Hello All,

I almost escaped from being duped by an ICICI Bank Home Loan Agent. This was sometime during November 2006. I had approached the bank for a home loan for a property that i had chosen in Bangalore. I had to apply for a loan for myself and my wife. I was connected with this guy called Raghu (i don't remember his phone number.) Initially he was kind enough to waive processing fees for one of the home loans and he agreed to charge processing fee only for one loan which was around Rs. 5612/-.

I sent him all the docs for review and consideration and he had promised me that the loan would be approved in a matter of 7 - 10 working days. Since i had all my documents in good order and nothing was missing the processing should have been quick and easy. However to my dismay, the agent was dragging the matter for almost 15 days (i was in a hurry to settle the loan matter and i was chasing him on a regular basis to get the status.)

Then one fine day i got a call from ICICI Lombard and the person calling strongly insisted that i should buy insurance as well. Otherwise they wont approve the home loan for me. This was like after 15 days of me submitting all the papers. The insurance cost alone was around Rs.100,000 and they were willing to Finance this amount as well from the loan. I insisted that i wont need Insurance and all i needed was the home loan and why am i being informed now at the nth hour that for home loan, insurance is a pre-requisite.

My Action: I immediately withdrew my loan application from ICICI and instead went to HDFC. They approved my loan in a matter of 3 days and i got disbursement immediately there after.

My Conclusions:

ICICI Bank:

1. Not so strict in loan processing and can ignore some documentation. But later they might have some surprises for you.
2. They dont mention such insurance related pre-requisites in advance and seeing the urgency of the customer, they try to delay till the nth hour, where by the customer is left with no choice but to abide by them.

HDFC Bank:

1. Simple and straight forward. Transparent in their dealings.
2. Strict in documentation. If you don't have all the paper work, HDFC might not work out.
3. Fast processing and disbursements.

Regards,
Vishal