Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Cheap car rental services

WOW! Vacations coming and we all start on planning for some lovely trips. Children wants to go Disneyland, wife wants to go Hollywood but I want to go for a long trip in France. If you're thinking of taking a holiday abroad, one of the main points to consider when deciding on a destination is how easy it is to get around the surrounding destination. If you're going to a resort that is not too far from the airport, your best option would be to make use of the local public transport during your stay, although your travel company will usually provide coaches to get you to your hotel upon arrival at the airport.

If you'd rather explore the resort and the surrounding areas by yourself, car hire could be the best option for you. Hiring a car can provide you with a lot more freedom to explore the attractions and historical sites outside of the resort.

Indeed, with many of the more recognizable sights to be found outside of the main resorts, many like to make use of their car rental services and embark on a day of exploration and escape the bustling resorts in order explore more of the local area.

Holiday car hire can also give you the chance of a scenic drive, particularly in coastal and mountainous areas. Whilst the majority of attractions can be found around the resort itself, many tourists are usually eager to explore the smaller tourist attractions, as well as heading to the coast in order to participate in activities such as diving and water sports.

Car rental prices will differ depending on your holiday destination and the size of the vehicle you are looking for. You may also get easily car hire europe. Many companies will have a large selection of vehicles that can be collected from the airport upon arrival at your destination. So whether you're looking to hire a smaller economy car or a people carrier to fit your family and their entire luggage into, the variety of choice available means that you can cater a car hire plan to your holiday plans.

Finally, if you do try this adventure you’ll find that car hire France is not so hard to arrange on the web before you go, or if you are going on spec, you’ll probably pick up a reasonable vehicle at the your airport without booking.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Fixed deposit documents seized from Satyam’s office to be fake

Officers of the Serious Frauds Investigation Office investigating Satyam’s scam found seized fixed deposit documents and other instruments from Satyam’s offices to be fake.

Officers also took in possession around Rs 3,300 crore of such papers, including fixed deposits of over Rs 2,000 crore.

According to analysts if the information provided by the officers is correct then bankers and auditors can get off the hook.

The investigating officer told that letters from banks such as ICICI, Citi, Bank of Baroda, BNP Paribas and HDFC do not even have stamps.

Most banks reported that they had never issued deposit certificates to Satyam. Earlier, Satyam’s chief financial officer Srinivas Vadlamani had informed CID officials that B. Ramalinga Raju. Vadlamani handled bank deposits and had specifically been told not to look into them.

On the other hand investigators speculated why analysts and auditors were not able to spot any malpractice.

Even banks failed to find out who among them held Satyam’s deposits.

The investigating officials pointed out that they will have to look for others from Satyam’s who have been involved in forging bank letters, if these were to be sure fake.

The officials remarked, “Forgery could not have been done alone or without anyone’s knowledge in the company ... there must have been a team working on this.”

NHB offers up to 9.25% interest rate on FD schemes

National Housing Bank (NHB) an apex housing financial institution has launched three fixed deposit schemes, with a tax-saving scheme. NHB is offering interest rate of up to 9.25 per cent.

In a statement released by NHB it stated, "The funds mobilized would be used by the NHB for its business activities".

Under Sunidhi term-deposit scheme, one of the schemes launched by NHB the investors would get 9.25 per cent interest for 12 months and 9 per cent interest for up to five years.

While under NHB tax saving Suvrigdhi investors will get an interest rate of 8.75 per cent. Under this scheme the deposit will have a lock-in period of five years.

Another scheme launched by NHB is Sumeru zero-coupon bonds, which will be sold at a discount at Rs 4,360 with a face value of Rs 10,000. The holder will get the amount after a maturity period of 10 years.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

IDBI bank announces cut on term deposit rates

IDBI Bank has announced reduction in the interest rate on retail term deposit by 50-150 bps in the maturity bucket of 46-90 days up to 10 years. The new rates will come into effect from January 1, 2009 and has also realigned its maturity buckets.

Furthermore, the Bank is also introducing a longer maturity term deposit of 1100 days with interest rate for normal depositors @9.5% pa and @10% pa for senior citizens in lieu of the existing 890 days term deposit, effective from January 1, 2009.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Romantic gifts ideas for Valentine’s Day!

14 February, Valentine's Day-a very special moment for women, men even youngsters are busy in buying romantic gifts for their love ones. On this day we express our wonderful feelings and to propose our loved one. One gift which is very common but also essential to buy is flowers because they can bring two hearts closer.

