Online transfer claim of EPF by Employee's Provident Fund Organization (EPFO)

Good news for all the people who have been wanting to transfer their PF amount from previous employment accounts to the current one but couldn't do it due to the hassles of doing it manually and all kind of problematic experiences that you get to hear from your colleagues.

Employee's Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) has launched a new system to facilitate online submission of transfer claims by members with an objective to make the transfer process transparent, efficient and comfortable.

The process is beneficial not just for the employees but also for the employers. Under the previous system the employers were supposed to send the physical papers of PF transfer claims raised by the employees to the EPFO office  with their recommendation. However, under the new online system employers can verify the details of the claims using the EPFO portal for employers.

The EPFO office also sends reminder SMSes to the employers regarding pending transfer requests from the employees. This will lead to quick action by the employers and make them more accountable. Employees too can track the status of their transfer application online and see who is responsible for the delay, if any.

Pre-requisites/Eligibility: Who can transfer PF online?

For transferring your EPF amount online from a previous employer to the current employer the following conditions need to be fulfilled:

• Both previous and present member IDs (PF Account No.) should be available in  EPFO database
• The employers should have registered the digital signature certificate of their authorized signatories with EPFO. This is mandatory for employers to be able to verify claim papers online by digitally signing it off

If both previous and current employers have not registered their digital signatures online the transfer process will need to be completed offline.

Employees can check their eligibility for claiming online EPF transfer here: http://memberclaims.epfoservices.in/check_eligibility.php

Information that you need for initiating the transfer:

• Your bank account no. along with IFSC code
• PF account numbers from both the employer. You would find this on your payslip. The format is like GN/GGN/0012345/000/XXXXX i.e. State Code/Regional PF Office Code/Establishment Code/Extension/Employee PF number. The Extension generally is 000 and can be left blank in most of the cases.
• Date of joining and leaving the previous establishment and date of joining of current establishment. It generally gets pre-filled on submitting the PF number however if doesn't you would need to provide the same
• Date of birth and name of spouse/father as mentioned in the company records

 
 Below are the steps for requesting a PF transfer as an Employee:

1. Log in to the online transfer claim portal here: http://memberclaims.epfoservices.in/
    Note: If this is the first time you are using online EPFO portal, you will need to register and create
    your profile here http://members.epfoservices.in/employee_reg_form.php

2. After succesful login you will see the following page

3. Fill in the Part A details i.e. Personal information as shown in the above picture

4. Fill in Part B details i.e. details of the previous account which is to be transferred. Once the details have been entered, click on the grey button labeled  "Click Here To Get Details"

On doing so the details of you EPF account will get auto-filled as per the details available with EPFO office. If you find any of the field to be blank, please manually submit the respective information.

If the information in the next five fields is non-blank but incorrect, you can approach your employer to correct this data. To do the correction, press the "Following information is incorrect" button. A request letter shall be generated for further submission to your employer (Important: This claim can not be submitted digitally).

5. Fill in Part C details i.e. details of the current account to which the amount is to be credited. Once the details have been entered, click on the grey button labeled  "Click Here To Get Details"

 If all the details are correct select the claim attestation option. You can select either the previous or the current employer for this attestation. In case of attestation by the previous employer, time taken in settlement will be relatively less.

Finally, you will be able to process the claim online only if the employers have registered their digital signatures online with the EPFO office. If both previous and current employers have not registered their digital signatures online the transfer process will need to be completed offline.

Once you have successfully submitted the EPF transfer claim, the application status can be tracked using the "View Status of Transfer Claim" link under the "Claim" head of the menu bar as shown below:

For more information visit: http://www.epfindia.com/employee_OTCP.html

Check DDA Housing scheme 2014 draw of lots and results online

DDA has successfully completed the draw of lots for one of its most ambitious housing scheme till date. The draw of lots that started this morning (25th Nov 2014, 9:00 AM) took around five hours to complete and was live-streamed at www.ddadrawlive.in.


The results are out. Check here: http://dda.org.in/tendernotices_docs/nov14/dda2014result.pdf

or here: http://dda.org.in/HousingScheme2014/DdaDrawResult14.aspx if you have the application number.

All the best!!

