Stay away from HDFC bank!!(EDIT: Solved see post 33 onwards)

[tsk1979]

Most of you are aware of my recent Safari purchase, and some of the HDFC bank circus.
Well here I pen down the gory details, and more shocking drama folding as I type this.

I had applied for the loan around 3 weeks before delivery and was promptly told that since its a salary account processing will take place within a week
Promptly verificaiton happened within 2 days with people coming to my workplace and home(rented as well as permanent accommodation).

I was happy with the promptness.
Then came the lull before the storm, as almost for 3 weeks no updates came. The car came to dealership and loan approval was nowhere in site with both the Dealer agent and HDFC Noida guy saying it will happen by tomorrow evening every single day.
One day before the day I plan for delivery, I get the shocker of my life as the guy says loan has been disapproved.
Buy some weird internal policy Indica guys cannot upgrade to Safari's they have to buy a car for 6 lakhs.
I am livid and shout at them, and threaten to cancel all my investments and even move my salary account.
2 hours later, at 8pm I get loan approval, but for a lesser amount than applied for
I reach dealership next morning, and the dealer agent tells me that the 11.75% promised cannot happen, and I have to get loan at 12.25% on 4 years. I am dejected but forgive him since I know that the day we first spoke about 11.75% HDFC along with other banks increased rates by 50 basis points.
So 12.25% is and I even give an advance EMI check, along with 3750 processing fee.
He feeds it into the bank system and tells me I will get the agreement signed from Delhi and this figure will be filled there.
I trust him since there is no reason not to do so.
Day before yesterday we come back to Delhi after taking delivery, and yesterday I hand over all documents(Margin money receipts, EMI check photocopy etc.,) to the guys here.
Today a few minutes back I get a call that they have approved 5 year loan at 15.5%
I shout hoarse and tell them about EMI check, and they ask me to talk to their superior.
After which I place a call to the dealers finance guy.
He has promised to talk to the superior.
Worst comes to worst, I will have to cancel my loan procedure.
Majority of the money is still pending to be paid to dealer, and I am completely lost at what to do.
I have 3 weeks to make payment, and that means talking to another bank in Ludhiana. Kotak guys(from the bank itself, not some random DSA) are ready to give me loan, but I don't know how much time will it take. If I apply loan tomorrow itself, any idea how many days for approval?
Since the dealer is known, I think I can convince them to wait for couple of weeks.

Any tips guys. By today evening I will get to know what to do.

[wanderernomad]

Tanvir, throw some choicest punjabi abuses at them and threaten to write an email to RBI. once you get the issue sorted out write to the banking ombudsman on this and I am sure that bank would come to its senses and atleast reach a mutually satisfactory compromise with you.
Any new loan at this time will take about 10 days, I dont know about the Kotak Guys though.

[tsk1979]

Can I take a new car loan after buying the car. I have paid the margin money and taken delivery.
today rates increased by 0.5%, so even with knew loan I will take some hit.
Can you let me know how to contact banking ombudsman?

[bblost]

Depositors having any complaint / grievance with regard to services rendered by the bank have a right to approach the authority designated by the bank for handling customer complaint / grievances. The details of the internal set up for redressal of complaints / grievances will be displayed in the branch premises. The branch officials shall provide all required information regarding procedure for lodging the complaint. In case the depositor does not get response from the bank within 60 days from date of complaint or he is not satisfied with the response received from the bank, he has a right to approach the Banking Ombudsman appointed by the Reserve Bank of India.

HDFC Bank - Leading Bank in India, Banking Services, Private Banking, Personal Loan, Car Loan


Reserve Bank of India

[motorheadinc]

that is so disturbing.
I believe your best option would be to get to some nationalized bank.
They take some time and require more documents but are atleast trustworthy when it comes to such cases.

meanwhile get hold of the guy who fed your details into the system and do something to him. Dont let the idiot go away without facing the music.

[SumitB]

You are saying that the dealer has not got full payment from the bank! How is it possible that the dealer delivered the vehicle to you without realisation of the full amount? They are not supposed to deliver the vehicle without getting the D-Slip from the bank which is a substitute for a banker's cheque or a draft na?

Anyways, the best you can do is to apply to Kotak and at the same time, talk to public sector banks like SBI. SBI will have a clause of approving a loan upto 6 times your annual income or somthing on those lines. If you have all documents in order, then these SBI people can approve a loan in 3 working days with the cheque handed over on the 3rd day. Try them. I am also quite sure that you will have no issues with Kotak since you had mentioned elsewhere that you have a very good rapport with those guys.

