Home loan interest rates have risen over the 15 months. When interest rates rise, the default response by the banks is usually to increase the tenure while keeping the EMI constant. If the tenure can’t be increased because of the loan tenure breaching the contracted tenure or because you don’t want to pay for a… Continue Reading
You have a home loan from HDFC? In April 2022, it was announced that HDFC will merge into HDFC Bank. You may ask, aren’t these the same? No. HDFC and HDFC Bank are different entities. HDFC is a housing finance company (HFC) and is the promoter of HDFC bank, the bank. If you are still… Continue Reading
While all of us are staying at home amidst Covid 19 scare, all the expenses including the loan EMIs must still be paid. The salaried employees shouldn’t have much to worry, at least in the very short term since they will continue to get their salaries. However, a certain segment of self-employed, professionals, shopkeepers and… Continue Reading
I came across an interesting case in a business daily a few weeks back. A consumer forum bench directed ICICI Bank to pay Rs 55,000 to a borrower. Here is how this happened. The borrower signed up for a home loan of Rs 30 lacs for 10 years from ICICI Bank in 2006. The loan… Continue Reading
The bank must link all new floating rate loans to retail customers loans from October 1, 2019 to an external benchmark. The Reserve Bank notified the change in its circular dated September 4, 2019. This means MCLR will soon be history, at least for retail borrowers. Starting October 1, no new floating rate loans will… Continue Reading
A common grouse among many loan borrowers is that banks are very keen to hike the interest rates when the rates are moving up in the economy. However, banks are not very prompt to pass on the benefit when the rates are going down. Do you fall in the same category of borrowers? If you do not… Continue Reading
Home loans are offered at a spread over the benchmark. Typically, the benchmark is related to cost of funding for the bank. For instance, MCLR (Marginal Cost of Funds based lending rate) and Base Rate are based on cost of funding for the bank. The quantum of spread depends on multiple factors including quantum of loan, nature… Continue Reading
Ever since MCLR (Marginal Cost of funds based Lending Rate) came into existence from April 1, 2016, a question that I have been asked multiple times is “Should I switch from Base Rate to MCLR?” The frequency of these questions grew after various banks cut their MCLR sharply after the demonetisation drive. How Can I… Continue Reading
In this post, I will share an example where the bank did not pass the interest rate cut to the customer for a very long time. I found out about this case in an article in MoneyLife magazine. A gentleman took a floating rate loan from HDFC Bank in 2007. The loan was to be… Continue Reading
I have discussed the question of whether you should switch your home loan from Base Rate to MCLR in an earlier post. Most of us focus only on the interest rate and the switch fee while deciding but tend to ignore spread while making the decision to switch from Base Rate to MCLR. From April… Continue Reading