Archive forJuly, 2006

India ETF Coming

July 19, 2006 @ 8:21 pm · Filed under Investing in India, What I watch, Finance and Investing

Recently I read reports that PowerShares plans to introduce an India ETF in the US based on the Halter Index (HXI). However, HXI is not really an India Index. It is an index of ADR’s and companies in the US whose primary business is in India. The index consists of very few components and doesn’t really represent the Indian market as a whole.

What I would wish for is an ETF, based on the MSCI India Index - They have one in Singapore, how about giving us one in the US?

However, it should be noted that India Fund Inc. (IFN) and the Morgan Stanley India Investment Fund (IIF) have both been outperforming the Indian indices (BSE and NSE). I would assume they are also outperforming the MSCI Index?

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Ease of Merging Credit Cards

July 14, 2006 @ 3:03 pm · Filed under Finance and Investing

I have merged several credit cards from the same bank into a single card in the past. It was always done instantly and the merged card had the combined credit limit of both. This was the story, atleast for Citibank, Chase and as far as I remember, Bank of America.

However, with HSBC, it is different. Here is what the Cust Service rep had to say:
“It will take 10 business days to process this transaction and you are not guaranteed to have the combined limit of the cards after the merger”

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Comparison of Credit Card Online Account Management

July 13, 2006 @ 3:26 pm · Filed under Finance and Investing

Bank Good Bad Overall (out of 5)
Citibank Easy To Use No Bill Pay, No Automatic Recurring Payments to Card 3
Chase Very Easy to use (even with multiple accounts), Can setup automatic recurring payments exactly on due date No Bill Pay 5
Providian Very Easy to Use, Can setup Automatic payments exactly on due date, Free Credit score updated monthly No Bill Pay 5
MBNA Easy to Use, Has Online Bill Pay to Pay other Merchants, Can Setup Recurring Payments Cannot Setup Recurring Payments to Pay exactly on the Due Date of Credit Card Bill. No points on bill pay for most merchants. 4
Bank of America Can schedule Automatic Payments exactly on due date. Can Pay other Bills. Can manage other BOA accounts (checking/savings etc.) from the same place. Cumbersome Sign On Process. Does not go directly to acount if BOA wants to make announcements. 4
RBS Easy to Use No Recurring Payments, Not Listed on Yodlee, Does not work in Opera, No Bill Pay 2
HSBC Easy to use but not as simple as others because of payments opening up in separate window. Can setup recurring payments to card Cannot setup payments to credit card on exact due date, No Bill Pay. Cash or Fly Card Rewards site only works in Internet Explorer 3
Discover Card Easy to Use, Can Pay Other Bills No Recurring Payments to card 3
American Express Easy to Use Very Busy Interface, No Recurring Payments, No Bill Pay 2

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India Fund Inc. rights offer and Scottrade

July 10, 2006 @ 6:43 pm · Filed under Investing in India, What I watch, Finance and Investing

I have my account at Scottrade and the India Fund Inc. (IFN) rights got deposited today (instead of last Monday). I called up Scottrade (Richmond) because rights offer subscriptions can only be done on the phone but they can’t do anything about the offer now because ‘it is not in their system yet’.

Last year, unlike now, everything happened on time except that Scottrade took money out to pay for shares from the rights around one month later than the shares were deposited into the account! I’m hoping they do that this year too :)

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Virtual Bank offers 5.13% APY - The highest so far

July 6, 2006 @ 4:15 pm · Filed under Finance and Investing

has the highest APY, I have found so far since the Fed last raised rates. 100$ to open and no mimimum balance.

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HSBC Direct now offers 5.05% APY

July 5, 2006 @ 2:42 pm · Filed under Finance and Investing

HSBCDirect has raised its rates to 5.05%, while EmigrantDirect has raised them to 5.00%. The other banks from my previous posts have also raised rates.
Amboy has raised them to 5.05% and Presidential Bank has them at  5.12%!!

Enjoy!

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