Have you taken a Home Loan from Kotak Mahindra Bank? Excellent. You have successfully opened the Pandora's box. By saying this I really mean what I said. Let me give you my case. Nothing else. I will leave the conclusion to you.

I've taken a Home loan from Kotak Mahindra Bank in Oct 2006. Before giving the processing fee check I inquired about the Insurance for the loan to the sales guy. He said the insurance amount is Rs 30000 and the insurance covers the total outstanding of the loan in the case of any eventuality. Also he said the Insurance is from Kotak so there will not be any surprises.

Before the loan disbursal when I saw the break up of the disbursal it said Rs 60000 for insurance. When I asked the Kotak people and the Sales guy they said "this is the premium for the loan of Rs. 32.5 lakhs" that they conveyed to me and I probably mistook it. As I was in the excitement of moving into my own home, I just consoled myself that at least the cover is for the full loan amount.

After registration the Insurance certificate and the cover schedule was posted to me. On seeing that I was shocked that the insurance does not cover the whole outstanding amount. It was for a certain percent of the outstanding. Now I thought "ok. at least I got my own house, so let me live with this".

My loan is a hybrid loan, meaning it is fixed for first three years and after that will be revised and that rate will be for the next three years and so on. Also I offered them to pay through ECS but they said they will only accept post dated check payments. So had given 36 checks for the first three years EMI.

On the 34th month (Please note that not on the 35th month), they called up and said they are going to review the interest rate from the next month onwards (that is from the 35th month on wards). I told that the next month is not the 37th month and asked why they are reviewing the rate now. They said they actually review the rate in each quarter, so as my next EMI falls on the review cycle they will be revising the interest rate. I was protesting this heavily and nothing turned around.

They called up the next day and said the new interest rate is 13.5%. During that time the interest rate from other banks was ranging from 8% to 10.5%. Even their new customers were offered 10.5%. I was totally shocked and asked why there is a discrepancy. They said in a cool tone "Sir, you were enjoying the low interest rate all through the first three year. So why are you asking this?". So the customer must keep his mouth shut to whatever these people do. After some bargaining they came down to 12.5%. I was desperately looking out for other banks to take over my loan. But there was a 2.21% of fore-closure charges. So I was reluctantly looking for take over of this loan.

In the mean-time I've given them another 36 months of checks towards EMI at 12.5% interest rate. A few months later I had one my checks bounced because of insufficient funds (That's actually another story when I withdrawn money from other bank's ATM it refused the transaction for the first time and given money in the second attempt also by cool-ly deducting money for both times from my account).

After noticing the check bounce I called up Kotak and said that the check is bounced and asked them to collect a replacement check. I also asked them if there are any charges[1] they said "There is no charges, Sir". I know that every check bounce has its penalty and that was the reason I was asking them explicitly for this. All these conversations happened over phone they assured me that there was no charge. Also they said they will be sending a collection agent to collect the check. So i've given the check to the agent that came to my office.

Now, my instinct to get out of Kotak got intensified so I contacted Canara Bank for the loan take over from Kotak. They agreed and wanted the fore-closure statement and the loan account statement.

So I went to the Kotak Bank and asked for these document for which they said they will only give after 15 days from the date on which I communicated to them in writing that I intend to close the loan. So I sent out a mail to them. After waiting for 15 days and constant bugging from my end they sent these statements. On seeing the account statement I was shocked to see around Rs 1612 towards "Over due interest receivables". I looked into the account statement and found Rs 750 for check bounce and Rs 250 for check collection. How sweet!

Also as I was paying all the EMIs through post-dated checks it took two to three days for the check realization. My EMI due date is 10th of every month. So the check will pass on 12 or 13, even on 15th (depending on whether the 10th, 12th, 13th fall on a holiday). Eventually there will be a delay always for the check realization. For these days there were charges for Rs 20 towards "Over due charges". Very smart, isn't it?

Intolerable to these daylight robbery I went directly to the Kotak Mahindra Bank and asked for details, especially for the "check bounce charges and collection charges".
The customer service personnel told me that this check bounce charges are clearly mentioned in the loan agreement. I told her that was the exact reason for me asking explicitly was there any charges (see [1]), and they said that there was no charges. Also I told her that they did not tell me that there would be a collection charge if their agent comes to collect the check. She said "Sir, you are in 2010 and how come you didn't know that there will be check bounce charges and collection charges?". She is right. In fact I was the stupid. I really liked this "Blame the Customer" attitude. What else can I do? I said to myself let me live with this for a few days until I close this loan off.

In the meantime my take over application at Canara Bank was approved. So I asked them (Kotak) when I have to give them the check from Canara Bank. She said the check should be given 7 days in advance to my EMI date (which is 10th in my case). Actually my take-over proposal was fully processed by Canara Bank and they were ready to give the check when I ask for it.

In the foreclosure date they always give the outstanding amount and the charges for the next EMI date. So if I am closing on the 11th I will have to give the check for the out-standing amount during next EMI plus the next EMI and the fore-closure charges. So I have to pay the interest for the next month also. As a layman anybody would expect the loan be closed on the day we give them the other bank's check of on the day when the check is realized. But these people work on their own schedule. The check is collected from the customer and they say it will be put for collection. After the check clears it will take 5 days for them to close the loan. After that they would give the original documents after 15 working days. This after 15 working days is an open statement. So you may get in 15 says or 20 days if you are lucky enough.

I have given the fore-closure check on 12th Mar 2010. The amount is the principal outstanding as on 10th April 2010 + Apr 2010 EMI + Foreclosure charges on the principal outstanding. Now I'm waiting for the loan closed at their end. It is not even closed still. But the amount has been sucked up by them. I'm sure they will wait until April 10, 2010 so that they need not given any refund to me. By the way I didn't tell you a fact. As I'm paying the EMI for Apr 2010 also, if the loan is closed early say on Mar 17th in my case (as I have given the check on 12th and let's say they realize it on 16th and they close the loan on 17th Mar), they will be refunding Rs 591.43 per day until Apr 2010. This is no way near the interest that I paid in a month advance.

I am not sure if I will be getting my documents within time so that I can give them to Canara Bank. As of today I heard them saying the loan is still not closed at their end. But they will be considering that the loan is closed on 26th of Mar. I don't think they will be closing the loan before Apr 10th.

With this story, I leave the decision to the people who are looking out for a Home Loan (that too) from the Kotak Mahindra Bank. My sincere advice is, for heaven's sake don't go to them.