Have you been hassled by credit card bills even after you have had a "full and final settlement"? Did a bank give you a bill for a credit card you don't even have, and then deducted the amount due from your bank account before asking you? Have they changed your interest rate without informing you in advance, or giving you an opportunity to refinance elsewhere?

You can complain, without having to go to court. You must, of course, complain to the bank first, and only if the bank is unable to resolve your issue within 30 days — or take a decision that you think violates banking rules — you can go to a higher authority, the Banking Ombudsman.

The Banking Ombudsman (BO) web site allows you to directly lodge a complaint online. (Sadly only 13% were given online, and 14% by email last year — 73% of applications still came by the old method of letter or post-card) You will need to go through the documentation to find out exactly what section your complaint applies in, but the process is well

As the time closes in for the Budget in mid-March, the question on the mind of everyone is: will we get a lower tax rate? For most of the people watching, the budget doesn't begin until the finance minister says "tax slabs" and ends immediately thereafter. But the underlying assumption for lowering direct taxes is that a lower tax rate will result in greater compliance with more taxpayers coming forth to pay; the overall result being that tax collections increase.

While this has happened in general, the tax collections have been very low this year, despite large slab changes in the last budget. The total tax receipts have gone up only 7% till December, making it a pretty bad year — only 2008 and 2009 were worse. It is thus likely that the government starts to take a hard look at where they must cut down the deficit, and they provide an estimate of "Revenue Foregone" under various proposals.

Let's take a look at the "losses" that the government faces through lower taxes or tariffs on

The three reasons people buy insurance is:

a) To save tax.

b) As an investment, to make a good return on their money.

c) To feel good that one has some insurance or to get rid of that pesky uncle who keeps mentioning it.

The fourth — and perhaps most important — reason to buy insurance is to let your family be financially secure if you die. This is the only reason anything should be insured. Car insurance gives you money if your car has an accident, and covers costs for people you might injure. Home Fire insurance covers the damages in case there's a fire. You pay every year, and you're happy to not have to claim (because it means you've not had an accident or a fire!); and at the end, you don't get your money back.

Not so with Life insurance. The most policies bought are for the purpose of saving or investing, not for insurance. And that, further, is because Life Insurance is hardly ever bought, it's sold. The sellers get a fatter commission when they sell you a "saving" product, so