I bought a new house which was under construction and ready to be occupied in a year.
I contacted 2 banks for the loan
- Hdfc - the interest rate of HDFC after negotiation was 8.75 and the processing fee was 10000+gst and there were some additional charges(mod) of 0.5% of the total loan amount
- Then I talked to Axis bank's representative. He told me that the rate of interest would be 8.80% and the processing fee would be 5000 + GST.
After comparing the above 2 options, I decided to go with Axis Bank. When the Axis bank's representative came to collect documents then he said that the rate of interest is 8.85% and there wasn’t any discussion of 8.80%.
Luckily I had a call recording app and our conversation got recorded when he said it is 8.80%. After hearing the conversation he got agreed to an 8.80% rate of interest.
I gave him the cheque of processing fee 5000+gst
After the sanction of the loan amount, there were some documents that I need to sign. For that, we met. In that document, the rate of interest was 8.85% and the processing fee was 10000+gst. I asked him about the same when he said it doesn't mean anything and when there would be actual processing then it would be 8.80 and a 5k processing fee. I don't know why I got agreed with him and signed the documents. I thought I have a proof of call recording and with that in my hand, they cannot fool me. But I was wrong.
After that, I called the customer care and asked about the same and got to know that the rate of interest is 8.85% and the processing fee is 10000+gst and the remaining amount of the processing fee would be added into my loan amount and I need to contact the representative that you wanna change the rate of interest.
After that, I started following up with the guy and asked him about the document with an 8.80% rate of interest. After a couple of days, he called me and there was his manager on the line and he said that the rate of interest would be 8.85% only and it can not be less than that in any case.
Then the representative called me and requested me to go with this because he couldn’t get the approval for the rate of interest that he promised but the processing fee would be the only 5k+gst.
I was thinking of going with an 8.85% rate of interest as I have already paid the processing fee which would not be refundable.
After a couple of days, I called the manager of the representative to confirm the processing fee and got to know that the processing fee would be 5k only if I will buy property insurance from them and I confirmed the rate of interest again and this time the manager said it is 8.90% and it cannot be less than that. He said the rate got increased on 18th Dec.
My loan got sanctioned on 11th Dec, the rate got increased on 18th Dec and I signed the document which had the rate of interest 8.85% on 23rd Dec.
The manager’s explanation was that at the time of amount dispersion the updated rate of interest will apply.
I asked that if it got updated on 18th Dec then why on the document it said that it is 8.85%. No proper response.
I asked why your representative told me that the rate of interest is 8.80%. In response to that, he said the representative couldn’t come to office in the last 15–20 days.
So their guy who works in the loan department doesn’t know what is the actual rate of interest and committing anything to the customers.
I went to the loan center to complain about the same, from there I got the contact number of the head of my loan account and the email of the nodal service.
I tried the phone but that is switched off and I am sending emails to [email protected] where I am not getting any replies.
So basically they are just trying to fool you by lying to get the loan from their bank.
When you go for a loan please consider the following points:
- Whatever the rate of interest they are saying, take that in writing officially before giving the processing fee.
- Confirm the processing fee as well and again take that as well in writing
- Ask about whether there are any MOD charges.
- Do not sign anything if you are not satisfied with any of the points written in the document.
- Whatever they say, confirm with customer care or loan center
- Check whether you need property insurance or not. Whether it is mandatory or not.