R2I - Car, House and Internet

A Car to get around, nice place to stay and easy access to the web - I would rate these as some of the essentials to nail down once you R2I. And researching these before-hand is definitely useful. Some may argue about the importance I am giving to getting a vehicle and having an Internet connection in the context of R2I. The reason I do so is that these are things we have come to depend upon heavily while living in the states and take them for granted. Given the apprehensions we all have about the decision to R2I, getting these sorted out early enough reduces the emotional stress and gives you fewer reasons to crib about in the initial phase(and there will be quite a few reasons to complain in the first few months).

Housing - one decision here is to Buy or Rent. If you don't already own property then renting is a good option initially. If you are transferring to India with your Parent company, try to negotiate accommodation for a few months as part of your relocation package. After a few months, you will get a better feel of the city , the different neighborhoods and also an outlook on your long term plans. You can then decide to buy. Having your own place and doing it up the way you like makes you feel much more settled especially if you are in a new city like me. A few things about renting - Always try to negotiate on the deposit you pay, ask around about the landlord so that you can be somewhat certain that you will get your deposit back when you end your lease, clarify the terms on your lease if you need to break it. Another thing to explore is whether your company offers you CLA - Company Leased Accommodation. The advantage of this is that the security deposit and brokerage fee are paid by the company. The monthly rentals are subtracted from you pay. The disadvantage might be that the company may have a fixed set of houses/apartments to choose from. If you are not availing the CLA, you may be eligible for a tax deduction under the HRA (Housing Rent Allowance) component of your pay. Make sure you get monthly receipts for your rent and hold onto them until the end of the tax year.

Coming to buying a car - a city like Bangalore doesn't have very good public transport options. The metro project looks promising. The new A/C Volvo buses are very good but few in number ( they are introducing more and more every month). But the existing public buses are really bad. And auto rickshaws, although plenty, are out there to fleece you - my experience with auto rickshaws in Bangalore has been really bad. Hence my reliance on my car. Of course, you need to be comfortable driving in India. The earlier you get comfortable the better. There are some options of automatic transmission these days - Maruti WagonR, Hyundai Santro, Hyundai i10, Honda City. But the main thing is to decide what size car you want - small (3 to 6 Lakhs), mid-size (6 to 9 Lakhs) or large (9+ Lakhs). Once you have done that you can check out the options in that segment. Once again it worthwhile checking out if your company offers you a CLP - Car Lease Plan. Generally this is a loan that the company extends to you and reclaims from your salary on a monthly basis. And the rate may be higher than the market rate. But the advantage is that, the deductions from your salary for the CLP loan are pre-tax. Moreover , the program may also include an option to set aside pre-tax money for your monthly pay for fuel, car maintenance and driver salary. The tax savings more than make up for the rate of interest you are paying. And if you were not planning to take a loan , than the amount you would have paid outright for the car , can be put away in a fixed deposit to earn interest. Definitely worth looking into.

And finally, the Internet connection. My experience has been that getting a "Good" broadband connection may be very easy or very difficult depending on where you stay ( another criteria when selecting a place to stay). The two best options are Airtel and BSNL - I would rate airtel higher for their customer service which is very impressive. But some times Airtel will simply reject your request for a connection with the reason that they either don't have sufficient ports in your area or don't have connectivity altogether. BSNL on the other hand is available almost everywhere. The problem with BSNL is that it takes a couple of months to get a connection and the customer service isn't good. But if you can influence the lineman in your locality, you may be able to get the connection pretty fast. In case both options don't work out, the Tata Indicom WiMax connection is a good alternative. I have tried it for a short while until I could switch to Airtel - the speeds are good, customer service is good - the only negative is that I experienced more downtime than I would have liked.