In December 2018, RBI had proposed that all fresh floating rate loans from April 1, 2019 must be linked to an external benchmark. The implementation has since been deferred. It is now up to the banks to come up with products linked to an external benchmark. Citibank had launched a home loan product in the… 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
I had written a post on loan against securities earlier. However, the process always seemed a bit drawn out. It can easily take up to 5-6 days to avail the facility. HDFC Bank has come out with a loan facility — Digital Loans against Mutual Funds or Digital LAMF — where you can pledge your… Continue Reading
SBI has increased its MCLR (Marginal Cost of Funds based lending rate) multiple times (1, 2, 3) in the recent months. MCLR is the benchmark for floating rate loans. Therefore, if you have borrowed from SBI, your loan interest rate would have already gone up in the recent months. Never a happy situation for the… Continue Reading
In an earlier post, we had reviewed a personal loan scheme from Bajaj Finserv. In this post, let’s pick a personal loan product from the State Bank of India, the largest bank in India. We will take a look at Xpress Credit Personal Loan Scheme from SBI. SBI Xpress Credit Personal Loan: Salient Features Available under… 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
Refinancing a loan simply means availing a loan from a new lender to pay off an existing one. You approach a new lender for loan refinancing/balance transfer. The new lender sanctions the loan and settles your loan outstanding with the existing lender. Subsequently, your obligation with the existing lender terminates and a new repayment obligation… Continue Reading
[pullquote]A floating rate loan is offered at a spread over the benchmark. MCLR and Base Rate are benchmarks. Loan is given at MCLR (or Base Rate) + Spread.[/pullquote] 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… Continue Reading