‘My Caretaker’ has a comforting ring to it. And what if this ‘caretaker’ pays bills, helps with planning your travel, performs home maintenance (read – painting, plumbing and electrical repairs) and can even help you with your banking? What if it assists your elderly parents with all the above too? The >website , the brainchild of chartered accountant Mohan Ramachandran, offers services such as those mentioned above and more.
“The idea initially was to set up this service for Non Resident Indians (NRIs). And when I spoke to family and friends they were all interested. These are people who are based here. Then I thought why not extend it to everybody,” says Mohan, who quit a job with Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) to start his financial consultancy. All the services myc offers are, for the time being, available in Kochi and some of the services are available in other towns in Kerala.
A native of Kochi, he says he has an extensive network in the city in terms of contacts. “Even if there is a hitch I can sort it out. I want to have a proper network for some of the services in other towns before I venture there.” The services that myc offers can be broadly classified into – payment services, elderly care, property management, loan assistance, travel assistance and home maintenance.
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Mohan clarifies that elderly care does not refer to a hospital or nursing care. The service is more in terms of fixing medical appointments, providing a personal assistant during these hospital appointments with pick up and drop facility if needed, cab facility, procuring medicines and banking assistance. “The assistant will be there at the hospital waiting for the person and will ‘assist’ with the running around. And even in the case of banking. I know of a senior citizen, whose children are NRIs, who depends on his maid to go to the bank and his neighbour to pay his bills.”
Payment services can include anything from paying electricity, phone and/or water bills to personal insurance renewal and paying your kid’s school fees. Under the property management head go services such as payment of taxes, legal title search, valuation of property, assistance with documentation and rent and lease management. “These services will benefit NRIs especially. They needn’t spend their leave chasing these things,” Mohan says. His target customer is also the IT professional and those with jobs that leave little time to do these essential chores.
Maintenance assistance, on the other hand, would benefit anybody looking to get their house painted, leaking taps repaired or faulty electricity connection fixed. Pest control and house cleaning services too are offered. The other services offered are loan service and travel assistance. The loan service will get you any kind of loan – an area of Mohan’s expertise.
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Travel assistance includes offering pick-up and drop to or from the airport/railway station, cab assistance and even bookings for your holiday or business trips. Mohan has tie-ups with companies that provide each of these services. As of now his team comprises a few employees who process the enquiries and those who do the running about.
To avail of the services of myc you can register online or by phone, you have to pay registration fees, provide ID proof and you are registered for a year. There is also a separate service charge for each of the services. The charges start at Rs. 50. (Log on to www.mycaretaker.in or call 96566 80000. For those who are not registered email them at info@mycaretaker.in )