, in the mutual fund special issue (Best Mutual Funds, 23 August) the basis of comparison for funds was not uniform.
Rajendra Kumar Surana, Raipur
We carry information on NFOs regularly. It isn’t possible to compare different fund types on the same parameters as they have differnt investing style and objectives.
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