Sunday, 26 May 2013

30 Tips for First Time Travellers to Japan

30 Tips for First Time Travellers to Japan
By Steve,  FlipKey  |  Mon, May 27 2013
           
Before you leave, check out our 30 tips for first time travelers to Japan – it’s good to know the dos and don’ts firsthand.
30 Tips for First Time Travellers to Japan
 1. Bow to greet a person; bend your body 15 degrees for ward for a casual bow. When you meet elders, bow deeply from your waist.  2. Before eating a meal and after finishing it, be sure to thank your host for the meal and their company with a small bow. This is considered good table manners.  
3. Get Suica cards to travel the subway, metro, Japan Rail and also to pay for items in convenience stores. You can load them up with Yen as you go along.  4. Don't use your cell phones on trains and buses. Don't talk to anyone on public transport either. People usually sleep, read or listen to music quietly. 5. Drive and walk on the left side - it's the opposite driving direction when compared to the US. Park on the left and use the left side of escalators and elevators.  6.Food is expensive, so best to avoid restaurants and Starbucks. Rather, buy bread, spreads, rice cakes and noodles from small local shops, as these are less expensive.  7.When you finish eating at a bar, put your bowl up on the counter with your glass and wipe down the counter in front of you with a damp towel.  8. Water is safe to drink - whether it is tap water or bottled water. You can refill at any public fountain without worry.  9. Buy a map that indicates the names of destinations both in Japanese and in English. Carry a Japanese to English translation book to manage small phrases.  10. Carry tissues or hand towels with you - most of the public bathrooms don't have hand-drying facilities, unless you want to use the toilet roll.

11. Carry at least 10,000-20,000 yen in cash with you. Most Japanese ATM machines don't accept foreign cards. Also many establishments don't accept credit cards.  12. Always carry a notepad with you along with a pen or pencil. You may need to write down what you want, or even draw it if someone doesn't understand you  
13. Write down the full address of your hotel or destination to show someone in case you're lost. Get it written in Japanese as well.  14. When you're ready to pay your bill at a restaurants, cross your forefingers together to form an 'X'. The waiter will come to you with your check.  15. When you want to point towards someone or something, point with your open hand. Pointing at anything with your forefinger is considered rude.  16. Don't tip anyone; even waiters will be offended if you do so. Other than in the Roppongi area, tipping is considered unacceptable.  17.Public transportation is available only till midnight; if you're stranded after midnight, wait for it to resume at 5 A.M. Avoid expensive taxis.  18. When entering a Japanese house, place your outdoor shoes at the doorway. Wear the slippers your host provides.  19. Remove your house slippers when you enter a room that is covered with tatami flooring. You can step on tatami mats with your bare or socked feet.  20.When you visit the toilet at somebody's home, wear special toilet slippers. Do not wear house slippers in the toilet.
 
21. When you visit a Japanese temple, throw a coin into the offering box and fold your hands in prayer. Burn incense and wave your hand to extinguish the flame; don't blow on it.  22. Take photos only in areas where they're permitted. Watch the signs, and ask locals if you're not sure. Don't offend by taking pictures inside temples.  
23. If you're not sure what to order at a restaurant, indicate one of the plastic food replicas that are displayed near the front of the restaurant.  24. If the restaurant waiters don't lead you to a table, it means you can sit anywhere. Wait for a few moments for them to lead you otherwise.  25. In a traditional Japanese restaurant, take your shoes off at the entrance and kneel at the low Japanese table. Wear nice socks.  26. During formal traditional meals or tea ceremonies, men can sit cross-legged while women must fold their legs neatly under their hips.  27. You can give your host, business partner or friend a gift while meeting, parting or during a special occasion. Make sure you pack it in simple brown paper.  28. While exchanging cards, stand up, bow slightly and hold your card facing the others with the fingertips of both hands.  29. When you receive someone's visiting card, be sure to examine it with pleasure and carefully place it in your wallet. Don't shove it in your back pocket.  30. Do not blow your nose in public; try to discreetly wipe your nose or just snort or sniff to control your cold if you have one.

 
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More PayPal users in Singapore all victim to hackers

More PayPal users in Singapore fall victim to hackersLosses range from $50 to over $3k; PayPal says users clicked on scam links.


