Beware Senco Gold And Amazon


Beware of ordering anything from Senco Gold Jewellers, Kolkata and the authenticity of reviews on Amazon.in

Here is the review of my order from Senco that Amazon won’t allow on its site :

 Avoid Company And Products At All Cost.
 
1.Charged More than shown online.
2.Very Late delivery and had to resort to multiple phones to get goods or refund.
3.Delivery company opted for by company tries every means of force and fraud to illegally acquire your PAN/Aadhar photocopy.
4.No reason to believe that sellers themselves might not be involved. Mobile numbers they disclose via e-mails are not in existence.
5.Simply no peace of mind after placing an order with this seller. Or even finally receiving the product.

I placed a minor order on Diwali Day. One of 3 on Amazon. No problem with the rest of the Sellers.

In the case of Senco ,order was delivered only after evoking A-Z Guarantee.

Courier is a private party engaged by the jeweller.

Beware of Safeway, the couriers, even after supposed instructions to the contrary by the jeweller and their own higher ups, attempted to forcibly steal PAN details.

In the days of raids on jewellers, caught on the wrong side of demonetization, not knowing if all copies of my PAN that the delivery person tried to steal was destroyed, is giving me no peace of mind.

Who wants to unwittingly provide cover for the hard to explain/unexplainable purchases of others?

Life Insurance As An Asset Class


wealthymattersWe all need life insurance to take care of the economic loss to our families in case of our early demise.

In case we are taking on huge debts, it also makes good sense to purchase life insurance of a value high enough to cover them in case of your untimely demise.

However, beyond this, most people don’t bother to dwell on life insurance, because it’s acutely uncomfortable contemplating one’s own mortality and talking of the death of another. Its easy to just purchase a term cover and proceed with investing in say mutual funds.

However, if you can control yourself emotionally and go beyond  common financial dogmas that straightaway class all insurance products as bad and recommend a strict segregation of investment and insurance, you open your mind to the fascinating world of life insurance as an asset class and can start designing your own financial products that give you better returns, safety and control. Think. All insurance products are ultimately about inflows and outflows of money at various times. And only your own knowledge and imagination are limits on what you can build. Who says you can’t combine various insurance products? Or insurance and other financial products in any order? That way the blended rates of return, tax treatment, risk-reward ratio, lock-in periods and greater overall control and ability to make course-corrections are in your control to much greater extents. Read more of this post

Sensitive User Data Collected By Indian Mobile Banking Apps


wealthymattersMany Indian mobile banking apps record/collect information like your contact list, call record data, info about apps installed on a phone, and even gain access to your calendar schedule.These apps are meant to interact with secured banks server and retrieve information about your bank account, make IMPS, NEFT, RTGS transfers within the app. So in this case, it is justified if these apps request ‘network permissions’ to privately connect to the bank servers?

1)Retrieve running apps

This permission allows the requesting app to find out what other applications are currently/recently running on your phone on real-time basis, and different sub-task (activities running in an app) running on the phone. According to Android developer guidelines, this permission was discontinued since roll out of Android Lolliop due to security risks. The permission can however be granted and work on phones with Android version below Lollipop. Read more of this post

User Data Collected By Indian Mobile Wallet Apps


Even as you try out mobile wallets , be aware of the data they collect from you and be sure you really wish to part with it. Don’t just automatically accept permission requests while installing apps without reading them. Safety and privacy are at stake.

1. Read your Web bookmarks and history
The Paytm app on Android requests access to “read your Web bookmarks and history”.

2. Read sensitive log data

Every app logs device and app specific information every time it executes a command, completes an updates, or when a user logs-in with his/her User ID. In some cases, the app can gain access to sensitive data like MAC ID, IMEI no, saved WiFi networks info, and other apps installed on the device. Sometimes a user authenticates with an app using his/her Gmail or Facebook account, and the app can read info of these accounts from the log. Read more of this post

Gold Control History


wealthymattersOn January 9, 1963, finance minister Morarji Desai announced in a nationwide broadcast that starting the next day the possession of gold — barring personal ornaments — without declaration would be illegal. A Gold Control Board was established with wide powers of investigation and seizure of persons as well as confiscation of gold. A comprehensive industry-wide regulation was also introduced. Its centrepiece: a ban on making and selling of jewellery above 14 carats, as against the prevailing trend of 22-carat ornaments.

As with the ongoing demonetisation, the policy was effectively decided by one leader who consulted few experts. This was partly because of the need to maintain secrecy and partly because Desai knew his own mind. Those who were taken into confidence turned out to be as enthusiastic about the move. Prominent among these was Chief Economic Adviser IG Patel. Read more of this post