I had an outstanding due to my credit card provider. After repayment i got a zero balance statement from the bank. Can you please suggest me what to do next to get my name removed from CIBIL/SATYAM’s defaulters list?

The year 2008 may be credited for witnessing the biggest financial turmoil in the recent past. Realty and home loans consumed innumerable reams of paper and satellite space. These were constantly in the news for whatever reasons.

As a home loan customer, these news must affect you mentally, not to mention financially.

Developments at the macro-economic level (failures of global iconic financial firms, high inflation, volatile stock market etc.) are impacting you also as a home loan customer. Increased EMIs or elongated tenure must have thrown your family budget out of gear. But if you are good borrower things are not all that bad.

If you already have a loan and your payment track record is spotless for at least 2-3 years, you should be paying interest in the range of 11-11.5%. In case you are paying more than this, it is time for some serious rethinking. You can request your lender to offer you the rate in this range. Your lender may charge a small fee for shifting your loan to a lower rate.

In case your lender seems reluctant, you can certainly consider the other option of shifting the home loan to another lender offering lesser rates. But keep in mind that this shift may make you incur costs such as prepayment fees payable to existing lender, processing fees payable to new lender, besides the administrative costs. You will be required to furnish an NOC from the co-op society or builder, whichever is applicable in your case.

As there is a time gap between switching from one lender to another, you will be required to furnish a letter from your existing lender stating that they will release the documents within a stipulated time frame after full payment is made and also specifying the amount that will be required as full and final payment. This letter will enable the new lender to consider releasing the payment directly to your existing lender.

To get the best deal, you must keep a hawk’s eye on the interest rates offered by various banks to ensure your bank is not charging you a higher rate than others. Rates can be checked at a variety of sources including the rates comparator at www.apnaloan.com. Of course this option is available only to those consumers who have maintained an excellent track record of payment on their loans.

Following the market, maneuvering, and evaluating its impact is not that easy but then these are not easy times and, as home loan consumers, we need to evaluate all possible options.

Need to fulfill your short term cash needs? Personal loan is the solution. Personal loans are unsecured all purpose loans which can be taken by individuals to meet their short term cash needs. The quantum of personal loan is dependent on your income and repayment capacity. Personal loans usually have a high fixed interest rate with a fixed repayment period, you should always think of taking a personal loan as the last resort after you have utilized all other sources of cash.

Personal loans are available from Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 10 lakhs for any purpose depending on your requirement, you can utilize the money in any way you want to; there is no restriction on the end usage of the loan. Personal loans are given without any security, guarantor or collateral, resulting in a very simple, fast and quick approval process. The loan lifespan ranges from 1 year to 7 years.

The quantum and the interest rate of the personal loans depend on different factors:

1. Whether you are salaried or self employed
2. Your monthly income
3. Your employment stability
4. Total EMI payments towards your existing loans
5. Repayment track record of previous loans, if any
6. Your age
7. Your stability with the place of residence

The personal loan quantum and the rate of interest are totally dependent on your profile and the documents you provide for verification. After signing the loan documents, a demand draft or a cheque is drawn in your favour by the lender and you need to deposit post-dated cheques for the lifespan of the loan agreed by you.

Apart from the interest charged some other charges might be applicable. These charges can be charged at the time of disbursement of loan, during the lifespan of the loan, or when you terminate the loan. These charges include (a) processing charge (b) pre-payment fee (c) late payment charge (d) cheque bounce penalty (e) documentation charges (f) duplicate statement fees

Who can take a personal loan? Personal loans are provided only to resident individuals in India. Banks do check on your age minimum being 25 years and maximum being 65 years, your salary or income (if self employed), stability of profession and place of residence.

Before you proceed for a personal loan do ask few questions to yourself:

1. Is personal loan the right option? As stated above, personal loans are very expensive and you should only opt for this when there is no choice left with you and you are in need for short-term cash.
2. Is my loan lifespan appropriate? Do analyze your daily expenses, otherwise to repay early you might have to cut down your even your necessary expenses. The early repayment might not be the better option in that case.
3. Am I taking advantage of all the discounts I’m eligible for? Women get discount in many public sector banks, NBFC/Banks provide discounts to existing customers, do check on this and avail the discounts available and you are eligible to.
4. Have I chosen the right repayment schedule? There are options available for repayment of the loan, it can be larger payments at the beginning (upfront) or larger payments later in the lifespan of the loan.

You must choose a personal loan repayment period and schedule that matches your needs. Choose a shorter repayment period if you are expecting an inflow of cash in short run, this will help to meet your immediate cash needs and you will be able to repay the loan with less amount of interest.

Most banks and NBFC provide group life insurance as loan protector insurance. Purchasing this insurance ensures that the insurance company pays the lender in case you meet with an unfortunate incident. This protects your dependents from your liabilities.

A comparison of short term credit options:

Using the above table you can choose an option of a short term loan, with a view of repaying it as early as possible.

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.

I am working with a software company. I am 29 years old and looking for a home loan. I approached a bank for a home loan. The bank has agreed to give me a home loan only if I get a co-borrower to the loan. Why is a co-borrower needed and who could be a co-borrower?