Follow the blog if you find this to be useful. 

Transfer money via email with Kotak Mahindra Bank

 In this age of innovation where everyday we are coming across new unique ways of transferring money, Kotak Mahindra has launched money transfer through email that too in an easy to use and complete secure manner.

The biggest benefit of using this medium is that you need not know the beneficiary's account details. Nor do you need to register the beneficiary.

All you need is a) Kotak Net Banking Account and b) beneficiary's email ID and mobile number.

Here is how you can use this service:

Image Source: http://www.kotak.com/personal-banking/convenience-banking/send-money-email.html#product_how_it_works

However there are some important points you should know if you plan to use this payment option:

1. Fund Transfer Limits: Rs. 10,000 per transaction and Rs. 50,000 per day
2. OTPs: are valid only for 7 days from the date of initiation of payment
3. The transfer request can be cancelled till the time the funds are debited from sender's account
4. The transfer time once the beneficiary has successfully submitted the request for money transfer is in accordance with the time limits of regular NEFT/RTGS transaction
5. Service is available for individual customers only
6. Transfers can be scheduled in advance for the next 7 days
7. Beneficiaries can choose to deposit the money in the accounts of their choice

For more details please Kotak Mahindra official website.

Buy medicines online - Review healthkartplus.com

Recently I bought a few medicines from HealthKartPlus.com and here is my review of their services based on my experience.

1. Product Availability:  The medicines I ordered were mostly over the counter drugs. At times I have had issues with finding them at a few medical stores but thankfully I was able to find all of them on HealthKartPlus. Hence 10 out of 10 to HKP as far as product availability is concerned.

2.. Service Availability:  Currently pharmacy coverage is available in Delhi/NCR, Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai, Bhubaneshwar, Hyderabad, Pune. This mostly covers the top 8 cities barring Kolkata. In the absence of any substantial data about the online purchase behaviour of Indian consumers across cities, it is difficult to comment whether they should have gone for a higher coverage or not. That said, the more the better at least from a consumer standpoint. I would rate HKP 6 out of 10 given the fact that most of the new entrants in online retail do provide a better coverage than this. Even if you give consideration to the sector specific challenges, a quick comparison with sites like Aaramshop.com points to the fact that a higher coverage in terms of the number of cities covered should have been possible. More so because it is a pharmacy network and it should not be very difficult to find a couple better organized medical stores with educated owners who would be able to understand the concept and be a part of it in most of the cities.

3. Ease of Use: Unlike most of the online retail stores HealthKartPlus has a non-cluttered environment. There hardly were any brand specific promotions/banner Ads running on the homepage and that added to the simplicity.

On searching for a particular medicines you are shown multiple options to select for basis dosage amount, product substitutes, composition etc. On clicking a particular medicine you are shown the complete details under three sub-heads namely a) Salt Information b) Substitutes and c) Interactions. For Indian consumers not many of whom give enough consideration to the possible side effects, recommended dosages and drug interactions, buying medicines from HKP can be more informative than buying it from the corner medical stores. Product pictures are also available which does build the trust and aids identification. 10 out of 10 on this parameter too.

I would highly recommend consumers to use HealthKartPlus to get the information about various drugs if not for buying it online. On the first time purchase I even got a 15 percent discount which is never a bad thing to have.

4. Delivery: Lets talk about the positives first. The product came in good packaging, with a proper bill. COD (Cash on Delivery) option is available so the risk for the buyer is minimal.

The problem was the time taken in doing the delivery. Medicines esp. over the counter ones are mostly impulse or negative purchases. Nobody likes buying medicines. You purchase medicines because you need them. Hence it is very important that once the order has been placed there is minimal time taken to deliver the products which should not be a big challenge in a network based model. I did not receive any information other than a transaction code and a number that I could call in case of any issues. And I did have to call it when the medicines were not delivered even after 48 hours and after that I were told that it will be delivered in another 5-7 hours.

I am sure HealthKartPlus is a funded company and the only advice I have as a marketer and as a consumer for them is that they should improve upon the time of delivery. If mine was a one off case, you sure are doing good. But if that is the general amount of time taken to deliver the products, I think they better speed up else competition is always around the corner to take over!