Don't worry, these things can happen. I am sure you will not have any difficulty in having this sorted out. Best of luck. Keep us updated.

[gowda79]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

I get the shocker of my life as the guy says loan has been disapproved.
Buy some weird internal policy Indica guys cannot upgrade to Safari's they have to buy a car for 6 lakhs.
.

TSK the same thing happened to us also when we had applied for our Safari loan, but we had Esteem VXi and this was recognised in the luxury(Sedan) segment and Reliance agreed for the loan otherwise we would have been disagreed for the loan.

This process is there in all the banks it is not only in the HDFC or Reliance, we inquired with all other banks.

Only thing which i did not like was they informed very late to you which was supposed to be informed earlier at the time of applying the loan,.

Anyways your loan is approved and you are driving your dream vehicle that's the important thing, just forget everything and enjoy your ride with Safari by making your own roads.

Just Chilllllllll......

[finneyp]

Oops, that was bad experience with HDFC Bank!
I thought they were one of the Best Banks in private sector!

I was planning to take a personal loan from HDFC, after reading this I am reluctant to deal with them now!

[sukiwa]

HDFC/HDFC Bank is known for very rigid rules & hence can lead to very inconvenient/disturbing situations like this. Would still prefer HDFC to other private players, like to abide by rules.

Don't understand non-transparent handling of this case, not expected from private sector bank like HDFC Bank.

It's better to approach multiple banks as suggested earlier. As dealer is ready to wait, you have less to worry about.

Close the deal as early as possible as RBI has revised rates today again, it can lead to another hike in loan interest rate.

[dicorex4x4]

I stand by my view that HDFC Bank is still one of the best banks in India. Based on my experience.

The recent 'upgrade' criterion notwithstanding, is your car loan from the same city as your dealer? Are you dealing with the bank directly?

I was not asked anything about current car ownership in January 2007 but I got all the loan processing etc. done over the telephone. My salary account was (still is) with them. The agent came to my house only to get the agreement signed at my convenient time. The initiation of the loan process was done by me by calling the HDFC Phone Banker (numbers available on website).

[santhosh_kumard]

Even I faced this silly question of how come I can go to a car without having a lower level car ( I did not have any car ). This was with the AXIS bank guys and I was pissed off with such a question. But now I see that they were very decent ( comparing to your case ). And even my processing happened during the time of RBI-Interest rate hike, still I got the same rate the salesman told me when I met him the first time. I got the thing processed in around 15 days if my memory serves right.

So please do take chance with another bank and dont forget to bargain. All the best!.

[tsk1979]

Regarding banking Ombudsman, if the deal fails I am going to do the following
1. Talk to my company finance dept about closing HDFC salary account and using some other bank if possible
2. Cancel my and wife's credit cards
3. Remove all FDs etc.,
4. Close both our accounts with the bank. Besides that 3 other close relatives have accounts with HDFC bank. they are also willing to close
5. Badmouth HDFC at every opportunity I get

Originally Posted by motorheadinc

that is so disturbing.
I believe your best option would be to get to some nationalized bank.
They take some time and require more documents but are atleast trustworthy when it comes to such cases.

meanwhile get hold of the guy who fed your details into the system and do something to him. Dont let the idiot go away without facing the music.

I have the Kotak Fallback option ready. I may need to travel to Ludhiana

Originally Posted by SumitB

You are saying that the dealer has not got full payment from the bank! How is it possible that the dealer delivered the vehicle to you without realisation of the full amount? They are not supposed to deliver the vehicle without getting the D-Slip from the bank which is a substitute for a banker's cheque or a draft na?

this is needed when you apply loan on your loan. When the dealers finance dept handles the loan, they just wait for the approval message in the system and take margin money. Actual loan amount comes a week later.

Anyways, the best you can do is to apply to Kotak and at the same time, talk to public sector banks like SBI. SBI will have a clause of approving a loan upto 6 times your annual income or somthing on those lines. If you have all documents in order, then these SBI people can approve a loan in 3 working days with the cheque handed over on the 3rd day. Try them. I am also quite sure that you will have no issues with Kotak since you had mentioned elsewhere that you have a very good rapport with those guys.
Don't worry, these things can happen. I am sure you will not have any difficulty in having this sorted out. Best of luck. Keep us updated.

Thanks for your wishes. If things don't work out I will speak to both Kotak and SBI today itself, and land there with documents this weekend.