By Irene Tham,
The Straits Times | 27-05-13       
SINGAPORE - Hackers stole from many PayPal accounts in Singapore in the past two months, highlighting the need for a higher level of security for accessing online accounts.

The losses range from $50 to more than $3,000, with many victims saying this was the first time it had happened to them.

At least one major bank, which declined to be named, told The Straits Times that it has received more complaints in the last few months from customers about fraudulent PayPal transactions on their credit cards.

PayPal, on the other hand, maintained that its system was not hacked into, but rather that users responded to scammers' e-mail, say, by clicking on fraudulent Web links resulting in their accounts being compromised.

A PayPal spokesman said it would refund the account holder "the full amount of every eligible unauthorised transaction if a dispute is raised with PayPal within 60 days of the unauthorised transaction occurring".

Purchaser Janice Leow, 30, was in Bangkok on holiday in March when she received an SMS from DBS Bank alerting her to a $1,000 PayPal transaction which she did not make.

"I was shocked. My credit card was with me. How could it have happened?" said Ms Leow.

On her return to Singapore a few days later, she called DBS and was told that more than $3,000 from multiple PayPal transactions had in fact been chalked up on her credit card.

"I had not used my PayPal account for online shopping for several months, so it couldn't be me making the purchases," she said, adding that DBS is still investigating if her card was defrauded.
Her PayPal account is frozen.

Another victim Jasmine Ser, 32, discovered a suspicious PayPal charge of $47 on her UOB credit card bill last month. After logging in to her PayPal account, she found that her credit card was linked to three unknown sellers in Indonesia with whom she had no dealings.

Like Ms Ser, Ms Leow has terminated her PayPal account. She added that UOB has refunded her the amount and issued her a new credit card.

Ms Ser felt that PayPal should follow the practice of banks, which make online customers enter a one-time password (OTP) to access their accounts.

An OTP is randomly generated on namecard-size devices called tokens or sent via text message to users' cellphones. OTPs, good for only one log-in, provide an added layer of online security in a process called two-factor authentication (2FA), a standard protection for online banking in Singapore since 2006.

Security expert Assurity Trusted Solutions' chief operating officer Chai Chin Loon advises Web users to use complex passwords, change these at least once every three months and activate 2FA where possible.

Many online services like Gmail and Facebook have introduced 2FA.

Earlier this week, Twitter rolled out 2FA following the hacking of several high-profile Twitter accounts. Last month, a bogus Associated Press Twitter feed said the White House had been bombed and United States President Barack Obama was injured.

Some online service providers like Yahoo and PayPal offer 2FA only in certain markets like the US. Singapore users do not have this security layer.

PayPal's spokesman said it is evaluating what extra security options are needed for Singapore users.

Protect yourself
Security expert Assurity Trusted Solutions, a subsidiary of technology regulator Infocomm Development Authority, has advised all Web users to:

- Use complex passwords;
- Change passwords at least once every three months; and
- Activate the two-factor authentication process, a standard protection for online banking in Singapore since 2006, where possible.
 
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Wednesday, 3 April 2013

Make money 'without actual work'

Make money 'without actual work'
Joyce Teo
The Straits Times
Tuesday, Apr 02, 2013
     
SINGAPORE - Some people avoid checking the stock market every day to save themselves from minor heart attacks while others, like student Yeo Sui Chuan, monitor it closely.

"People check Facebook; I check the stock market. It's one of the things you do every day... It's enjoyable," says the first-year business administration student at the National University of Singapore.

Mr Yeo, 22, monitors the market two to three times a day but that's an improvement on his early days: When Mr Yeo made his first trade, he called up stock prices "obsessively".

"I checked it a few times in an hour and that lasted for a few weeks."

He had spent a year studying the market and learning about investing before finally taking the plunge in 2010 and buying four lots of ComfortDelGro.

It involved nearly $6,000 of his savings so he was eager to know whether he had made the right choice.

"I have friends who are into technical analysis so they have to pay close attention to the market. I don't fancy that kind of lifestyle... Mine is more 'chill'.

