A colleague pulled her credit report in April before applying for a home loan and found a personal loan for ₹1,80,000 she’d never taken, sitting under a lender she’d never dealt with, listed as active with two missed payments. Her PAN had apparently been entered incorrectly by someone else’s bank during their own loan processing, … Read more
A cousin of mine had her rent auto-debit scheduled for the 1st of the month, like clockwork, for three years. In March, her company’s payroll processing hit a delay nothing dramatic, just a bank holiday shifting the credit date and her salary landed on the 3rd instead of the 1st. The auto-debit bounced. She paid … Read more
A neighbor once showed me his phone, genuinely confused. The news ticker said “Nifty up 1.2% today,” but the one stock he owned a mid-cap paint company he’d bought after a tip from a cousin was down nearly 3% the same afternoon. He asked me, half-joking, half-serious: “Is the news lying?” It wasn’t. He’d just … Read more
A friend forwarded me a business news headline in March: “Company X declares 500% dividend.” He was thrilled, assuming he’d get back five times whatever he’d invested. He’d bought the stock at ₹2,840 a share. When the dividend actually landed in his demat account, it worked out to ₹50 per share not the windfall he’d … Read more
A colleague’s younger brother started his first SIP in March with ₹5,000 a month. He’d Googled “best mutual funds 2026,” picked the fund sitting at the top of the third article he opened, and set up the SIP that same evening on Groww. Six months in, he asked me why his fund was barely moving … Read more
Reviewing a full year of my bank statement in January 2024, prompted by a friend asking me for saving tips I didn’t feel qualified to give yet, I found ₹4,700 worth of active subscriptions I hadn’t used in at least four months, spread across three separate services I’d forgotten I was even still paying for. … Read more
In February 2023, I finally downloaded ET Money and connected my bank account, mostly out of curiosity about where my salary actually went every month. The app categorised three months of transactions automatically, and one number stopped me cold: ₹8,400 on food delivery in a single month, spread across dozens of small Swiggy and Zomato … Read more
I still remember doing the math on four years of “saving” and feeling my stomach drop a little. I’d been putting away close to ₹8,000 every month since my first job, never touched it, and honestly felt pretty proud of myself for it. Then I actually worked out what that money had earned a little … Read more
In August 2023, I needed a ₹2 lakh personal loan for a home renovation that couldn’t wait. I checked three options: a pre-approved offer from HDFC Bank, where I’ve held a salary account for years, an offer from Bajaj Finserv as a comparison, and an instant loan app I’d seen advertised constantly. HDFC quoted me … Read more
A cousin of mine applied for a car loan in February, fully expecting an easy approval based on his credit history. He’d paid every EMI on an old personal loan on time for three years and never missed a credit card bill. The bank came back with a higher interest rate than he’d budgeted for, … Read more