The box

The Box starts with the story of a happy family of Norma & Arthur Lewis (Cameron Diaz and James Marsden) and their young boy Walter. Everything is perfect for them until they receive a mysterious box at their doorsteps. The box is supposed to bring fortune to them. The owner of the box tells the couple that if they press the trigger on the box within a day, then they will win a million dollar, but as a result of it someone somewhere will die. Ignoring the warning, Norma presses the trigger. They win a million dollar but soon their lives become entangled with misfortune which leads to several bizarre events.

This horror movie gives you a feel of classic movies. The story is kind of slow, occasionally scary and becomes more complicated towards the climax. It is quite fascinating at the beginning, but somehow it looses tracks towards the end. Or may be I need to watch it once more to understand The Box completely. Cameron Diaz and James Marsden have given brilliant performances. Diaz has given one of her best performances in The Box. This is quite a refreshing change in the style of performance of Cameron Diaz. The anxiety, fear and tension are well portrayed in the character. The set is awesomely 70’s - the costumes, hairstyles, interiors, cars etc. are constantly making you feel as if you are watching a classic horror. In very limited parts, I found some resemblances with The Shinning too. Richard Kelly’s direction in The Box is very sharp and has used various emotions of human minds in this movie. To experience a classic thriller/ horror with a semi-psychedelic effect, one must go for The Box. If you like classic stuff, then you should not miss this horror movie.

Watch the trailer of The Box

My Rating - 7/10
Learn More About the Movie on IMDB

And the said issue just did not stop with bank withdrawal. Payment already made in the PayPal account as ‘personal’ payment was reversed back to the sender. As a result of it, lots of legitimate owners of the money who actually provided some kind of service or goods were deprived of their remuneration. Only a handful of buyers showed generosity to resend the money under ‘goods’ or ‘service’ mode or through other payment processors.  However, I agree to the fact that many PayPal users select ‘personal’ payment modes just to save the commission and fees of PayPal even when the said payment is either for goods or services. This kind of attitude is wrong, unethical and even illegal according to the terms and conditions of PayPal. However, it is almost impossible for PayPal to identify the actual nature of each and every transactions.

By this time, thousands of Indian PayPal users became restless as huge amount of money started to pile up in their PayPal account while leaving them almost cashless in practical sense.  People had to suffer a lot due to this sudden irresponsible situation created by PayPal. During this two week ordeal, none of the PayPal users were officially notified about the cause of this sudden stoppage of bank withdrawal to India.

Finally on 6th February, 2010, the first official announcement was made on the PayPal Blog. Anuj from the Communication Team of PayPal said in his blog, “I’m writing to let you know that personal payments to and from India and transfers to local banks in India have been suspended while we work with our business partners and other stakeholders to address questions they have about the service.” It brought some amount of relief to all those tensed Indian PayPal users who were eagerly waiting to withdraw their money to their banks. In this said blog post, no cause of delay or stoppage of bank withdrawal was given. Apart from saying -”We’re trying to resolve the situation as quickly as possible“, PayPal didn’t offer any other way to find out any time frame within which this dispute might get settled.

Rumours and anticipations of various types flooded different websites, blogs and forums. What came out as the strongest as well as most believable factor causing this disruption of bank withdrawal for the Indian users is probably a dispute between the authorities of PayPal and Reserve Bank of India (RBI). 3 days later, Anuj again came up with an updated blog post which somewhat explained the situation to the thousands of Indian PayPal users. By this time, PayPal started reversing the bank withdrawal to the PayPal account. The initial refund was done after charging the withdrawal refund charges and conversion fees. However, the loss suffered by the PayPal users due to this sudden reversal of bank withdrawal was compensated by PayPal within 3 to 4 working days after the actual money was reversed to the PayPal account.

The actual issue started sometime back between Reserve Bank of India and PayPal when in spite of affording reasonable opportunity by RBI to PayPal, PayPal has failed to file necessary legal documents related to their transactions/ business activities within the prescribed time period and thus RBI has stopped the activity of bank withdrawal to Indian banks by PayPal.

During this period very few and lucky PayPal Indian users were able to withdraw money through cheque (which is a very time consuming procedure, as well as uncertain as the cheques are sent by ordinary air mail) and visa credit card. Even other agents like Xoom and Moneybookers took this opportunity to benefit for the dire situation of PayPal.

