[Shakensoul]

Ok, some updates from side:

Our property value was 25L and the loan sanctioned was for 16L, I was under the impression that Axis Bank would disburse the 16L first and then we will think about a loan top-up or extension, but I was wrong. Axis bank will not disburse the entire 16L first, they wanted us to pay the difference of 9L in installments to the builder.

We talked to them about a loan top-up or extension, they said loan top-up is mainly for renovation or home improvement after taking possesion of the apartment, and the ROI for loan top-up is more, approx 13-14%. They also suggested applying for a new loan from Axis bank itself for the entire amount of approx 22L and then close the existing loan but it would be under the new ROI of 11.5% . The transfer would be taken care of internally. But I was in no mood to deal with Axis bank anymore and applied for a new home loan from HDFC Ltd.

Now the interesting part, even though I am not yet married, I decided to show as married and apply as a co-applicant along with my fiancee so that the entire loan amount can be covered. I know I am going to draw some flak, but it had to be done even though there is risk involved. We co-applied for a home loan as married couple and started the loan process. We provided all our financial documents, however HDFC did not ask for any proof of marriage. So technically we did not provide any false documentation of our marriage to the bank. HDFC asked for the usual documents, along with some documents from Axis Bank, primaralily 1. Outstanding Letter and 2. List of property documents with Axis Bank.

So after providing them with all the relevant documents and the verification stuff, our loan was approved for 22L from HDFC @11.75% ROI, plus 11k for processing fees and 1K lawyer fees. We went to HDFC bank today, signed the checks and the loan agreement, and HDFC disbursed a check of 8.45L as payment towards Axis bank. A "lawyer" (he just belongs to the law firm working for HDFC and looks like the regular MR guys) accompanied us to Axis bank, we handed over the check to Axis bank and applied for foreclosure of the loan, they gave us an acknowledgement that check was received and the documents would be handed over to us in about 20 days. We handed over the original acknowledgement to the lawyer. Either we can authorize the lawyer to collect the original documents from Axis bank or we can collect them personally and hand it over to HDFC.

And the good part was, Axis bank did not charge any penalty/fees for foreclosing the loan even though it was a balance transfer from another financial institution HDFC.

Now we are breathing a little easy and hope that life will be less hectic. Even though we are paying a premium with HDFC, I am happy as we expect the loan tenure to be much smoother with HDFC.

[kalpeshc]

I am planning to transfer my existing home loan from ICICI to some other bank for which I need recommendations. My current situation is as follows,

Outstanding amount - 1,500,000
Current EMI - 20488
Current ROI - 12.75% (floating)
Current pending tenure - 144 months

My current rate of interest is quite high as compared to other nationalized banks. I have done a bit of net research and have found out that certain banks offer a much lower rate of interest for a loan of 15L for 15 yrs

Indian Bank - 10.00%
Bank of India - 10.xx%
SBI - 10.75%

Out of these, SBI also has the MaxGain product (where your loan is actually treated as a current account with the loan amount as overdraft). They are not advertising different rate for this plan but I am assuming that it is different. I am planning to visit these banks and will try to drive a hard bargain for reducing the processing fees & offsetting the closure penalty of 2% (translated to approx 40000) to ICICI as addition to the loan amount.

I want to know if any of you have good/bad experiences with any of these banks as far as home loans are concerned. Have any of you done such transfers of home loans from ICICI to (any other bank)?

[mjothi]

My take goes to any "NATIONALIZED BANK", yes go with the public bank.
My preference are
Indian Bank,
SBI
Corporation bank

I remember sometime back the Indian back was even paying the pre-closure amount to loans from LIC-HFL and many customers was happy to transfer the loan to Indian bank. I guess it was like 3-4 yrs back. Now, this may be a different case. But just check with guys.

[kalpeshc]

Another query is about the interest rates - it looks like all the nationalized banks have different interest rates e.g. SBI is 0.75 % more than Indian bank. Why would there be such differences?

[spadival]

Originally Posted by mahadev_kc

ICICI returned me property documents within 21-days of closure of the loan. I personally went to collect the documents. Actually, they asked me to come personally to handover the documents. As a pre-caution, donot ask them to courier/post the documents.

Hi Mahadev, I forclosed my home loan by handing over a cheque to ICICI last saturday in Chennai. The cheque is drawn on an ICICI account in Chennai itself, infact its on the same account from which they collect my EMI via a standing instruction. Thing is, they havent enchashed the cheque yet even after 3 working days. Is this normal?

What I am planning to do as soon as the cheque is encashed is - clean out the account and transfer the excess money out of the account. Knowing these banks especially ICICI Bank, I figure they will try to collect the next month's EMI as well from my account, giving some vague reasons.

[aka_iitd]

Originally Posted by spadival

Hi Mahadev, I forclosed my home loan by handing over a cheque to ICICI last saturday in Chennai. The cheque is drawn on an ICICI account in Chennai itself, infact its on the same account from which they collect my EMI via a standing instruction. Thing is, they havent enchashed the cheque yet even after 3 working days. Is this normal?

What I am planning to do as soon as the cheque is encashed is - clean out the account and transfer the excess money out of the account. Knowing these banks especially ICICI Bank, I figure they will try to collect the next month's EMI as well from my account, giving some vague reasons.

Better opt for ECS for EMI. This will make your life much simpler

[kalpeshc]

ICICI charges 2% penalty on outstanding principal on foreclosure (which is what most of the banks charge). But recently I've heard that if you foreclose within a year of doing some pre-payment, the 2% is applicable on the entire loan amount and not just the outstanding amount.

Can someone please confirm this?

[akroy]

This is an excellent thread and should be very helpful to me. I have a home loan from ICICI bank (Bangalore). recently it has increased the interest to 13.25% and my EMI and tenure both increased.
I have a Principal outstanding of around 15 lakhs. I can see nationalized banks, LIC etc are giving lesser interest.

