Home loan in India (could someone share their experience)
Posted: Thu Jun 03, 2010 4:32 pm
I got loans from ICICI, SBI and HDFC.
My experience:
SBI - Tedious documentation, tedious process for getting the loan approved.
It took 2 months to get the loan approved. I had to personally follow up with their lawyer. The excuses from the lawyer were - I am in the court now, I am out of station for 7 days etc.
I had to visit SBI multiple times.
They expected me to remember the officer who was dealing with the loan on every visit or loan related transaction.
One of my cheques bounced and I was not in India. I took quite a while to find the contact number. Again I had to remember the officer's name (It is not easy to recollect the names after few years especially when you deal with more than one officers)
However they had taken an extra PDC. The matter could be closed after 3 phone calls.
Otherwise I cannot imagine how I would've dealt with the situation without ECS being setup.
ICICI, HDFC - The builder had tie-up with the bank. The builder's personnel came home, got all the documents from home. All the formalities were done at home. Hasslefree loan approval process.
When it comes to loan approval by HDFC or ICICI if the person you are dealing with is convinced that you will be able to pay the loan it is more than enough. (You do have to submit the required documents) When it comes to SBI it is not the person, it is the book in which the rules are written.
Some of the rules may not be applicable to you or need to be slightly modified for your case. But the officer may not understand it.
The ICICI loan rate was reduced by 1% before the loan disbursement as the PLR came down. That was the only time (before disbursement) they reduced the rate of interest.
It was easy to deal with ICICI. I got information on the phone for small queries. For any big queries or transaction visited the home loan brach. They gave a token number.
I always came home satisfied.
ICICI documentation was very clear. How much part-payment, how much principal per month, how much interest, what was the rate of interest for that month.....everything was clear. I did not have to ask anyone to explain.
SBI too gave me a big document. I have not been able to interpret it till now.
SBI employees were localites. Sometimes there were language issues. The loan officer used to avoid any type of communication.
SBI employees are old employees. They have spent their life showing off they are the kings. All of a sudden the bank is making them realize that the customer is the king. Now the employees are trying their best. They do make sure to wear a smile. But you feel the difference in service when it comes to private banks.
There were no charges for part payments for any of the banks. None of the banks had any hidden charges.
For SBI loan we have to compulsory take insurance.
Now comes the interesting part:
I took SBI as well as ICICI loan at the same time with almost the same rate of interest. When I closed the loan the SBI rate was 8.75% and ICICI was 14%!!
My experience:
SBI - Tedious documentation, tedious process for getting the loan approved.
It took 2 months to get the loan approved. I had to personally follow up with their lawyer. The excuses from the lawyer were - I am in the court now, I am out of station for 7 days etc.
I had to visit SBI multiple times.
They expected me to remember the officer who was dealing with the loan on every visit or loan related transaction.
One of my cheques bounced and I was not in India. I took quite a while to find the contact number. Again I had to remember the officer's name (It is not easy to recollect the names after few years especially when you deal with more than one officers)
However they had taken an extra PDC. The matter could be closed after 3 phone calls.
Otherwise I cannot imagine how I would've dealt with the situation without ECS being setup.
ICICI, HDFC - The builder had tie-up with the bank. The builder's personnel came home, got all the documents from home. All the formalities were done at home. Hasslefree loan approval process.
When it comes to loan approval by HDFC or ICICI if the person you are dealing with is convinced that you will be able to pay the loan it is more than enough. (You do have to submit the required documents) When it comes to SBI it is not the person, it is the book in which the rules are written.
Some of the rules may not be applicable to you or need to be slightly modified for your case. But the officer may not understand it.
The ICICI loan rate was reduced by 1% before the loan disbursement as the PLR came down. That was the only time (before disbursement) they reduced the rate of interest.
It was easy to deal with ICICI. I got information on the phone for small queries. For any big queries or transaction visited the home loan brach. They gave a token number.
I always came home satisfied.
ICICI documentation was very clear. How much part-payment, how much principal per month, how much interest, what was the rate of interest for that month.....everything was clear. I did not have to ask anyone to explain.
SBI too gave me a big document. I have not been able to interpret it till now.
SBI employees were localites. Sometimes there were language issues. The loan officer used to avoid any type of communication.
SBI employees are old employees. They have spent their life showing off they are the kings. All of a sudden the bank is making them realize that the customer is the king. Now the employees are trying their best. They do make sure to wear a smile. But you feel the difference in service when it comes to private banks.
There were no charges for part payments for any of the banks. None of the banks had any hidden charges.
For SBI loan we have to compulsory take insurance.
Now comes the interesting part:
I took SBI as well as ICICI loan at the same time with almost the same rate of interest. When I closed the loan the SBI rate was 8.75% and ICICI was 14%!!