If a recovery agent knocks at your door you don’t have to hide in your house or avoid them by asking one of your family members to speak to them. They cannot harm you or force you to pay the outstanding at all.
The RBI has issued strict guidelines to protect the interest of the borrower and to stop unethical practices of recovery agents. You will find here the RBI guidelines towards recovery agents: how agents should approach, the time they can visit, and how they should behave.

Approach of Recovery Agents
The RBI states: ”To ensure due notice and appropriate authorization by the banks, they should inform the borrower the details of recovery agents engaged for the purpose, while forwarding default cases to the recovery agents. The details should include their telephone numbers, etc. The recovery agents should call the borrowers only from telephone numbers notified to the borrower.”
This clearly indicates that if any recovery agent approaches you without following the above guidelines you should not entertain them and if they try to harass you, you can make a complaint to the police and also to the Banking Ombudsman. The bank also has the responsibility to keep the borrower informed in case the bank has changed the recovery agent. “Where the recovery agency is changed by the bank during the recovery process, in addition to the bank notifying the borrower of the change, the new agent should carry the notice and the authorization letter along with his identity card.” - the RBI guideline states.

Time of Call
The recovery agents are allowed to call the borrower only between 7 am to 7 pm. It’s as per the Code of Bank’s Commitment to Customers which banks have to abide by. In addition, visits are strictly prohibited by the code in the case of bereavement in the family or calamitous occasions - “Inappropriate occasions such as bereavement in the family or other calamitous occasion the family would be avoided for making calls visits to collect dues.”

Behavior of Recovery Agents
The recovery agents are not allowed under any circumstances to thrash the borrower or speak indecently. If the borrower does not to want to speak to the agent, the agents have to obey. “The bank and their agents should not resort to intimidation or harassment of any kind, either verbal or physical, against any person in their debt collection efforts, including acts intended to humiliate publicly or intrude the privacy of the debtors’ family members, referees and friends, making threatening and anonymous calls or making false and misleading representations.” - states the RBI.

An important point here is to note that in case you have already lodged a complaint for any of your grievances, banks cannot send recovery agents for that specific issue. The RBI states “Where a grievance/complaint has been lodged, banks should not forward cases to recovery agencies till they have finally disposed of any grievance/complaint lodged by the concerned borrower.“

For some of us, who have seen the recently released movie EMI, newspaper reports about recovery agents may seem to be some sort of a controversy set to malign the profession and the banks involved. ‘Sattar’ in the movie might as well be confused with some angelic figure; falls in love with a debtor, Prerna… bye bye Prerna’s debt…

In real life, recovery gents, the process, and the very fact that you are a defaulter can be a serious pain in the posterior.

How do banks recover loans?
Banks have appointed special recovery agencies for loan recovery. These agencies could be either on contract or commission.
Some banks may start the process of loan recovery after a single defaults, other may wait for at least two such instances. The process begins with calls to the borrower. And, what follows is the field recovery process, which involves face-to-face interaction.

Are there any rules for recovery agents?
We have read countless newspaper reports about how the recovery agents come to a defaulter’s house or office at all god-forsaken hours. A bank’s representative is to contact the borrower between 7 am and 7 pm, unless one needs to visit a borrower at odd hours and occasions such as continuous irregularity in the accounts.
Agents also should avoid making calls or show up to meet the person concerned on inappropriate occasions such as mourning in the family or such other occasions for making calls/visits to collect dues.

The agents are required to carry proper identification and carry the concerned bank’s or agency’s authority letter. The agent should display the letter as and when required.

Before the recovery agent is sent across, the bank needs to have given sufficient notice (as prescribed by law) to the borrower before the filed recovery process is initiated. These are just a few of the guidelines.

Notorious Fame
What is it that the ‘agents’ are famous for?

Most agents are known to threaten people and verbally abuse and threaten the defaulters, despite bank’s directions. Some may threaten or actually use third-degree treatment on the borrowers.

Lucky, a recovery agent from Delhi told CNN-IBN in an interview that some recovery agents not only used lathis for recovery, but also their Mausers. These agents may stop a defaulter’s car on gunpoint and beat him up.

These recovery agents are not on any bank’s rolls but stand to get a hefty cut of booty they help recover.