How easy or hard it is to transfer the home loan from ICICI? Can anybody in bangalore suggest me the best bank to go with (I want no hassles and better interest rates ofcourse)?
Also please suggest me the process to go through the transfer !!

Abhi

[jango]

Originally Posted by kalpeshc

ICICI charges 2% penalty on outstanding principal on foreclosure (which is what most of the banks charge). But recently I've heard that if you foreclose within a year of doing some pre-payment, the 2% is applicable on the entire loan amount and not just the outstanding amount.

Can someone please confirm this?

For car loan pre closure i am being told that the new penalty charge is 5% on the principal .

[akroy]

Originally Posted by jango

For car loan pre closure i am being told that the new penalty charge is 5% on the principal .

Ya car loan closure charge is more than home loans. ICICI charges somewhere from 3-5% for car loan closure.

Abhi

[amitoj]

Originally Posted by akroy

This is an excellent thread and should be very helpful to me. I have a home loan from ICICI bank (Bangalore). recently it has increased the interest to 13.25% and my EMI and tenure both increased.
I have a Principal outstanding of around 15 lakhs. I can see nationalized banks, LIC etc are giving lesser interest.

How easy or hard it is to transfer the home loan from ICICI? Can anybody in bangalore suggest me the best bank to go with (I want no hassles and better interest rates ofcourse)?
Also please suggest me the process to go through the transfer !!

Abhi

Abhi, i was also in the same boat till last week, except that my outstanding principal was higher.

If you opt for transferring loan to another bank, ICICI will treat it as a preclosure and charge you 2 to 3 % of outstanding principal.

You can get in touch with ICICI and get your interest rate changed to 12%, which is what they are offering for new loans. They will charge you a fee which is proportional to your outstanding principal. Now, this fee would be close to the preclosure amount but the advantage would be that there is hardly any paperwork involved.

I had gone to make a part prepayment when i came to know about this, so i split the total amount i had for part prepayment into this loan conversion fee and part prepayment. The overall tenure reduction for part prepayment + loan conversion was greater than just the part prepayment with the entire amount.

[prabhusati]

Hi AK Roy,

When you approach the nationalised banks, please mention that it will be a take-over of an existing loan. They will ask their approved valuator to visit your house and he will give a report directly to the bank. These charges are in addition to the processing charges of the nationalised bank. When i got my loan transferred from Citibank to Indian bank, this charge was Rs.1000.00 Not sure of the home loan processing charges now. When i got this take over done, Indian bank had an offer of waiving the processing fees. The nationalised bank will send the pay order directly to the bank where you have your home loan now and ask them to acknowledge the receipt of the same. They will also mention about the original documents to be given to the bank taking over the home loan.

Some people have mentioned in this forum that ICICI takes a minimum of 3 weeks to hand over the original documents. In case you need the contact number of Indian Bank, RMV extension, let me know.

Best Regards
Satish Prabhu

[spadival]

Originally Posted by aka_iitd

Better opt for ECS for EMI. This will make your life much simpler

I had ECS on my erstwhile home loan which I have just forclosed.i.e made the full payment and closed the loan forever. So my life is even more simpler now

Originally Posted by kalpeshc

ICICI charges 2% penalty on outstanding principal on foreclosure (which is what most of the banks charge).
Can someone please confirm this?

The charge is 2.25% including the service tax component. Its an increase of over 0.25% because my home loan document states the pre-payment charges are 2% and despite what the ICICI website says . But I didnt bother to argue. Just wanted to close the loan before they delay it and take one more month's EMI from my account.

Originally Posted by akroy

How easy or hard it is to transfer the home loan from ICICI? Can anybody in bangalore suggest me the best bank to go with (I want no hassles and better interest rates ofcourse)?
Also please suggest me the process to go through the transfer !!

Abhi

See the posts from mahadev. He has transferred his ICICI loan to SBI Max Gain.

[DCEite]

I am newbie when it comes to home loans, as i don't have a home loan yet. However, in the coming 4-5 years, i might have to take one for buying my own house.
I have a few general queries:

1. Is there any limit to the amount of loan that can be offered, taking into account the in-hand salary?
2. Is there any limit on the % of actual cost of property that can be given as loan?
3. If the borrower is not able to continue work and earn, due to a sickness/illness/accident, is there any protection plan that covers this risk? Both for critical illness and any other(say blindness/loss of limbs/handicap) ?
4. Are home loan available for resale properties? If yes, what do points 1-2-3 hold for it?
5. Is part-prepayment & full prepayment of home loan possible?
6. Is home-loan given for new projects with Construction linked plans? If so, how does it work ? Say a property has completion date 3 years hence from now, and in-between construction linked payments have to be made to the builder. Does home loan cover that?

[kalpeshc]

Originally Posted by akroy

This is an excellent thread and should be very helpful to me. I have a home loan from ICICI bank (Bangalore). recently it has increased the interest to 13.25% and my EMI and tenure both increased.
I have a Principal outstanding of around 15 lakhs. I can see nationalized banks, LIC etc are giving lesser interest.

How easy or hard it is to transfer the home loan from ICICI? Can anybody in bangalore suggest me the best bank to go with (I want no hassles and better interest rates ofcourse)?
Also please suggest me the process to go through the transfer !!

Abhi

Hey Abhi,
I am sailing in the same boat and am already looking to switch to SBI (MaxGain) as they are offering me loan of 15L (same outstanding) at 10.75%. I am trying to see if they reduce the processing fees of 0.05% of 15L. They may come down to 5K flat fee.

Also, they are ready to pay the 30K penalty (2% on 15L) as part of the loan amount. I will keep info posted on this thread. Going to meet them this Saturday