With the coming tourist season, here are some tips consolidated by Virtaltourist website which I really find useful for anyone planning overseas trip in the coming days. Though these are some points, not to mention that you can get cheated anywhere if you are not attentive, reckless or too excited

 1. Fool’s Gold; France

If you’re walking the streets of Paris and someone appears to have found a gold ring at your feet, congratulate them and keep on walking. The ring is a plant and the person who pretends to have found it will use just about any sob story to get you to buy it off them.

2. Monkey Business; Bali, Indonesia

Proving that thieves don’t always come in human form, the monkeys at Bali’s Uluwatu Temple are notorious for swiping from tourists everything from sunglasses to cameras and then running off into nearby bushes. Seconds later, their conniving trainer, dressed as a temple official, appears to report that if given a few rupiah to buy bananas, he can coerce the monkeys into giving back the booty.

3. Automatic Theft Machine; Trinidad and Tobago

Using X-Ray film, thieves in Trinidad construct a pocket that slips into the card slot of an ATM, holding it hostage. A helpful, and observant, bystander then miraculously appears to suggest that typing in a PIN backwards will release the card. Unfortunately, when the bystander later retrieves the pocket, the victim’s money will be released as well.

4. Postcards From the Edge; Italy

Kids outside the Stazione Termini have been known to thrust pen and postcard into the hands of tourists and ask for help writing a letter “home.” They then dictate a story of poverty and hunger so disturbing that said tourist is often guilted into handing over some cash.

5. At Your Service; United States

The bottom line with this scam is that room service charges should always go on the credit card the hotel already has on file. If the waiter or waitress who delivers your food demands cash or a card, the egg on your plate is soon going to end up on your face.

6. A Crappy Thing to Do; Argentina

Should someone on the streets of Buenos Aries try to help wipe non-existent bird droppings from the back of your shirt, chances are that’s not all they’re wiping off you. Teams working in pairs use this technique to rob distracted, and disgusted, victims. An even messier French version of this trick involves real mustard.

7. Customer Surprise; Bali

Another in the seemingly endless array of ATM scams, this one involves a false “Customer Service” phone number posted on a card-swallowing machine. When the victim calls it, he or she is asked for the card’s PIN number, hotel and contact information, and assured the card will be returned soon after.

8. The Exchange Game; Zimbabwe

Street scammers here offer tourists incredible exchange rates provided the transaction takes place in a secluded cafe. At the cafe, the money is counted out on top of the table, but rolled up into a rubber band under it; the explanation being that police may be watching. Needless to say, the tourists later discover a large discrepancy between the amount counted and the amount given.

9. Front Desk Phonies; United States

In this simple but highly destructive scam, sleepy, unsuspecting hotel guests are awakened by very early morning or very late night calls from the front desk asking for credit card information. It’s not until much later when they realize that “front desk” was actually a front for something else.

10. Funny Money; China

Although efforts are being made to solve this problem, the Chinese money supply has a significant amount of fake currency in circulation with much of it ending up in the hands of clueless tourists. Short of carrying around a counterfeit detector, the best way to avoid this is to either refuse 50s or 100s altogether, or accept them only from banks.

Credit : www.virtualtourist.com

Photo Credit : rikiz

One news has caught my attention and I thought that it’s worth sharing. Harvard, the premier business school has decided to enter in India and seek a classroom/campus of it’s own. My first impression was … WOW ! Yes, one of the top three World’s B School has got the notion that it might be too much for Indian Managers to move upto USA for the management education and now it’s turn of the institute to come to it’s customers.

This seems to be very straightforward news where a B-School has decided to open a new campus, no big deal! It might be true but I perceive this a simple case of demand and supply – recently India has been the key producer of MBA and MS aspirants. Previously where the GRE and GMAT were the US’s sole play ground, they are finding it tougher with the inclusion of India and China – who were second and third GMAT writers last year. Point to stress is that Harvard has duly recognized that it’s right time to recognize the need and setup a permanent campus and when you are getting the support of two big industrialists of Ratan Tata & Anand Mahindra, you don’t have to think twice.

