Next: Fraud and safety
UPI and payment fraud
The collect-request trick, the QR scam, the wrong-number refund and the fake helpline number. One rule about your PIN defeats nearly all of them.
12 min
intermediate
Buying a home without getting played
Down payments and EMIs as plain arithmetic, the certificates that do the real protecting, and the builder clauses that are a reason to walk away entirely.
3 lessons · about 19 minutes · written for reading age 13 · last checked 2026-08-11
The arithmetic nobody shows you first
The price of the flat is not the money you need on day one — the bank lends only a share of it, and stamp duty and registration ride on top of that.
6 min
The paperwork that does the protecting
Carpet versus super built-up, what the free RERA portal shows, what the encumbrance certificate misses, and why the occupancy certificate is the finish line.
7 min
Builder red flags, and rent vs buy honestly
The pre-launch trap, the return-promise scheme, the one-sided penalty clause — and a rent-versus-buy comparison with nobody's thumb on the scale.
6 min
Check yourself
3 questions at the end. Every wrong answer explains itself.
Tools for this
Sources
- Reserve Bank of India — housing loan norms — Reserve Bank of India · checked 2026-08-11
- Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 — Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs — Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs · checked 2026-08-11
- Registration Act, 1908 and allied property laws — India Code — Legislative Department, Government of India · checked 2026-08-11