Pump It Up Waiver: Fill & Download for Free

I’m surprised that you are charged extra in this period [until Dec 30 when banks have agreed to waive the fees] and I believe you can complain with the bank and get back your transaction cost. And 5.5% fee is usurious. You should follow it up. Many banks waiver surcharge for petrol purchases, charge no transaction fees and there is also a service tax exemption for a limited period. If you are charged more, time to look for a different bank/card [29 Credit Cards with Fuel Surcharge Waiver]Think of this: Which of the following is cheaper: Buying a physical copy of a newspaper or the digital copy of the same newspaper? Email or regular post?If all things are equal, digital transactions should be way more cheaper than its equivalent physical transaction. That works even for mobile wallets/netbanking compared to transacting physical money.However, there are various actors in the middle who try to jack up the price of digital transactions due to greedy structures. There is no reason why the transaction you made should cost Rs. 11 - even accounting for the infrastructure to handle fraudulent transactions.Until now, banks and card networks saw these transactions as gold mine - rich people buying expensive stuff - and kept outrageous transaction costs. In parallel, there was low economies of scale - very few people using the digital system for it to be very profitable for anyone.First, the economies of scale had to be fixed up. Before the Internet became quite popular, sending email was an expensive proposition. 20 years ago, I sent an email to my aunt in Australia. Back then, Internet was really new and the Internet Cafe cost was Rs. 100/hour. It took me 20 minutes to send my first email. The total cost was Rs. 30 and adjusted to inflation that is Rs. 120 now. I would also spend 10x for reading a digital newspaper compared to the regular newspapers we got at home.Imagine being charged Rs. 120 for sending an email today. That is more expensive than the posting through regular mail. However, as we kept using email the cost kept coming down and now I probably spend only a few paise to send an email.We need a same explosion in the world of digital transactions. Although it is expensive on some occasions, the government should keep pushing it on as the transaction costs could come down a lot with more people using the network. Then there will be a point when using them would be so cheap compared and you might be doing way too many transactions to even have cash as an option [just like what happened to regular postal mail].This is what the Indian government is doing. Creating the conditions for an explosion in the number of digital transactions so that the economies of scale would be at play and various companies would compete to push down the transaction costs as low as zero.In parallel, the government is also pushing the banks hard to keep the transaction costs low even before we attain that economies of scale. Thus, for a limited time IRCTC, banks, telecom provider and various operators in the middle have agreed to keep the charges low. Over the next few months you can expect more government schemes to make the digital transaction cost as low as possible and government breathing down the neck of banks [RBI against government's proposal to dramatically lower charges on debit card transactions] to avoid overcharging customers for doing the right thing.Ultimately the goal is do to banking what Internet did to information - fast, efficient and seamless.

I’d had stomach aches all my life. In fact, when I was about 13, I missed over a month of school. Frustrated, my mother (begrudgingly) took me to the doctor. She was shocked to hear that I had “dozens of pin-sized ulcers in my stomach.” (At least that’s what we were told, but I don’t even know if that’s possible). Anyway, I guess she was so used to me complaining that she thought I was just making it up to get out of school. The treatment - at that time - was weekly shots in my backside and a bland diet. Did it work? Apparently not.Fast forward 40 years; I was 53 years old at the time - traveling throughout Europe in a camper van - with my husband (at the time), settled into a campsite in Southern Spain. He has Borderline Personality Disorder, and it was one of the many times he wasn’t speaking to me. I’m enjoying the quiet outside in the sun, and I noticed my stomach hurt. No big deal, it’s been happening all my life. But, this time it’s different. It hurts when my stomach is empty. And, I’d been getting up in the middle of the night to eat bland cookies or crackers. It’s also not painful, more like a balloon that’s blown up too much and it’s about to burst. Hmmmm…I tossed out the beer I was drinking and started looking on the internet to see what the symptoms meant. (I self-diagnosed an appendicitis before). So, I land on something called a duodenal ulcer. Followed by… In the worst-case scenario, peptic ulcers can erode through a blood vessel, which may cause life-threatening bleeding.I’m not normally an alarmist, but something inside me was telling me to take this seriously. So, I broke the silence with my husband and said, “You know this stomach ache of mine may be something serious.” Sarcastically, he responded, “So what do want me to do, take you to the hospital?” When I said yes, he rolled his eyes and got the key for our scooter.The hospital was only a couple of minutes away. We went in, waited in line, and then I handed the receptionist a note, with my symptoms (in Spanish). My husband had left to use the bathroom, and when the receptionist read it, I could see alarms going off in her eyes. Next thing you know, I collapsed. My husband came back, saw me on the floor and said, (get this) “What are you doing?” The pain was awful; like a branding iron was burning my insides. Mine you, I’ve given birth twice. That pain was nothing compared to this. I kept thinking, can a person really live through this kind of