Jul 02, 2012 02:16 PM
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I had applied for a home loan from ICICI Bank as I had been a regular customer of the bank for a long time for its varied suit of products like savings a/c, property loan, credit card, etc.
I had applied for a loan of 15 lakhs and while applying I was told that I am eligible for a loan of 24 lakhs, so be it through whatever stringent checks they perform I would easily get 15 Lakhs.
My credit history is good with no defaults or delays on any payments.
I was told that I can make either of my parent or my wife as my co-applicant and I had opted for my father as he is helping me in financing my down payment.
And then followed a flurry of phone calls from people of rank and file asking the same set of questions again and again. I patiently answered each one of them, and finally the call from the credit manager. He admitted that my credit history and asked me questions about each entry on my payslip.
After explaining all that to him, he asked would it be ok to change the co-applicant to my wife. I said it was a family thing and a token of respect for my dad that I would want him to be the co-applicant. I had also informed him straight that if that is a hindrance then I would not want the loan.
I had other banks as options. He confirmed that it won't be a problem.
After again a series of procedures, ICICI sanctioned a loan of 14 Lakhs. I was surprised and requested to speak to the Credit manager to understand how this happened. But he was not willing to speak.
With hardly a couple of days left for the signing of agreement, I agreed to the loan amount as going through the process again with some other bank would take time which I didn't have. Since the sanction was done, I thought now things would be smoother.
Hardly did I expect that things would get funnier.
Even after the sanction was done, ICICI informed that they would not be able to disburse the amount unless I change my co-applicant to my wife. I was taken aback and informed the guy who was dealing with me from the bank about the conversation I had with the credit manager. The guy spoke to his supervisors and then one of his seniors called and said they would be able to do it only if I take an insurance along with that from ICICI prudential. I was bemused. If they were not able to enhance my loan amount by 1 Lakh they expected me to take an insurance of 50K. However hard I tried to argue about this point they were not ready to listen.
With the date of signing the agreement already past and since I started getting reminders from my builder, I finally had to accept their terms.
Even with all this, I was asked to submit statements of FD and other assets to justify that I had money to pay for the difference amount that I had to pay the builder.
After I received the Insurance documents, I saw a clause stating that I can cancel the insurance within 15 days. I thought of resorting to that and have applied for a cancellation. It is under process at the time of writing this mail.
The story doesn't end here. In the welcome letter that I have received for the home loan, it was mentioned that I have been registered for Pre-EMI when I had clearly mentioned that I wanted to pay EMI on the amount that is being disbursed. (it is a property under construction, so the bank would be disbursing the money to the builder in instalments). When I checked with the bank, I was told that it was a typo as some clerical person had filled the form incorrectly and it would take two days to get it fixed.
More than 10 days have passed and I am still waiting for the correction to take place. Today, I was informed that until the correction is done, whatever Pre-EMI I would have paid will not be adjusted to the EMI.
This is a testimony of the unscrupulous and insensitive behavior of the banks taking into advantage of the trust and helplessness of the customers. Sweet talk at the beginning and as one crosses the point of no return, the mask of "khayal aapka" comes off to reveal the ugly faces.