Originally Posted by gowda79

TSK the same thing happened to us also when we had applied for our Safari loan, but we had Esteem VXi and this was recognised in the luxury(Sedan) segment and Reliance agreed for the loan otherwise we would have been disagreed for the loan.

This process is there in all the banks it is not only in the HDFC or Reliance, we inquired with all other banks.

Only thing which i did not like was they informed very late to you which was supposed to be informed earlier at the time of applying the loan,.

Anyways your loan is approved and you are driving your dream vehicle that's the important thing, just forget everything and enjoy your ride with Safari by making your own roads.

Just Chilllllllll......

Well not all banks. Kotak guys say their loan disbursal amount is based on monthly take home salary. So they need salary slip, and based on some internal formula they will tell you beforehand about the max loan amount you can get.
Ditto for SBI. They also give loan based on your salary. This you can't buy safari because you don't own a midsizer is a weird policy thought by some pointy haired nincompoop.

[NetfreakBombay]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

One day before the day I plan for delivery, I get the shocker of my life as the guy says loan has been disapproved.
..
..
..
Buy some weird internal policy Indica guys cannot upgrade to Safari's they have to buy a car for 6 lakhs.
..
..
..
Majority of the money is still pending to be paid to dealer, and I am completely lost at what to do.

Not sure how DSA screwed up things. And This "policy" about Indica/Safari is as horrible as it gets.

In my case, HDFC took 4 days to give approval letter and then took 2 days ti disburse amount to dealer. Approval letter clearly specifies interest rate and duration. DSA should have filled up rates there it self.

[PAVAN KADAM]

Originally Posted by sukiwa

HDFC/HDFC Bank is known for very rigid rules & hence can lead to very inconvenient/disturbing situations like this. Don't understand non-transparent handling of this case, not expected from private sector bank like HDFC Bank.

It's better to approach multiple banks as suggested earlier. As dealer is ready to wait, you have less to worry about.

Close the deal as early as possible as RBI has revised rates today again, it can lead to another hike in loan interest rate.

We are branding a leading bank just on one off trouble.HDFC is amongst the most trusted brands that i would stand by.

The same bank had approved us 8.06% reducing balance loan for our Safari, and the loan disbursed in 2 days flat.We were in a hurry to get the car on Aug 15th since it was my brother's Birthday. The loan was applied on 9th August and the Disbursement happened on 11th August.

Dunno why this is happend to tanveer.The rates at 15.5% is at present running in the market, if you would have been more meticulous you could have got it at 13% BEST. Irrespective of a DSA or direct bank, you get the same TAT for the loan, Why brand the poor DSA for working in tandem with the Banks policy.

Tanveer Bhai whats your EMI for 5 yrs and whats the loan amount, i'll have it clarified imdtly.

[tsk1979]

Originally Posted by finneyp

Oops, that was bad experience with HDFC Bank!
I thought they were one of the Best Banks in private sector!

I was planning to take a personal loan from HDFC, after reading this I am reluctant to deal with them now!

Best to stay away

Originally Posted by sukiwa

HDFC/HDFC Bank is known for very rigid rules & hence can lead to very inconvenient/disturbing situations like this. Don't understand non-transparent handling of this case, not expected from private sector bank like HDFC Bank.

It's better to approach multiple banks as suggested earlier. As dealer is ready to wait, you have less to worry about.

Close the deal as early as possible as RBI has revised rates today again, it can lead to another hike in loan interest rate.

I don't mind the rigid rules. But tell me about them atleast. And atleast don't lie to me about the rates!

Originally Posted by dicorex4x4

I stand by my view that HDFC Bank is still someone you can trust. Based on my experience.

The recent 'upgrade' criterion notwithstanding, is your loan from the same city where your dealer is? Are you dealing with the bank directly?

I am not very pissed about the 'upgrade' criteria, but I am furious that I was lied to about the interest rates! I am dealing with bank directly as well as through the dealer. The Bank and dealer are in different cities but I was assured it won't be a problem

Originally Posted by santhosh_kumard

Even I faced this silly question of how come I can go to a car without having a lower level car ( I did not have any car ). This was with the AXIS bank guys and I was pissed off with such a question. But now I see that they were very decent ( comparing to your case ). And even my processing happened during the time of RBI-Interest rate hike, still I got the same rate the salesman told me when I met him the first time. I got the thing processed in around 15 days if my memory serves right.

So please do take chance with another bank and dont forget to bargain. All the best!.

Thanks for your wishes guys. 15 days! Well I hope in my case a new bank does it in 7.