pain.I remember tears streaming down my face, and a lovely Spanish woman handing me a tissue. Two medics burst through the door, and next thing you know I’m literally being dragged into a private room, where I promptly vomit (in a trash can, luckily), twice.And then, like magic, the pain stops. For about 5 minutes. Then it comes back with vengeance. It’s like I’m being burned alive from the inside out. Turns out… I was. When a duodenal ulcer perforates, stomach acid leaks out and burns the surrounding tissues.Later, I would learn that perforation of the gastrointestinal tract caused peritonitis. Peritonitis due to peptic ulcer perforation is a surgical emergency with “a high risk of mortality - about 10–49% of patients die.”They weren’t equipped to help me so an ambulance came and drove me to a bigger hospital 20 miles away. On they way… no pain. Which is miraculous knowing that a simple cough could make it worse. I get admitted, but have no idea what’s happening to me because I don’t speak Spanish. One minute, I’m smiling and laughing, the next 45 minutes terrifying pain. No amount of medication helped. I was literally screaming for help. Like the one arm reaching out from the grave kind of pain. I knew without a shadow of a doubt that I would die, if I didn’t get help ASAP.Finally a doctor (who spoke a little English) came in. He told me what what happening and had me sign a waiver “in case things got bad,” and he had to do major surgery. Of course I signed it. Fast forward to being rolled into the OR. He looked at me, and I knew with all of my being that he’d never done this surgery before. A calmness came over me, and I said, don’t worry, everything’s going to be alright. He laughed and said shouldn’t I be saying that to you?When I woke up, I looked down at my stomach, I’d been cut open from the very top of my stomach to my belly button. I had over 20 staples that made my stomach look like it had a zipper. There were also 7 tubes running in, and out, of me; the most uncomfortable one was in my nose, and running down my throat. When that came out (about 4 days later), I honestly didn’t care about how uncomfortable the rest of it was. Except for that pesky rash that covered my entire body - turns out I’m allergic to penicillin.I couldn’t drink for 4 days or eat for 8. I just lived on what ever they were pumping through one of those tubes. As a side note, they put a young woman with an eating disorder in my room. So… she was “forced” to eat, and I couldn’t. Honestly I smell her crackers. I would have killed for one. In addition, I had no TV, and I couldn’t understand anyone for 8 days. And, because of the tubes, I could only lay on my back or sit up. If you haven’t tried laying down and peeing in a bed pan, let’s just say… it ain’t easy.On a final note, after I returned to the camper. The bi-lingual “auntie” of a friend of mine - who lived in town - came to visit me. She was once a nurse, so I asked her to read what actually happened in surgery. Not one to mince words, she said, “Basically they opened you up, dealt with the perforation, cut away damaged tissue, took out your intestines (to wash them) and put everything back in again.Ummmm… okay. I didn’t know you could take out some body’s insides and just shove them back in again.BTW, I spent months researching why it happened. Turns out, I probably had H. Pylori my entire life. No one ever told me about that. So I went to get tested. Turns out I still had it. The doctor either didn’t know, or didn’t tell me, to deal with the core issue. Which means it damn well could have happened again. Luckily, I don’t give up until I get to the bottom of things.Oh… and I’m still living in the same town in Spain, without the man who couldn’t be bothered to visit me in the hospital.

First thing you should do is “Homestead” your house; if your lawyer doesn’t recommend it at the closing then you should go to town hall and do it yourself. The Homestead laws prevent creditors from seizing your house for unpaid debts. It’s always a good idea to Homestead.Follow up on all those imperfections that the Home Inspector found and reported in his book. You paid 750 dollars (or whatever) for it so don’t ignore what he found. If he says the circuit box is overloaded, get it replaced. If he thinks the roof needs work, plan on getting it done. The job isn’t over because you own it now - it’s just begun.Meet The Neighbors - many people don’t do this. Make a big effort to go and meet the neighbors. You’re going to be stuck with them for a long, long time. You want to make friends and avoid troubles.Walk the property lines and make certain your stakes and corners are real and accurate. At some point it is worth paying an engineer to survey the plot and put in orange stakes so you know exactly what you own - and are paying taxes for. I’ve seen many people lose their property to neighbors who encroach for years and years. I had an aunt who lost a significant part of her property when a neighbor plowed a driveway on her land and she didn’t do anything for “n” years, after which the town said it was too late - she had “abandoned” it. Don’t do that.Hire cleaners and clean, clean, clean that house. Clean it up before you move in! It will be too difficult to clean while you’re moving in and impossible to clean afterwards, not to the standards you like.Same goes for plastering, painting, etc. If you can manage it, paint it before you move in. It’s a pain in the ass afterwards.Change those locks! Hide an emergency key somewhere. You WILL need it eventually.Have a tradesman you trust inspect your furnace, hot water tank and AC systems. You don’t want that furnace to crap out in the middle of your first winter, as mine did.If you’re on city sewerage, consider having the soil pipe reamed. It’s only 250 dollars; you don’t know if the old owners ever did it and it’s cheap 5-year insurance to get it done now so you know what you’re facing. If a sewer line is clogged or collapses, it’s hundreds