The 2010 Valentines’ Day turned out to be some kind of lucky day for Indian freelancers/ traders waiting eagerly to transfer their money from PayPal account to their banks when Farhad Irani, Lead of PayPal Asia Pacific’s open letter came into play. Irani’s assurance,” I’d like to let everyone know that I’m personally committed to working closely and tirelessly with the Reserve Bank of India to get a fast resolution to this issue, so that we can continue to help the thousands of Indian businesses who use PayPal to sell their goods or services in the global marketplace.”  brought relief to some extent in this context.

Mr. Farhad Irani reappeared with a good news after making Indian users eagerly waiting for twelve long days. In his blog update, he said, “I’m pleased to tell you that the RBI has now allowed us to resume bank withdrawals for settlements for exports of goods and services. We are currently making changes to comply with Indian regulations for settlements for exports of goods and services, and we anticipate that as of Wednesday, March 3rd, we will be able to resume the bank withdrawal service.”

Certain changes in the methods of PayPal transactions were made. PayPal India has completely barred personal payments to and from Indian PayPal account. It means you can’t even receive donation from others too. And you can’t pay those $1 prizes to random forum posters too. However, this step was encouraging both from economic point of view as well as from the angle of security measures of India. PayPal further introduced purpose codes and gave proper instructions on how to continue with bank withdrawal. According to this new PayPal “Purpose Code”, a person withdrawing money to his Indian bank account has to disclose his source of earning. There are few pre-determined sections and a user is supposed to select one of these purpose codes. Farhad Irani further stated, “We expect to resume the service on March 3rd” to all those who were eagerly waiting to withdraw their money.

Finally after a month of PayPal fiasco, an official announcement was made on behalf of PayPal declaring the resumption of bank withdrawals in India. Though some account has been limited and asked for further verification, still the overall condition of PayPal has improved overnight. Bank withdrawal facility has been enabled now and people can withdraw their funds. Since, just a day has passed; reports of actual funds being deposited in Indian banks have not come up. It will take another 2/3 working days to figure out the actual scenario.

In spite of this PayPal-RBI issue getting settled, yet it raises certain questions in the minds of thousands of Indian freelancers and online traders who have spent numerous sleepless nights during the last month. A company as big as PayPal has not handled the issue very carefully and professionally. Without any prior notification, how can PayPal stop bank withdrawal facility which has caused immense financial as well as mental harassment to thousands of Indian PayPal users. PayPal made their first official announcement regarding this issue almost after 12 days of initiation of this issue – what took them so long? The amount in PayPal account which were reversed to the buyers, lead to a huge amount of financial loss for the seller/ service provider as very few buyers showed the courtesy to re-pay the amount. And is anybody ready to calculate the amount of total interest that PayPal has generated by holding the money of Indian PayPal users for a month.

But the sadder part is that, no matter how much we sulk, still we are going to use PayPal again as it is one of the most easiest as well as economical (thinks so) ways to get our hard earned money to India. PayPal will be again in good business unless and until we have a proper competitor in the same field. However, a bit of credibility has been definitely lost due to the month long PayPal fiasco.

With the increase in numbers of working women in India, the responsibility of protecting the dignity of the female employees by their respective employers has increased manifolds. Sexual harassment or abuse of the women employees at their workplaces is basically the result of a perverted mind which needs to be cured with the assistance of psychiatric treatment or exemplary punishment or both. Apart from all these theoretical blabbering, there are certain practical aspects that one should be aware of.

A sexual harassment at workplace is said to have taken place when a women is subject to sexual harassment at her workplace by her employer. The term ‘employer’ in this regard means and includes “any person employed through any of the offices including contract workers, employees will mean all employees of the company.” Thus we can say that a woman can bring charges of sexual harassment at workplace against anyone who is directly or indirectly engaged and/ or appointment by her employer.

Every organization is supposed to form a committee in order to deal with sexual harassment issues at workplace and to investigate into the alleged charges and to provide relief to the victim of sexual harassment at workplace. However, many companies in India, in spite of having a huge numbers of female employees have failed to establish such a committee to safeguard the interest and dignity of their female employees. In this context, a committee means “committee formed by the company/ organization to investigate the cause of sexual harassment of women at workplace” Such committee should consist of 7 members - 3 women employees and 3 employees from the side of management and 1 member should be from an external Non-Governmental organization (NGO). And 1 woman should be compulsorily appointed as the chairwoman of the committee.

