Housing Loan Rates Got Me Thinking 🤔
Hey all! Quick question – who here has a housing loan and what are your interest rates? I got mine during COVID at a decent 7.4%, but now it's up to 10.52%. 😵 That's quite a hike, especially when I look at what other banks are offering. I'm thinking about switching. Anyone else gone through this or have any advice? PS: I did ask my bank to cut me some slack, and they dropped it from 11.10% to 10.42% once. But now, it's crept back up to 10.52%. Would love to hear your thoughts or if you've dealt with something similar!
steppenwolf
Stealth
7 months ago
Which bank is it ? You can reduce it to 8.5%
StaleEye20
Stealth
7 months ago
It's with Karnataka Bank. How can I get it reduced to 8.5%? Any specific steps or tips you could share would be super helpful
Yeah, even with average credit score he can get it to under 9. @steppenwolf what's your credit score, did you have any bad loan history before
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StaleEye20
Stealth
7 months ago
I actually asked about switching to a fixed interest rate option to avoid these fluctuations, but the manager told me that option isn't available right now.
Floating rates are not bad, you just need to understand how it works. To simplify floating rate depends on rbi repo rate (direct corelation)
I had also same doubt. creditdharma folks advice me and transferred my loan - now my roi reduced by 1.5%
StaleEye20
Stealth
7 months ago
@MustyBrown Never heard of them before. What were your previous and current interest rates after transferring your loan through them? Also, curious about any additional benefits you got by going through CreditDharma instead of directly dealing with the bank for the transfer.
10.1 to 8.6.. also got extra discount on processing fees. i love it. So they advised me on balance transfer and arranged a bank who gave 8.6 for my profile. on an avg i said almost 8 lac rs due to credit dharma 💯
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You’re clearly over paying for your loan. If you have a good credit score you can do a balance transfer and get your interest rate to 8.4%.
Try talking to credit dharma folks. They recently helped a close friend get his interest rate reduced
StaleEye20
Stealth
7 months ago
@DisruptThis thanks for the suggestion, have already pinged them 🙏
StaleEye20
Stealth
7 months ago
Was it always around that figure, or did you see any changes along the way?
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If you're paying anything above 8.75%, you should get this changed immediately!
I started my loan at 6.5% and it creeped up to ~9.5%
I wrote to HDFC to lower it, and it went down straight to 8.35%
Most folks I know have their loans between 8.4%-8.5% as well.
Even if you have a bad credit score, you can get it at 8.75% at any bank.
Go for it buddy. Transfer it.
StaleEye20
Stealth
7 months ago
Thanks for the push! I've decided to look for a better rate and consider transferring my loan. Appreciate your advice 🙏
Similar situation, mine increased from 6.7% to 9.2% over time. Planning to visit the bank and request them to reduce the rate when I visit my hometown this time. Any pointers that helped you @StaleEye20?
I am also thinking of a switch if they don't reduce the rates.
StaleEye20
Stealth
7 months ago
@BoredCorporateSlave From my experience, the first time I approached the bank about the high interest rate, the manager advised me to send an email to the branch formally requesting a rate reduction. Surprisingly, that worked, and I managed to get a 1-1.5% reduction. But now, my rate has crept back up to its previous high, and frankly, I'm not holding out much hope for another decrease. My advice? Definitely try asking them to lower it, but if they're not willing to budge, make it clear you're considering porting your loan to another bank. Sometimes, just the possibility of losing a customer can prompt them into action like @steppenwolf mentioned. Good luck with your visit!
Got it, thanks. In my case, I have already mailed them once, but it's SBI, so they don't even bother to check and respond to mails, unless you call them and tell them you sent a mail.
As someone mentioned, SBI probably won't budge, so I'll probably have to switch to another one.
StaleEye20
Stealth
7 months ago
that's great 👍
I've home loan running got last year from hdfc it's still at 8.4% intrest (unchanged) My rm has unofficially told it might go to 8.7% in next few quarters if there no rate cuts from rbi or my cibil changes (I'm not sure this is true or he's just blabbering)
As others have suggested, work towards switching your outstanding loan to any professional bank, I've had good experience with hdfc so far, take professional help if required.
Just fyi for new loans nbfc like avas housing finance was giving 9% fixed intrest loan for my profile, catch was mandatory insurance and 2-3% additional charges.
I had fairly moderate cibil 787 at the time of inquiry.
StaleEye20
Stealth
7 months ago
Thanks for the valuable insights!
@StaleEye20 Similar thing happened to my friend , 6.8% during covid, changed to 9.8%
Sbi declined to reduce interest rate.
He shifted from SBI to HDFC , now it's at ~8.4%. It costed him 24k to shift.
There is a fixed one time cost while shifting, will cost you minimum 20k (actual depends on loan amount, processing fee and other fees)
Consider shifting, If interest saving is more than cost to transfer.
StaleEye20
Stealth
7 months ago
Thanks for sharing that! I'm seriously considering doing the same since the one-time cost of shifting seems way less compared to the potential savings on interest in the long run. The numbers definitely make a strong case for moving to another bank with a lower rate.
Look at your loan agreement and figure out how the interest rate is to be calculated. It seems yours is floating and hence will be linked to some base rate (MCLR most probably). Check the bank’s MCLR and then check the spread mentioned in the loan agreement. If it comes to 10.52% then that’s the correct rate the bank is charging. However in my view new HL rates are much lower, so check if some other bank is providing balance transfer facility
StaleEye20
Stealth
7 months ago
Thanks for the insight! You're right, my loan is indeed on a floating rate. I did check with the bank, and they threw around some jargons at me – something about the RBI treasury rates being low during COVID and how they've gone up since, which apparently is why my interest rate has spiked. I'll definitely look into the MCLR and the spread mentioned in my loan agreement to see if it all adds up to the 10.52%.
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