or thousands of dollars to get it fixed as an emergency. I’ve been there. It’s worth getting that sewer line checked.If you have a brick chimney and your inspector suggested repointing or recapping, now is the time to get it down. The top bricks on chimneys fail and fall over over time, especially with oil heat which is corrosive to masonry. Keep on top of that.Get those gutters and downspouts cleared.Check your casement windows for rot and replace with modern, secure windows. It’s easy for a burglar to get into the house through an old casement window. If they are rotten, it’s much easier. And usually they are low and hidden so no one sees him doing his dirty work.Know exactly where the furnace cut-off switch is.Know where the furnace filter is and change it right away. If you have water filtration do the same thing. Then you know what you’re getting and that it works.Know exactly where the main water cut-off is - and any other valves that cut off water. I guarantee that sooner or later you will need to cut off the water in an emergency and that is no time to be hunting for the right valve. Not many homeowners realize that the weakest link in your house is the hoses that go to your washing machine. If they are rubber, they WILL fail eventually. If they fail when you’re on vacation - congratulations - you will have a new indoor pool in your basement when you get home. If you move in your old appliances in your new home, replace those hoses. Replace them with braided metal hoses. When you go on vaca, turn off the water to the washer.If your new house has a sump pump, for god’s sake replace it at once. If you don’t want to replace it because a new Goulds costs 250 bucks then at a minimum hand-test the trigger to make sure it fires. There are few things more discouraging than depending on a sump pump that fails when it is needed most. And DO NOT skimp and buy the 69 dollar Home Depot special. Buy the quality model. You do not know heartbreak until you go down in your basement after a big storm and find all your precious photo albums floating around and the carpet and furnace ruined.Check the connecting pipes between the valves and faucets in the kitchen an bathrooms and see if the nuts are plastic or metal. If the nuts are plastic replace them with pipes with metal nuts. The plastic degrades over time and results in a leak. I have had happen twice. I even go as far as using braded steel pipes if available.Know exactly how to pull the main electrical breaker. If someone is being shocked or there is an electrical fire that doesn’t trip a fuse, you cannot stop this event without killing the electricityGas company doesn’t often let you turn off the gas - but you can if there is an emergency. Find the gas meter and know where the valve lug is located. It may require a pipe wrench. If you have gas appliances, know where the cut-offs are.If your house was built before 1974 then you have lead paint, almost guaranteed. You had to sign a lead paint waiver at closing. If you have small children then it is absolutely critical you deal with the lead paint. Children are drawn to eat lead paint because it tastes like sugar. You cannot cover it with paint; you have to encapsulate or remove it and encapsulation is sometimes forbidden by law. Removing lead paint is an expensive and intensive effort. The same goes for asbestos. Asbestos is found in outside shingles, floor tiles and pipe insulation and removing it is expensive; screwing with it yourself is dangerous. You have to look to your inspection report for their determination and recommendation. I have steam pipe insulation on one of my apartment buildings; as long as it’s not disturbed, it’s okay. Once it’s disturbed it requires an expensive remediation process.This will most certainly come out in the inspection report but one thing you absolutely should check is the age and condition of your oil tank if you have oil heat. If just five gallons - even fewer sometimes - spill from the tank, it requires hazmat remediation at enormous expense. Tanks are not that expensive and should be modern with modern piping to the furnace. If your tank has oil stains on the bottom, it could be ready to fail and when they fail it is a disaster; the smell of the oil alone will drive you from the house, even in small amounts. Check that tank!Make sure your smoke detectors are in place and work. If not there, put in a combo, CO/Smoke detector hot wired in the basement near the furnace.This is something to consider too. If you have a stone or cement unfinished basement then before you move in buy a 15 dollar insect sprayer and fill is 1/4 with bleach and the rest with water and spray the basement thoroughly. Make sure all windows are open, all doors and work backwards towards a door. It’s best if you have a respirator. Bleaching the basement will kill or reduce incipient mold build up and you want to do this before you move in because the strong smell of bleach will drive you from the house. After a day it will be gone and your basement will smell clean, not like bleach.Please remember that if you do get a contractor to do a job you never, ever, ever pay him the full amount until the job is completely done. Many contractors will ask for a sizable deposit to start the job. That’s usually ok as long as it does not exceed half the estimate. Then when the job is “nearly done” they will want the remainder of the money. IF YOU PAY THEM, THEY WILL DISAPPEAR. If you want, give them half the remaining money and tell them you will pay the last on completion. It doesn’t matter how much you like or trust the contractor - once you pay him, he will disappear, never to be seen again.There is no end of stuff you can and should do - almost all of it requires money. All of it requires effort. But you sleep better at night knowing that something is done because you did it than depending on people who were moving out and knew they were moving out for awhile to do the maintenance before they left.