Before we discuss more about sexual harassment at workplace, we need to find out what exact the term “sexual harassment at workplace” means. As per the Protection of Human Right Act, “human rights” include the rights to life, dignity, liberty and equality for every Indian. These basic “human rights” have been guaranteed by the Constitution of India. Similarly Indian working women has their right to live with dignity at their workplace and the responsibility of protecting their rights falls on their employer. Recently, the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India has become more stringent on violations of such rights granted to the working Indian women. For a better understanding, the definition of “sexual harassment at workplace” is defined hereunder:

Acts which can be termed as sexual harassment are as follows:

1. Any direct or indirect unwelcome sexually determined behaviour,
2. Physical contact and advances.
3. Demand or request for sexual favours.
4. Sexually covered remarks including showing pornographic material in any form i.e. digital or hard copy.
5. Any other unwelcome physical or non-verbal conduct of a sexual nature.

Procedure of Complaint

For a victim of sexual harassment at workplace, it does not matter whether the said victim woman is drawing salary, honorarium from her employer or providing a voluntary service to her employer. Even the type of organizations i.e. Government, public or private organization in which the woman works do not matter while filing a complaint against sexual harassment at workplace. However, there are certain procedures which one needs to follow while lodging the complaint before the compliant committees which are discussed below:

1. Any female employee including those employed under contract basis if harassed by a co-employee is eligible to file written confidential complaint to the Chairwoman of the committee. The complaint should contain proper details of the incident along with name of witness(es), if any. After receiving the said complaint, the Chairwoman will thoroughly investigate the matter, and if satisfied with the prima facie evidence, the Chairwoman will call a meeting of the committee and start a full investigation. A copy of the said complaint should also be forwarded to the Human Resource personnel of the organisation.

2. The committee will investigate the matter thoroughly and can summon witness(es) and take their oral/ written submission, if necessary in order to determine the validity of the alleged complaint made by the female employee.

3. The committee should give its report in writing with valid reasons for its conclusion to head/ executive of the organization who upon receiving such report from the committee is liable to take necessary actions against the delinquent employee.

4. The total procedure of the investigation starting from the day of filing such complaint before the committee till the day of submitting the investigation report to the organization should be completed within fifteen (15) working days.

The woman complainant as well as the witnesses should not be victimized or discriminated in any manner whatsoever. However, an activity of a woman employee filing false complaint of sexual harassment at workplace against a co-employee, with an intention to settle personal score or to defame the said person, is a gross misconduct and disciplinary measures/ actions can be taken against the female employee.

Responsibilities of the Employer

Every employer whether in Government, private or public sector is responsible for maintaining the dignity and integrity of the female employees in their organizations. And they should give their best effort to stop any kind of sexual harassment or abuse on any of their female employees and should be responsible to take these under mentioned steps:

1. The employer needs to circulate notifications defining the provisions of sexual harassment at workplace to each and every employee of the organization.

2. The service rules and/ or standing orders of an organization whether Government, private or public sector should contain clauses against any kind of sexual harassment at workplace along with appropriate punishments/ penalties.

3. Proper working conditions in relation to work, leisure, health and hygiene etc. should be provided to the female employees of the organization and at no time a female employee should feel discriminated at her workplace.

In case the sexual harassment at workplace is caused by any third party who is neither directly nor indirectly related to the employer, the employer is bound to take all the necessary steps in order to provide assistance to the affected female employee and to do all other acts which are necessary to stop any derogatory actions on any female employees.

Various Laws Which Can Be Used In Case Of Sexual Harassment at Workplace

Certain sections under the Indian Penal Code can be used in order to establish charges against an accused. Apart from filing complaint before the Complaint Committee, remedies under various sections of IPC or Indian Penal Code can easily be found.

Section 354 of IPC reads as follows:

“Section 354. Assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty

Whoever assaults or uses criminal force to any woman, intending to outrage or knowing it to be likely that he will thereby outrage her modesty, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with both.“

Section 509 of IPC reads as follows:

“Section 509. Word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman

Whoever, intending to insult the modesty of any woman, utters any word, makes any sound or gesture, or exhibits any object, intending that such word or sound shall be heard, of that such gesture or object shall be seen, by such woman, or intrudes upon the privacy of such woman, shall be punished with simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to one year, or with fine, or with both.“

Now apart from IPC, the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act, 1987 is well equipped to deal with any form of sexual harassment or sexual abuse of women at their workplace.

