Life in USA
Remitting Money from USA to Pakistan
After research based on various criteria, I came to the conclusion that the best way to send money to Pakistan from USA is through Habib Bank AG Zurich. Please note that this is different from the government Habib Bank and based on how much you send you can actual save anything from 2-7 thousand rupees per transaction and it only takes 1-2 days for the money to reach the account. Please note that you do not need to have an account in Habib American Bank, however you do need an account in Habib Bank AG Zurich (Karachi, Lahore or Islamabad branch), please note that it really makes a difference so do not open a rupee account ask your parents to buy 100 dollars from the market go to Habib Bank AG Zurich and open an account there, its a one time pain but its worth the effort and it will allow your parents (or whoever you send remittance to) to take out the money in US dollars which they can then get converted from the open market. All of this is perfectly legal (and dealing with a Muslim bank I do not mind the small commission which is actually much lesser than the other banks).
For Example if you need to send money to your parents account in Habib Bank AG Zurich Karachi, go to your local bank (bank of America, bank one, Citibank or any other bank that you have your account), and ask them that you need to send a wire transfer to New York (ask them the charges they should be between 5 to 15 dollars, if its more than that then wire it from some other bank where its lesser), the following are the instructions you need to put on the wire transfer form.
Transfer US$.... (Amount in words) to:
Habib American Bank,
99, Madison Avenue, 10016 New York, N.Y. USA.
Chips no: aba0260-0736-2, for credit to Habib Bank A.G. Zurich
Karachi Branch. US$ A/c #: 2070-9000 with above bank
for further credit to A/c #: "your parents account no" Of Mr. "Account holders name"
The instructions for Lahore and Islamabad are the same as from USA it is sent to Karachi always even when the account is in another
city. As this is an internal account transfer it actually takes only hours to reach Pakistan but you can be sure that it will definitely there in 1-2 days maximum.
The total commission that AG Zurich charged me was just 7.5 dollars! Which I do not mind paying as the service is really good and after all its a Muslim bank employing mostly Muslims throughout whereas other banks charge much higher commissions.
Filing Taxes in USA
Electronic filing seems to be the best choice as far filing tax returns
is concerned, its much faster and you can get a refund by a direct deposit
in your bank. From a couple of programs that I went through I found http://www.turbotax.com
to be really easy to use for both state and fedral taxes and if your total
income is less than 20,000 dollars in 1999 (because you joined in between
1999 or something like that) you can get the filing for free otherwise you
will need to pay around 10 dollars or so.
For more information on taxes visit :
http://www.irs.ustreas.gov/
Car Insurance in USA
Well as with everything else there are a number of choices, however for the comparisons that I did I found the following amongst the least expensive and most cooperative companies (especially in problem cases like if you are new in USA, or are unmarried or are less than 25 years old etc.), some of the companies will not cover your car unless you have a prior history of insurance and USA license or will charge you very high rates.
- Shelter insurance
- American Family Insurance
- AAA insurance
I found that once you have been here for some time than all-state or state-farm insurance maybe a good deal for you. In general for a new car whose worth is between 10 to 20 thousand dollars you should be paying around 100 dollars if you are one or more of the problem cases (less than 25, unmarried or new) and after one year you can reduce it to between 50 to 75 dollars a month. If you are paying more than that send me an
email and I will tell you which company can give you an equal coverage with much lesser payments!
Calling USA from Pakistan for FREE !!!
Yes if you do not know it already you can call any TELEPHONE in USA through your computer in Pakistan (no need to have a computer on the US
side), by carefully choosing the times and the right ISP in Pakistan (and
off course the right modem etc.) you can get an excellent sound quality, you can
do so by creating an account at:
www.dialpad.com
(its not possible to create an account with a valid USA zip code, you can enter 66210 or 60008 etc. as they are valid zip codes)
if you have computer on both sides there are a number of programs available that I will be listing here soon, personally I really liked PowWow
that's on
www.tribalvoice.com
