Never ever take a home loan from ICICI. Review on ICICI Home Finance

Folks this is one of my most comprehensive reviews I have ever written. Desperate times calls for desperate action so I am here helping others decide never ever take a home loan from ICICI. There are several points that would help you decide that ICICI is just not the right choice.

1.) I took the loan when interest rates were very good(7%) in Jan 2005 floating. The ICICI guys will fall to your knees to sign you in their home loan trap. Initially they were good and responsive as they wanted me to take the Loan. At that time I did not do much research as I felt the interest rate of 7% was a good bargain. Its only after I signed that I realized that I have fallen in a trap. Note this catch its very important. ICICI will part disburse the loan amount as the apartment that we book is in construction phase. During this phase you pay PRE-EMI on the disbursed loan amount. Not a single rupee go towards principal amount. And I have been paying this pre-EMI for 2 years now as my apartment possession was delayed considerably. Now banks like CITI, ABN AMRO etc. have a good scheme where you pay PRE-EMI but some of it goes into repaying your Principal amount which greatly reduces your loan liability by the time your apartment is ready. But in case of ICICI all money goes in their pocket(per-EMI) and even after 2 years I am yet to actually start repaying my Loan.

2.) Well I lived with that with a heavy heart but to my surprise once I signed up for the loan their attitude suddenly changed. Quite obvious because ICICI was busy chasing and trapping others in their trap. While the part disbursement happens ICICI outsources all the loan activity to some stupid and hopeless third party people. Now even my maid servant would have a better understanding than these guys. I had to face one hell of a time dealing with these people and ICICI won't encourage any direct contact with them. Now come on I have taken loan from ICICI not that 3rd party company.

3.) During the period I moved to US long term and hence I did not take further disbursement because the builder told me that its OK if I pay the full loan amount once the apartment is complete. So after a brief hiatus of about 8 months I asked ICICI to make the full and final disbursement when my apartment was complete. To my shock they told me that they need to go through the verification process like checking my Bank accounts. Salary slips etc.Now they did go through this painful process when I had applied for the Loan. Why on earth do they have to go through this again. I had no choice but to agree. And boy this process seem never ending. Now I have been paying pre-EMI to them without fail every month. Still they tortured me and held up my final loan amount. Why? well may be because they wanted me to continue paying this pre-EMI as long as possible because this is where these banks make fat profits. I was made to run from pillar to post. I was made to send emails from my official ID, write a letter and still after a month of my request the final Loan disbursement was not done. My so called relationship officer never respond to email nor encourages phone call. I was marooned completely and left to rue mu decision of selecting ICICI.

4.) During the time I took loan and today the interest rates have increased alarmingly. Its close to 12% for me now. And since the actual EMI payment won't start until the complete loan amount is disbursed my loan repayment tenure was the same. I selected 15 years because I did not anticipate such a steep hike. But with the same tenure with the interest of 12% it is almost impossible for me to sustain such high EMI. So I requested ICICI to increase my tenure. Well my request was plainly denied. No reason no explanation. How inhuman can a Bank be? Well thats ICICI the great and leading financial service company who have grown big by looting people like us.

5.) Finally when the interest rate increased ICICI wastes no time to increase the rate and apply the same. They need no permission/process to extract that high EMI/Pre-EMI from you. But on the contrary when the rate fall ICICI has a process long and tedious enough to charge us higher interest and making all effort to delay the shift from higher rate to lower rate in case of floating rate. Again they want to maximize their profit by stealing our hard earned money.

6.) Folks I am updating this review to add this specific point. ICICI cheats their customers in the name of floating interest rates. For ICICI floating rate customers the interest rates only go up and never comes down even when RBI reduces its interest rates. Also ICICI offers lower interest rates only for its new customers to lure them in their trap. Their existing customers are left high and dry with higher interest rates with no downward revision what so ever.

As a proof of my point above please take a look at this economic times article and the comments of the poor folks who are suffering with ICICI like me.

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinions/3801262.cms

So those who are pondering to take Home loan or any kind of loan from ICICI, This is a wake up call. Please don't ever deal with ICICI and fall in their trap. ICICI is an evil Empire where their sole motive is to steal money from you ethically and legally. They are worse than thieves and burglars because you can't even complaint against them. The only way to teach them a lesson is to well spread this word and make them lose their business. This way they will learn and hopefully it would be too late for them.