"If I don't have time, I don't check the market. During the school holidays, I can go for a few days without checking it. It doesn't bother me." If Mr Yeo makes it sound easy, it is because he is not your typical college student.

He already boasts a portfolio of five stocks - one he has built up on his own, acquiring enough knowledge and interest to speak at length about his investing style in the process.

It is rather impressive for someone who started investing around two years ago.

Overhearing his father talk about the stock market with his friends and how much money he made piqued his curiosity.

"I found it quite amazing that you can make money by just buying and selling shares, and not doing actual work. I am interested in the idea of earning money this way," says Mr Yeo.

"So, I read up on investing and Warren Buffett in Wikipedia, and went to the books that he recommended."

It helped that he had worked part-time during school holidays and hates shopping. By 19, he had accumulated about $20,000 in his kitty, which came in handy when he entered the market.

Before making his first trade, he had made a sell call and found that he was right.

His father, a project manager, had helped him buy seven lots of Genting shares at about 70 cents a share when he was 15.

But it was Mr Yeo who decided to sell them in mid-2010 at about $2 after doing his own research.

When it came time to part with his own savings, he decided that he wanted to keep about 25 per cent of his money in cash, leaving him $15,000 to play with.

As he did not want to put all his eggs in one basket, he initially bought four lots of ComfortDelGro and then five of Mapletree Industrial Trust.

"I saw that Comfort's valuation was cheaper than SMRT's and was comforted by that," he says.

"Transport is very personal. I felt that I know it as I take public transport. It also tends to be more stable. Plus it is a blue chip."

Mr Yeo is still holding his ComfortDelGro shares as the fundamentals of the company are
unchanged. "I follow Warren Buffett and do not look at the market."

As a member of the NUS investment society, he meets like-minded peers each week to discuss trading strategies and their purchases and to swop ideas.

Mr Yeo reviews his portfolio quarterly and reads books on investing, his favourite being Security Analysis.

When picking stocks, he looks for companies with large asset holdings and strong cash flow. He also watches out for their interest expense to see if they can continue paying their debts.

His best stock has been Elite KSB Holdings, which he sold for a profit of close to 50 per cent after holding it for a few months. He picked it after finding out that it was selling its core meat-processing business. He then checked its annual report and worked out a value that was substantially higher than its price then.

That did not call for a celebration, though. "To me, money is like a game. I don't have an emotional attachment to it. It's just a medium. It's like doing well in a test."

Still, he does have plans for it.

"Sometimes, I think about the money that I make, about what I am going to do with the money. Otherwise, it feels a bit pointless making the money."

"My dream is to own a good-class bungalow. I have a relative who lives in a bungalow with a pool, and I think it would be nice to have that kind of lifestyle," says Mr Yeo, who lives with his parents in a semi-detached house.

"If I achieve that, I would look at other things. I want to run a charity foundation and not just donate money.

"It helps to have different goals. If not, you will keep chasing money and never be happy."
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Monday, 1 April 2013

For Malaysians, a monthly juggle to escape credit card debt trap

For Malaysians, a monthly juggle to escape credit card debt trap

By Zurairi AR, Boo Su-Lyn and Emily Ding
April 02, 2013
Many people have fallen into debt due to their poor use of credit cards. — Picture courtesy of savemoney.myKUALA LUMPUR, April 2 — Despite several optimistic views of the economy for 2013 and beyond, Malaysians are struggling to save while attempting to clear off mounting debts as the country flirts below the 55 per cent debt-to-Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio ceiling.

The rosy economic view comes ahead of Election 2013 but economists have expressed concern with Malaysia’s ballooning ratio of household debt to its GDP that hit 80.5 per cent last year, pushed mainly by credit card and personal debts.

“It’s because Malaysian households now are very keen on borrowing money,” said Malaysian Institute of Economic Research (MIER) executive director Dr Zakariah Abdul Rashid, explaining the main cause for the nation’s rising household debt.

He said that Malaysia’s household debt-to-GDP ratio was one of the highest in the region, although some other countries have racked over 100 per cent.

Malaysia’s household indebtness has steadily increased from 75.8 per cent in 2010 to 76.6 per cent in 2011, and to 80.5 per cent last year, prompting calls for vigilance from financial analysts in the region.