Another recovery agent decided to take law in his hands and turned robber to recover the loan. In September 2008, in Pune, recovery agent Nitin Narayan Chavan robbed Gita Buremukla (25) of jewelry worth Rs 35,000.

This HSBC Bank recovery agent met Buremukla and informed her that there was a loan outstanding. She informed him that the person who had taken the loan no longer lived on the address, a Mr. K. Rambabu.

That didn’t satisfy the agent. The agent came back the next day to Buremukla’s house and entered it on the pretext of drinking some water. Note, recovery guidelines say that the recovery agent can’t gain forceful entry into a defaulter’s house.

Chavan locked the main door and threatened Gita with a knife and forcibly took her mangalsutra worth Rs 35,000.

I have availed a home loan from an MNC bank at an interest rate of 9%. They have revised rates of interest several time and current rate stands at 12.50%, since 1/8/08 ( previously it was 11.75%). Last year in August, they raised rates by 2% in one go and after lot of arguments and conversation, the rate was agreed at 10.25%. The requisite changes have still not been made. On asking the bank, I got to know that the executive who had made this commitment had no authority. I have written several times to several heads without receiving any response till date. All my EMI payments have been regular in spite of an increased interest rate. I have once again received yet another letter regarding revision of the interest rate, now to 12.50%-which is very high.

Axis Bank is charging 11.5% for my home loan but your site shows it as 10.5%. Also, I got a salary hike recently, can this help my home loan application?

I took a personal loan from a finance company called Prime Financial. The loan was of Rs. 27, 000 for 30 months with an EMI of Rs. 1, 477. What is the actual rate pf interest? They did not give me any documents stating loan related information. When I ask them whether the loan can be closed, they tell me about some charge called the prepayment penalty which is around Rs. 23, 000. I have already paid 14 installments. Can the bank do something like this?

My father who had an ICICI credit card which expired in April 2008. The outstanding on his card was Rs. 42,000. We have informed the bank about the same, but they said we have to pay up. I have not inherited any property from him. However, my mother is the joint owner of our house with him. Legally, are we (me and my mother) liable to repay the whole outstanding amount to the bank? We have been getting statements with added interest etc. Please help.

A fraud transaction was made on the internet through my HDFC Bank credit card. I got my card blocked immediately. My card showed a debit balance for 1 year. A replacement card was issued by HDFC Bank to me, after reversal of the transaction amount and charges. However, I am not able to get new card from other credit card companies because of my name in defaulter list (CIBIL/ Stayam’s Defaulter list). How can I get a new card and remove my name from defaulter list?

I had a HSBC credit card, the dues of which were settled in August 2004 against a waiver of Rs. 8, 000. I had given out-station cheques towards the settlement which took 15 days to get cleared. The settlement letter which was received subsequently mentioned that there was not overdue and the card would be closed.

Recently, my personal loan application was rejected, the reason being that my name is in the defaulter’s list. On enquiring from HSBC, they informed that I am still to pay Rs. 49, 000 as the settlement stood null and void due to late payment whereas the settlement letter only said that it would be nullified in case of payment defect only. The delay in payment was due to the 15 day gap for cheque clearance. HSBC is demanding Rs 49, 000 to send a letter to CIBIL stating that I have cleared my outstanding. What do I do? Is there a legal route? Should I approach the Banking Ombudsman?

I recently made a partial pre-payment towards my IDBI home loan account. I wrote to their usual query email ID to know my outstanding and tenure. I got a reply that IDBI has discontinued sending statements over mail and I will have to pay Rs. 115 at the asset centers to get a statement. Are we not entitled to know our balances on a regular basis? This is a very basic service and I don’t think I need to pay to know even this. The email also said they would send a statement by post every 6 months. How am I to know my balance at the end of every month? I need an answer from IDBI on how I can get my monthly statement on outstanding and the current interest rate?

I had applied for a car loan in the month of October (2007) from HDFC Bank and it was approved. But, at that time, the HDFC Bank executive told me that my name shows in the defaulter’s list as Richa. One of my cousins has the same name.

When I applied for a personal loan from Barclays Bank, they rejected it, stating the same reason. I am sure my cousin never took the loan or ever used any kind of proof from my end of such a thing. What do I do?