by webmaster » Thu Dec 17, 2009 4:35 pm
Hi Amitav, good thread to share knowledge. Let me share my experience with Home loans.
Initially after booking @Savana we took a home loan from AXIS Bank as it was the only bank which approved our loan, however it was a partial loan as it did not cover the entire amount. We were able to get the loan sanctioned for about 75% of the total cost. HDFC were not giving loans for Savana at that time, and SBI loan process was too tedious.
Banking with AXIS was never a pleasant experience right from the beginning, they encashed our processing fees cheque even before we said yes to the loan. For every demand letter we had to visit the branch personally, submit the original demand letter and wait for 5-7 days to get the disbursement cheque. After the second or third disbursement by the bank (after they disbursed around 3 lakhs), they refused to disburse any more amount and asked us to pay the next demand requested by the builder as they said it was part of their policy to maintain customer-bank payment ratio. It became difficult for us to make the payment as it was not possible to arrange such a large amount for lump sum payment. Trying to call the bank for any information was a huge pain, they would never pickup phone calls, emails were of no use, and even if you manage to get through to the bank after calling multiple times, they never had any complete information. You had to personally visit the bank to get any work done which was a very tiresome task.
Finally we decided to switch to a different bank, we opted for HDFC even though their ROI was higher by about 1.5%, but we were ready to pay the premium for peace of mind. We started the loan application process with HDFC, got the loan transferred in about 30-45 days and the entire process was smooth. The experience with HDFC has been very satisfying so far (touchwood). The best part is, at least you can speak to a bank representative at any point of time to get your concerns address, they are easily available on phone and reply to emails promptly. Another added advantage is their online access to your home loan account, you can access the account anytime and most of the queries are resolved online. Also whenever I received a new demand from RPS, I simply email HDFC bank with the demand request and they have the cheque ready in 2 days.
Till now, HDFC has been disbursing all the demand request by RPS, the last one was for completion of internal plaster.