Would it be more competitive for Indian B-Schools after Harvard entry in India? In the beginning, I don’t think so. Satelite campuses have ever gained that popularity or are as much talked about as the main campus. Another point is that Harvard is going to fill only niche space in Business school. They are targeting MDPs- Management Development Program of the top level executives which is itself a huge return market (they charge 2.5 lakhs for a 5 day workshop!). So, in the short term, I don’t think that it would be tough, unless Harvard gets more ambitious and start targeting regular MBA seekers. Afterall, it’s India – a nation with more than 1.2 billion people. We have space for everyone.

Welcome Harvard to India!

With recent responsibilities, I have taken the resolution to take my finances more seriously (sadly, which I have never!). With this, I have opened one more joint bank  account, applied for a joint credit card and this time, have not got with any pre-approved offers but selecting from couple of choices available. Thanks to my in-time credit card payments !

Honestly, being in US on working visa doesn’t leave much of a scope to have long term house mortgage but still there are other small loans, that I may need from time to time e.g. auto-loan. Everyone knows that we should maintain good credit score and it pays but after that things are blurred, confusing and facts are unknowns, if not to all then to most of them.

There are several kinds of credit cards available in the market based on cash back, fees, points, interest rates, balance transfers, other benefits. While there is no defined rule which is the best credit card for one, you should always check your needs and priorties of credit card e.g. I always pay my credit card bills on time, have a separate savings account to check unwanted events in life and thus don’t need a 0% balance transfer card, howsoever tempting the offer is. Similarly, even if there is a credit card that matches your needs, always ensure that you read the disclosures properly.

Your credit card is more important than you think . Apart from all the well known facts like you’ll get number of benefits like cash-back, free travel and hotel points, auto rental insurances , maintaining a good credit will invariably get you a loan with the low interest, quick processing of applications etc, there are several other facts too.

I was checking some report on MSN money, how a bad credit report might cost you a job and seriously affect your job hunt. Although I believe that this is overblowing credit score but this is the reality which we can’t deny. These days many companies have started checking the credit report (unfortunately, this is legal too!) and can deny a job outright based on bad credit report. Even though, I maintain a good credit score but I never know when some such thing happens when I have to squeeze my credit card and could not pay the bills in time, some medical emergency, it can be anything. While companies believe that bad credit scorers are poor decision makers in life and so is the probability of their cheating and theft with the company, I could not really coorelate this, but let that be altogether different discussion. Bottom line is bad credit report might cost you your job (if your company is looking for an excuse to fire you or is under financial stress!) and may dent your job-hunt.

Insurance rates are other major things for which you should maintain good credit score. I know that house mortgages companies are using them and so is perhaps auto-insurers. You have to pay a higher insurance quote if you have a bad credit past. I am not sure, what is dwelled in the future : more  electricity bills, phone bills because you could not pay your last bill on time !

I don’t know how many of us really care about credit score if we are in States for a shorter term (perhaps you can manage even without that !) but if you need financing here then you really need to be careful and maintain it. For long term aliens and even US citizens, it’s an absolute must. Another grimly funny thing is several out-of-the-box advices like going bankrupt from so many credit counsellors and debt relief programs, I really can’t start how bad the ideas are and you should not try this if there is any last hope. I have already quoted  one bad aspect above and ie difficult job hunting time. Rest in next post …

Regards,

Pawan

Photo Source: Jene

It was not long enough when I was stuck by the idea to start a separate blog of my blabberings on everything related to finance, money, wealth and here it is,  welcome to this place for hearing my rattlings, if you are not tired of listening to the screams of Mad Money : -)

I maintain separate personal weblog and I would try to keep this focussed on my thoughts, opinions on matters related to Economy, Finance, Wealth, Money, Stocks and you guys are intelligent enough to add other adjectives.

So a warm welcome again. Enjoy the bad-bad world !

Regards,

Pawan

Photo Credit: LollyKnit