Section 4 of IRWP Act reads as follows:

“Prohibition of publication or sending by post of books, pamphlets, etc., containing indecent representation of women.- No person shall produce or cause to be produced, sell, let to hire, distribute, circulate or send by post any book, pamphlet, paper, slide, film, writing, drawing, painting, photograph, representation or figure which contains indecent representation of women in any form:

Provided that nothing in this section shall apply to-

(a) any book, pamphlet, paper, slide, film, writing, drawing, painting, photograph, representation or figure-

(i) the publication of which is proved to be justified as being for the public good on the ground that such book, pamphlet paper, slide, film writing, drawing, painting photograph, representation or figure is i the interest of science, literature, art, or learning or other objects of general concern: or

(ii) which is kept or used bona fide for religious purposes;

(b) any representation sculptured, engraved, painted or other wise represented on or in-

(i) any ancient monument within the meaning of the Ancient Monument and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act 1958(24 of 1958); or

(ii) any temple, or on any car used for the conveyance or idols, or kept or used for any religious purpose;

(c) any film in respect of which the provisions of Part II of the Cinematograph Act, 1952(37 of 1952) will be applicable.“

For more information on the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act, 1987, you can check the whole Act. Thus at the end we can say that sexual harassment at workplace is a delicate subject which needs to be taken care of very diligently.

The Echo

Ex-convict Bobby (Jesse Bradford) returns to his deceased mother’s old apartment where he begins to hear strange sounds. With the passing time Bobby discovers blood on the pillow cover, piano, wardrobe etc. which were used by her deceased mother. Booby’s next door neighbour turns out to be a cop, who abuses his wife and child regularly. He tries to intervene but the abusive cop threatens him. Booby hears the scream of that woman every night. At last Bobby decides to call 911. Couple of officers arrives at the scene and Bobby points them towards the apartment of the abusive cop. To everyone’s surprise the apartment turns out to be not only empty but in an inhabitable condition. But Bobby is sure that he has seen the family. However, the manager of the building confirms that no one has been living in that apartment for a long time. Is it just Bobby’s imagination?

Yes, The Echo is another movie on the very common theme of an apartment. The stories of horror movies inside an apartment have already been well explored by horror directors from across the globe. And we don’t find much differences in Laranas’ The Echo. You will see the movie through the eyes of Bobby (Oh, I’m not talking about POV though), the main character of the movie who has moved to his dead mother’s old apartment. We feel a sense of fear and anxiety as soon as Bobby enters the apartment. And this feeling has been enhanced by another stereotypical presence of a mysterious young girl who keeps on playing his toy piano in the corridor. The apartment looks old and grungy and full with vintage furniture and artifacts. Most probably the director wanted to portray that an old lady lived in that apartment by using those vintage items. The initial 45 minutes or so is quite interesting; however, I feel that The Echo turns out to be a slow moving supernatural horror flick in the end. The Echo is just old wine in a new bottle.

Watch the trailer of The Echo

My Rating - 6/10
Learn More About the Movie on IMDB

El Secreto De Sus Ojos is a story of Benjamin Esposito (Ricardo Darin) who gets emotionally attached to the “rape and murder” case of a young girl while investigating. The husband of girl Ricardo Morales (Pablo Rago), a bank employee, goes to the  railway station everyday after his job in search of the killer. He believes that one day he will be successful in his mission to catch the killer of his wife. On the other hand, while working Benjamin falls in love with Irene Hastings (Soledad Villamil), her boss.

Campanella as a writer of El Secreto De Sus Ojos has done a perfect job. The movie, in fact, takes you back to flashback and is very well portrayed in each and every scene. The “rape and murder” in the movie which affects Benjamin actually took place almost 30 years back. But in El Secreto De Sus Ojos the current story of the movie has been well blended with the flashback and the whole movie as it was narrated by Derin, is just brilliant. The direction is just extraordinary and there are many scenes which are shot in such an elegant way that it can easily give a tough competition to any top notch directors globally. All the leading characters are very natural and gave mind blowing performances in El Secreto De Sus Ojos. Double exposure effects are brilliantly used in the initial shots where images of faces and backgrounds are merged beautifully. Even Campenella captured the Argentine lifestyle, architectures and the effect that death of your loved ones can create are portrayed quite flawlessly in this Spanish romantic drama thriller El Secreto De Sus Ojos. However, this is not exactly a so called thriller movie, but a thriller in a romantic drama. Comparing with other movies like Amores Perros and Sin Nombre, the story here moves at quite a slow pace. It is more sort of a movie where you need to get involved in the movie and enjoy it. Still I will say that El Secreto De Sus Ojos is not as good as Amores Perror or Sin Nombre (Just my personal preferences though). This Spanish masterpiece has already been nominated for Oscars. El Secreto De Sus Ojos is highly recommended.

