abhisam

I am an Indian citizen and a resident of California. I purchased a flat on my recent visit to Pune, Maharashtra in January 2010. I applied for a home loan offered by ICICI bank. I paid around 25 percent down payment and applied for a loan for the remaining amount. They promised that they would complete my loan formalities within 5 to 7 business days and would disburse loan in another 10 days. However, they kept asking for documentation till March 2010 and finally stopped corresponding with me over email. I tried calling them multiple times, but I never heard from them after that point. I contacted the property builder and they told me that ICICI was not approving the builder's project. But again, there was no communication with me - the applicant of the loan. My father, who lives in Mumbai has my power of attorney, but he did not receive any communication either. And they charged me the initial processing fee of around Rs. 6000. I tried calling the bank and the people who sent me emails from ICICI earlier, but nobody answers the . So they have wasted 5 months with no conclusion on my loan, havent communicated their decision back to me, have used by initial processing fee and since the government has now increased the interest rate, I am now quoted higher interest rates by other banks such as HDFC.

I wrote a grievance email to the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs today. I am not expecting a lot to come out of it. But in my understanding, there are many people who have come across such unprofessional behavior by Indian banks. It's time we stood up and did something about it!!

If you or any of your friends have come across such problems, please get back to me. We will then prepare a list and take it up with the authorities. I know many people will say nothing will happen, it's India and what not. But let's not give up hope even before trying!

- abhisam

abhisam

Update: I received a response from the ministry of overseas affairs. They will be looking into this problem. If we have a larger group, there's a good chance our grievance will be heard by the ministry. I have another friend who had a similar experience with SBI. If you or any of your friends went through similar experiences, you should really come forward and reply to this post. It is high time we stopped taking cr*p from the Indians banks and expect better customer service. We all complain about how the entire real estate value chain is inefficient in India, but we don't do anything about it. It is high time we stood up for our rights!!