“One of the reasons is lifestyle ... they fall into the trap because of poor financial planning,” said Mohamed Khalil Jamaldin, head of corporate communications from the Credit Counselling And Debt Management Agency (AKPK).

Khalil explained that 25 per cent of the around 84,000 people who enrolled for AKPK’s debt management programme fell into that category, which includes overspending and failure to pay the minimum monthly amount.

Credit card debts
Advertising and design entrepreneur Samantha Fong (not her real name), 36, was one such debtor, after she and her husband incurred debts of about RM10,000 and RM20,000 each two years ago from an unfortunate business loss.

Earning a household income of between RM5,000 and RM6,000 per month, Fong could only afford to pay around RM600 monthly for her two cards, while her husband could pay between RM300 and RM800 monthly depending on his income for that month.

Intan Jacquelina (not her real name), 34, is a single mother who got saddled with around RM10,000 of credit card debt from spending close to RM8,000 when she moved to a rented 1,000-square feet condominium unit in Kinrara, Petaling Jaya from Johor.

“You have to pay the deposit, plus all the furniture inside ... I used credit card because I didn’t have cash. I never managed to reduce it,” Intan told The Malaysian Insider.

The civil service executive confessed that she could only pay the monthly minimum of RM500 with her take-home pay of RM5,500 monthly, despite knowing that it will only pay her seven per cent interest while the principal sum stays unaffected.

Khalil explained that using credit cards to pay the downpayment on a house or car is a misuse of the credit card, which amounts to 13 per cent of the agency’s cases.

Easy credit
Meanwhile, Zakariah blamed the ease of lending money for the huge number of indebted Malaysians, contributed by high liquidity in the banking sector.

“If they don’t give out loans, they will not make any revenue. Their performance, their key performance index (KPI) are based on their revenue,” he said.

Just two Fridays ago, five people were charged in a Session Court with cheating Agro Bank of RM275,000 by fraudulently applying for personal loans, demonstrating such ease.
... I used credit card because I didn’t have cash. I never managed to reduce it. — Intan Jacquelina, a single mother who is saddled with around RM10,000 of credit card debt
Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) has tried to curb rising credit card debt by raising the minimum income requirement for credit card eligibility from RM18,000 to RM24,000 per annum.

The central bank has also capped the maximum credit limit to double the monthly income of the cardholder per issuer for those earning less than RM36,000 per annum.

However, RAM Holdings chief economist Dr Yeah Kim Leng noted that it was becoming easier to ask for loans as more people are turning to non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs) such as building societies and co-operatives.

“These measures do not govern NBFIs. NBFIs are not supervised by the central bank,” he said, referring to the tight regulations that conventional banks have to follow.

Despite accounting for only 12 per cent of total household credit, NBFIs and development financial institutions (DFIs) account for 57 per cent of personal financing credit.

This has caused an increase in the percentage of personal financing over household debt from 16 per cent in 2011 to 17 per cent last year.

Credit bubble
Several analysts said Malaysia risked being mired in a credit bubble which is looming in Asia’s emerging economies, which also include Singapore, Thailand, China, and Taiwan.

If the bubble bursts, Zakariah warned of havoc when households default on their debts, causing a mini version of the 2008 subprime crisis in the United States which forced foreclosures and the collapse of several financial institutions.

Yeah also anticipated that there would be a “mild shock” to the banking system, with a rise of about two to three per cent in non-performing loans.

Low-income groups who cannot keep up with the urban high standard of living form the bulk of the increase in lending, thus carries the biggest risk if the credit bubble bursts.

According to BNM, most of borrowers from NBFIs earn less than RM3,000 monthly, with 80 per cent of personal loans granted to civil servants.

Zakariah, however, denied that a credit bubble is imminent in the near future, and explained that BNM has been preparing for the scenario since two years back.

“The Financial Services Act (FSA) is likely to come into force this year,” said Yeah, referring to regulations which will rein in the NBFIs.

BNM governor Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz said last month that the central bank was supervising the country’s household debt, and lending measures have been tightened after the household debt-to-GDP ratio hit 80.5 per cent last year.