All across the world people are busy in exchanging romantic gifts like flowers, chocolates, valentine's cards, wines and personalized gifts every 14th day of February. Gifts to your love ones do not have to be that expensive but the most important thing is how you express your feelings to the person who will receive your presents. Telling you the truth, to most women or men, simple presents are the ones they remember the most.

Let your Valentine gifts go beyond the usual chocolates, roses and teddies. The important thing to remember is that most women or men tend to prefer valentine gifts that they might receive at any other time of the year. But, If this is your first Valentine then romantic flowers and chocolates will work out just fine as valentine gifts. In this case, the experienced florists are at your service with a wide variety of Valentine Gifts like gift baskets, flower bouquets, and Roses. Those master florists have more experience when it comes to picking the right romantic gifts for her. Other way of doing this is to exchange ideas with your friend or relatives; they can give you bright ideas in choosing the right romantic valentine gifts.

It is great idea to shop around for gifts like wine baskets, gift baskets, gift certificates, jewelry boxes, personalized mugs, flowers and roses, rings, pins and brooches, necklaces, etc. Savebuckets offers the best flower delivery services all at very reasonable cost. You may also find hot gifts for your love ones.

Friday, January 16, 2009

IDBI bank announces cut on term deposit rates

IDBI Bank has announced reduction in the interest rate on retail term deposit by 50-150 bps in the maturity bucket of 46-90 days up to 10 years. The new rates will come into effect from January 1, 2009 and has also realigned its maturity buckets.

Furthermore, the Bank is also introducing a longer maturity term deposit of 1100 days with interest rate for normal depositors @9.5% pa and @10% pa for senior citizens in lieu of the existing 890 days term deposit, effective from January 1, 2009.

Monday, January 5, 2009

FDs rates are likely to reduce by 100bps

At present peak deposit rates are between 9.5 and 10% but it is expected banks might soon cut fixed deposit rates by 100 basis points in two steps which will bring them to a maximum of 9%.

It is expected that the reduction in deposit rates will help in protecting margins for the banks that have reduced lending rates by around 150 basis points over the past few weeks.

“Banks have to keep a gap between their lending and deposit rates in order to maintain their net interest margin. Lending rates have already been cut. Deposit rates have softened and are expected to come down further in the next few weeks,” Uco Bank executive director V K Dhingra said.

By the end of this month government-owned banks are expected to slash down the deposit rates by 50 basis points and by another 50 basis points by end of January. The rates might vary depending upon the tenure of the deposit. Most banks are offering the highest return on one-year deposits.

State Bank of India country’s largest bank, is among the banks which may cut the depost rates by 50 basis point cut from January 1. An SBI official informed that the asset liability committee (ALCO) of the bank in its recent meetings has taken up the issue therefore it is expected the bank will be making announcement in this regard in a few days.

Mr Dhingra added, “The money market condition is also showing signs of easing which in turn is bringing down the requirement of high-cost fund for banks. These conditions indicate possibility of further cut in deposit rates”.

On the other hand all the PSU banks have reduced their lending rates by an average of 150 basis points in the last few weeks on almost all loans to their prime borrowers. Although in some cases, such as for small housing loans, the rate has been reduced has been even sharper at 200-300 points.

In comparison to this the deposit rates have come down by only 50 basis points leaving scope for another 100 basis point reduction in deposit rates. While the rates for saving bank deposits will remain at 3.5%.

Banks expected to cut PLR by 75 basis points by March

According to US-based Merrill Lynch report Indian banks are expected to reduce their Prime Lending Rates by another 75 basis points by March to support growth.

The report stated, "We expect banks to cut their PLR by 75 basis points by March and another 75 basis points in the first half of 2009-10".

Regarding the policy rate cut, in the report it was stated that the Reserve Bank is expected to cut rates by about 50 basis points.

The report also stated the Cash Reserve Ratio, the amount of deposits banks need to keep with the RBI, is likely to be cut down next month while Statutory Liquidity Ratio is likely to be slashed by 100 basis points by March 2009.

At present, PLR of most of the public sector banks is in between 12.5 per cent and 13 per cent.

As per report the banks have also witnessed slowdown in industrial credit demand in the past few weeks.

The report said however, the slower growth, credit off take is expected to slow to 22 per cent in the current fiscal and about 15 per cent in the next fiscal.