Moving Cities? Update These Documents

RESIDENCE PROOF: Not providing your new address for financial products that you hold may create problems in the long run

Nishitha Shrivastava, a 28year-old advertising professional, moved to Goa from Mumbai after marriage. Once in the new city, she got busy looking for a new job and decorating her apartment.

Three months later, she misplaced her debit card. She immediately informed her bank's customer care executive who assured her that a new one will be delivered within seven working days at the address available in the bank records. That is when she realised she had not changed the address. A month later, and after a few visits to the bank, she has finally managed to get a new card.

To avoid such troubles you must update your documents while changing cities. A list of financial products and documents that need to be updated with the new address when you relocate to a new city.

BANKING: Make sure all banking products such as savings account, fixed deposits (FDs), credit cards and demat account are updated. “As all communications from the bank will be diverted to the address mentioned in the bank records, you must update your address, phone number and email ID,“ said Suresh Sadagopan, certified financial planner. If you don't, chances are that you may miss on important communications from your bank. For instance, if you need a cheque book, you just walk into an automated teller machine and request for one and it gets couriered to the address in the bank's record. However, if you don't update the address, getting your cheque book will turn out to be a time-consuming process. How to do it: In the case of savings account, the procedure to update address varies from bank to bank. In some banks, you can call up the customer care and get your address changed after answering a few basic verification questions. Once you verify your identity, the address will change accordingly.

Other banks require you to personally visit the branch in which you have an account and write a letter to the branch manager along with an address proof. A few others give you the option to visit the nearest branch and submit an application. The address change will take place within 7-14 days. The process is same for credit cards.

With most banks enabled with core banking solution, you can access your FDs from any city across the country. However, if the branch of the bank with which you have an FD is not core-banking enabled, you will have to transfer your FD so that you can easily access it.

In case of demat accounts, all you need to do is fill a form at the bank and submit it with your address proof.

INSURANCE: At present you can pay your insurance premium from anywhere in the country, hence, you may think an address change is not required. As insurance policy is not for your benefit but for your nominee, so is the address change. “Insurance policies should be transferred to the new city because most services are offered by the service branch only,“ said Pankaj Mathpal, MD, Optima Money Managers, a Mumbai-based financial planning firm. If you fail to update the data on you policy documents, your nominees will face problems during settlement claims. You are also likely to miss out the statements of dividends and payment receipts.

Private insurers usually have centralised claim processing cell and offer inter-branch services, hence it may not be necessary to transfer the policy but you must update the address.

Car insurance is valid across India. “Though the car insurance policy is valid all over India, for convenience of service it is better to inform the car insurer about the address change,“ said Rahul Aggarwal, director, Optima Insurance Brokers. Also, premium charges vary from city to city -in metros you will have to pay more compared with non-metro. If you are shifting to a non-metro, by informing the insurer about your new address, you can save money. How to do it: Write a request letter mentioning your policy number and attaching the photocopy of your policy you want to transfer. You can send the request directly or through your agent to the branch where you have the policy.

INVESTMENTS: In the case of investments, including Public Provident Fund (PPF), post office products such as small savings scheme, mutual funds, stocks, gold and bonds, an address change request will do. How do to it: In the case of PPF transfer from one post office to another, you just need to fill and submit the transfer forms available with the postmaster. To transfer PPF account from a bank to a post office, the bank will issue an account payee cheque or a demand draft for an outstation transfer. The account payee cheque will be in favour of the transferee head post office along with a certified copy of the ledger and all other related records in original. The account will be opened at the transferee head post office.

For MFs, update your know-your customer document. You will have to quote your permanent account number (PAN) and submit it with an address proof. It will take at least 10 days for the change to be effective. The form can be obtained from the Association of Mutual Funds in India, fund houses and Central Depository Services (India) Ltd's website.

Post office products such as small savings scheme can be transferred by submitting a transfer form at the post office.

If you have a locker, you will have to close it and open a new one in the bank of your current city.

INCOME-TAX RECORDS: Usually people do not update their bank details and address in income-tax (I-T) records and investment. Salaried individuals generally don't bother to close their salary accounts and even if they close it, they don't inform the I-T department about the new address.

“In case of I-T refund, the I-T department sends the refund in the account mentioned by you in your income-tax return (ITR) filing or PAN card,“ said Mathpal. “If transaction fails due to closed bank account, they send the payment by cheque/warrant to the address registered with them. If your address is not updated, it will return undelivered.“ How to do it: You can apply for changes or correction in PAN data by submitting PAN change request form available online. The tax information network, operated by the National Securities Depository Ltd, provides this service.

PASSPORT: Passport is the most important evidence of your residence. How to do it: Once you get your new address, you need to visit the nearest passport office branch, fill up form-II and submit it along with a valid proof of your residential address. Your rent agreement would work as your address proof. 

 

Hindustan times, New Delhi, 25-02-2012

 

 

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