Zeti gave an assurance that non-performing loans in the household sector remained at only 1.5 per cent, and repayments stayed strong.



 
 
 
 
 



 


 

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Friday, 29 March 2013

7 tips to enjoy the wonders of online shopping



7 tips to enjoy the wonders of online shopping Here is a handy list of tips to ensure that your online shopping experience will be a safe, secure, and successful one.

By Masaya Ueno,
The Star/ANN | 25-03-13
 
In this tech-savvy day and age, we are fortunate to be living in a well-connected world where we have one of the best developments of this century – online shopping.

With the mushrooming of virtual shopping portals in the e-commerce space, shoppers these days are spoilt for choice when it comes to shopping online.

With hardcore Malaysian shopaholics at the forefront of this trend, online shopping has been a lifesaver for those who tyre of braving the ever-present traffic jams, suffocatingly-packed parking lots, and nonplussed shop assistants.

If you've ever been caught in a mob of shoppers or agonizingly-long checkout queues, you'll know exactly what we're talking about.

Here's a handy list of tips to ensure that your online shopping experience will be a safe, secure, and successful one.

1. Know who you're buying from
In the online world, everything revolves around credibility and reliability. Choose certified online shopping sites with a solid e-commerce reputation globally where you can shop with a guarantee that you're buying products directly from legitimate merchants.

You don't want to end up with products that are fake or of lower quality, or even worse, purchases that fall through and leave you empty-handed.
 
2. Know what you're buying
Always read the details before making a purchase. A good online shopping site will provide you with as much information as possible about the product, as well as their terms and conditions.
 
Whether it's shipping costs or the return and exchange policy, always make sure that you know all the details before committing to buying anything. Don't let the fine print fool you.
 
3. Get rewarded for your purchase
Take advantage of websites that offer loyalty programs, where customers can accumulate points with each purchase and use them as a discount for their next purchase.
 
Some sites offer a discount when you sign up for the first time, use a certain credit card, or recommend a friend, so keep that in mind. Occasionally, bonus points are rewarded during promotional campaigns during festive periods so do keep an eye out for that!
 
4. See what others are saying
A lot of people shy away from online shopping because they can't see/touch/feel/try the product for themselves. One way to tackle this is to read reviews of the product or and find out the experience of other customers. Reviews by previous buyers will be the best indication of what the product is actually like in reality.
 
Another way to do this is by checking out community sharing sites like Pinterest, where other users can curate boards of their favourite products by categories. This can help you narrow down your search or find similar products that you might like.
 
5. Keep the receipt
Just like making a purchase in a physical store, it's good to keep the e-receipt for your online purchases.
 
If the item is not quite what you expected, your proof of purchase will make it easier to exchange, return it or get a refund.
 
6. Factor in shipping costs
The actual price of the product might be cheap, but shipping costs can be a silent killer. Don't forget to factor in the added cost for shipping, especially for an overseas shipment.
 
Another thing to watch out for is the possibility of extra fee for taxes, depending on where the product is shipped from. All these add-ons can sometimes amount to more than the cost of the actual product!
 
7. Check bank statements
Don't wait for your bill to come at the end of the month. Go online regularly during the festive season and look at electronic statements for your billing accounts. Make sure you don't see any fraudulent charges. You can never be too safe when it comes to keeping your personal finances secure.
 
With these quick tips, you'll be more than ready for your next online shopping experience.
(Masaya Ueno is the president and chief executive officer, Rakuten Online Shopping)

 
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Tuesday, 26 March 2013

From bedroom to boardroom: UK teen turns tech millionaire

From bedroom to boardroom: UK teen turns tech millionaire

LONDON: Like many British teenagers, Nick D'Aloisio has a hole in the knee of his jeans and gets in trouble when his bedroom is untidy. Unlike most, the 17-year-old has just sold an app to Yahoo! for tens of millions of pounds.

The US tech giant announced on Monday that it is buying D'Aloisio's news-condensing mobile app Summly for an undisclosed figure reported to be around 20 million ($30 million) - making the London schoolboy one of the youngest self-made multi-millionaires on the planet.