Watch the trailer of El Secreto De Sus Ojos

My Rating - 6/10
Learn More About the Movie on IMDB

The trauma of billions of PayPal users does not stop here. Money which has already been credited in your account is sent back to the sender without your authority and knowledge. And on each of these transactions you are losing a certain amount of dollars as conversion and/ or refund fees to PayPal with no fault of yours.

Moreover, this horrendous situation has affected thousands of small scale business houses and freelancers who are solely dependent on Paypal as their only mode of payment. Even transfer of funds from your PayPal account to any local Indian banks has been blocked or delayed too for the time being.

It was initially believed that Paypal was going through some technical glitches. Even some predicted that the ban was a step to curb money laundering, scams, terrorism funding etc. in India. If unfortunately this is true, then it is like bombing the whole Afganistan in order to find Osama Bin Laden. Even rumours of disputes between PayPal India and Reserve Bank of India have also cropped up. However, the official announcement made on behalf of PayPal India has somewhat brought relief to the tensed users. Anuj from the Communication Team, PayPal India says:

“I’m writing to let you know that personal payments to and from India and transfers to local banks in India have been suspended while we work with our business partners and other stakeholders to address questions they have about the service.”

Like many other international brands or companies, Paypal has taken the Indian customers for granted. Definitely, this is not a case of racism, but to me it certainly looks like an economical discrimination. PayPal India on the other hand, is coming with lame excuses, often the copy-pasting the same texts for every query. Though PayPal has promised to solve this issue at the earliest, yet they have not given any specific deadline.

Seymour Parrish (Robin Williams), the photo developer is the main character of this movie. It is  not  just a job for Parrish, but a passion and he takes immense care while developing each and every photograph. The ever smiling Yorkin family has been developing photographs from him for a long time. Parrish slowly gets interested in their life. However, his interest soon becomes an obsession but  Parrish quickly realises that behind the ever smiling faces of the Yorkin family, lays the darkest secret.

Robin Williams has given one of his best performances in One Hour Photo. This drama-thriller would have been entirely different without Robbie. From a family less photo developer to an overly obsessed deranged person - Robin Williams gives us an excellent performance while Michael Vartan and Connie Nielsen play the Yorkin couple proficiently in One Hour Photo. The story is all about human relationships and how one mistake of your life can turn your whole beautiful world upside down; all narrated from the point of view of Seymour Parrish, a slightly deranged yet a very caring and loving photo developer in this movie One Hour Photo. The movie has been well executed by Mark Romanek and definitely the credit goes to a very tight screenplay along with Robin Williams’ brilliant acting. One Hour Photo is not a pure thriller movie per se, but it is definitely worth a watch.

Watch the trailer of One Hour Photo

My Rating - 8/10
Learn More About the Movie on IMDB

From Hell

From Hell takes you back to 1888 - Whitechapel, England, which is a small town full with dirt, poverty, bars, brothels, prostitutes, Englishmen looking for sex, beggars, money lenders etc. and everybody had their own way of life until mutilated bodies of prostitutes begin to appear in different parts of the town. As the death toll begins to rise, inspector Fredrick Abberline (Johnny Depp) and Sergeant Godley (Robbie Coltrane) are given the duty of investigation. In the meantime young inspector Abberline falls for a young prostitute Mary Kelly (Heather Graham). As the investigation moves on, they discover several leads, the main being that all the murders are done by a single person who is quite familiar with human anatomy.

The story of From Hell is based on the true events that took place in Whitechapel during 1888. Though this movie has exposed Jack the Ripper in the climax, but in reality we are still in darkness. The story basically starts with the murder investigation and ends with the capture of the murderer. However, Albert & Allen Hughes have added a pinch of romance between Johnny Depp and Heather Graham to make the plot a bit more interesting.

The sets of From Hell are absolutely brilliant. It gives you a perfect feel of old London, the grime and bleak conditions of the common people on the streets. The usage of dim lights and old structures and dirty alleys with hookers at the corner waiting for you make the whole scenario suitable for the perfect murder. The sets as well as usage of computer graphics are good enough to make this thriller more appealing to the audiences.

Johhny Depp did a brilliant job as an opium smoking police investigator who is torn between his official duty and lady love Heather Graham. Graham though didn’t have much scope in From Hell, lived up to the expectation.

From Hell is a pure thriller. A mystery slowly unfolds before the eyes of the audiences. Hughes Brothers have done a fantastic job in this thriller and obviously Johnny Depp played his part too. Thank God this didn’t turn out to be another I Sell the Dead.