D'Aloisio dreamed up Summly while revising for a history exam when he was 15 - but two years later he speaks of market share and intellectual property with the self-assurance of a CEO three times his age.

"Yahoo! is one of these classic, well-known Internet companies," he told AFP in an interview at the office of his London publicist, sprawled in a chair in maroon jeans and a t-shirt.

The tousle-haired teen hopes the Yahoo! deal will see the technology behind Summly - whose financial backers have included US actor Ashton Kutcher and Japanese artist Yoko Ono - reach an audience of "hundreds of millions of potential users".

D'Aloisio's journey to tech super-stardom began at the age of "nine or ten" when his parents, a lawyer and a banker, bought him his first laptop.

He taught himself how to video edit and before long moved on to programming - spending school holidays building apps at his home in leafy Wimbledon, south London, as "a hobby".

He launched his first iPhone app, a "workout for fingers" called Finger Mill, when he was 12. Others followed, including music app SongStumblr and Facemood, which attempted to predict a user's mood based on their Facebook status updates.

The big breakthrough came in 2011 when D'Aloisio launched Summly's forerunner Trimit, which cut down long web articles to tweet-length summaries.

The app received positive reviews from several tech blogs and quickly racked up tens of thousands of downloads.

Then, out of the blue, the teenager was contacted by representatives of Asia's richest man - Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing.

"They cold-emailed me," said D'Aloisio.

Li was the first investor to contact him and, not knowing what to do, the teenager ignored the message.

Two days later he was "stunned" when Li's people approached him again, and this time D'Aloisio agreed to a phone call.

"They didn't know I was a 15-year-old, so I had to explain that," he said with a smile.

"It was frightening. It was a hobby, I didn't expect this to happen. But at the same time, I had nothing to lose - I was a 15-year-old."

Li invested $300,000 in Trimit. D'Aloisio used the cash to develop the algorithm the app used to identify the key topics in a news article, working with scientists at Stanford University among others.

Summly officially launched in November last year, on D'Aloisio's 17th birthday - and the rest is history.

D'Aloisio will take up a job in Yahoo!'s London office in the next few weeks.

"I'll be integrating the Summly technology into different areas we feel are appropriate for Yahoo!, and more broadly helping them with their mobile product design," he told AFP.

He insisted that he will continue to live at home, resisting temptation to splash out on a teen bachelor pad.

His parents are "very enthusiastic" about his success, he said - but are keen to keep their son's feet on the ground.

"I still get in trouble if I don't have my room tidy," he said. The family celebrated the Yahoo! deal by going out for dinner.

As for buying himself a present with his multi-million pound windfall, it will be limited to "a bag or shoes or something".

"It's not going to be anything wild," he added. "I can't even buy a car because I don't have a licence yet."

As D'Aloisio starts work at Yahoo!, most of his friends - who he says are "psyched" about the Summly sale - will be finishing their A-Level exams before heading off to university.

D'Aloisio, meanwhile will begin studying for his A-Levels "outside office hours", and would love to read philosophy at Oxford University some day.

As for his long-term plans, nothing is set in stone - a point emphasised by the large question-mark printed on his t-shirt.

"Long-term I do want to do other companies," he said, adding that he was interested in working with artificial intelligence.

"We'll see what happens."
---- AFP
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Just do it, says Yahoo's teen app millionaire

Just do it, says Yahoo's teen app millionaire

LONDON (REUTERS) - Got a tech idea and want to make a fortune before you're out of your teens? Just do it, is the advice of the London schoolboy who has just sold his smartphone news app to Yahoo for a reported US$30 million (S$37.4 million).

The money is there, just waiting for clever new moves, said 17-year-old Nick D'Aloisio, who can point to a roster of early backers for his Summly app that includes Yoko Ono and Rupert Murdoch.

"If you have a good idea, or you think there's a gap in the market, just go out and launch it because there are investors across the world right now looking for companies to invest in," he told Reuters in a telephone interview late on Monday.

The terms of the sale, four months after Summly was launched for the iPhone, have not been disclosed and Mr D'Aloisio, who is still studying for school exams while joining Yahoo as its youngest employee, was not saying. But technology blog AllThingsD said Yahoo paid roughly US$30 million.
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