Watch the trailer of From Hell

My Rating - 5/10
Learn more about the movie on IMDB.

Zakes Abbot (William Ash) and his girlfriend Beth (Christine Bottomley) while travelling on the highway stumble upon a truck which has a lady as a hostage in the back of the truck. Inspite of informing the police, they decide to follow the truck. Zakes’ girlfriend goes missing from a service station where they stop for a short break. Soon Zakes realizes that it is the work of the same trucker who already has a hostage in the back of his truck. And from here, begins the story of how Zakes is able to save his lady love from the clutches of hooded trucker cum a psychopath killer.

As I have already mentioned, this movie is just a little better than a bad thriller. Now, if we look at the story, from the very beginning of Hush, it is very clear about the identity of the killer. By identity I mean who is he - a psychopath who loves to wear black hooded long jacket and drives a truck. How original! From the very beginning of Hush you will get to know about the identity of the hooded abductor, but you watch this movie just to know how he is captured and most probably killed in the climax. However, the real identity or the motive of these killings is not exposed in the end of this British thriller. The story is somewhat similar to the story of the classic French thriller Spoorloos where a man digs the earth in order to find the truth behind the disappearance of his girlfriend during their on road travel.

William Ash and Christine Bottomley, though not brilliant, but gave a decent performance and are good enough to bring some amount of fear and anxiety into the minds of the viewers. While I believe, in some parts, they have exaggerated their emotions and fears. Mark Tonderai, both as the director and writer of Hush has not been successful to make the best out of this thriller. Built on a very clichéd storyline, there was very little scope to improve. Still in spite of all these dead ends of stories, meaningless twists and plot holes, Hush is still a not so bad movie. With a least amount of expectation and a readiness to spend or waist one and half hours from you busy schedule, you can give Hush a try.

Watch the trailer of Hush

My Rating - 5/10
Learn more about the movie on IMDB.

The future depends on your credit worthiness

But finding your credit worthiness has become a lot easier these days. Visit the website of Credit Information Bureau (India) or better known as Cibil and fill up the application form. You need to send a demand draft of Rs.142 along with a copy of your identity proof to the Managing Director. A credit report will be sent to you within 7 working days.

Banks use credit scores of various applicants to assess the borrowing capabilities of individuals. Five years back, Cibil started this operation of keeping tag of creditworthiness of every individual and still now Cibil is the only body in India providing such facilities. Currently Cibil assess all financial bank transactions of a person but soon they will keep records of telephone bill payments and insurance dealings too. Presently Cibil is dealing with more than 140 millions account details and they are constantly supplying data to various banks in order to help them in assessing the credit worthiness of a prospective borrower.  Depending on the credit score, a loan can be either sanctioned or rejected.

Best way to improve your credit score:

•    Never be a defaulter.

•    In case you have failed to repay the debt (loan, credit card dues or even your telephone bills) due to some unavoidable circumstances, always try to clear the dues at the earliest.

•    In case of credit cards, always try to pay at least 4-5 times of your minimum due amount.

•    You can take a loan from the bank and clear your credit card dues. Bank loans are way cheaper than dues on credit card.

•    Balance from a low interest credit card can be transfered to clear your dues.

•    Only spend when you can afford to repay.

Customers have raised their objection regarding slow updates of their credit score in the past. But situation has already taken a 180 degree. Cibil Credit Report contains various information of an individual ranging from his PAN number, Voter ID number, Passport number, details of bank accounts, credit card limits & outstanding, if any. Even details of loans are available. Your own credit report will give you a clear idea about your own credit worthiness. It will also give you details of enquiries made along with their purposes, if any.

So if your loan is not sanctioned by a bank, always feel free to contact Cibil and estimate your own credit score.  Different ways of obtaining a credit score are mentioned hereunder:

Get your credit score online

This is the most convenient way to get your own credit score. Download the Consumer Disclosure Form from the Cibil website, fill it up, attach a Demand Draft of Rs.142 and send a copy to myreport@cibil.com along with an identity proof (scanned) attached to the mail.

Receive it by post

The same Consumer Disclosure Form should be sent to P.O.BOX 17 , Millennium Business Park , Navi Mumbai- 400710 along with a Demand Draft of Rs.142 and self attested ID and address proof.

Or just FAX it

You can also FAX the Consumer Disclosure Form to 022-40789007 and mail the Demand Draft and Identity proof separately.

The Demand Draft should be in favour of Credit Information Bureau ( India ) Limited and payable at Mumbai.