Mar 2017
Folks, please be aware of the rules.
A bank is bound by RBI rules and is required to give you credit the same day you deposit a cheque or a DD. For small amounts it may not make any difference, but when you foreclose your loan, the amount is likely to be large and not giving the same day credit means you are paying interest to two institutions simultaneously.
Most bank(such as HDFC Ltd, ICICI) honour these rules and give you same day credit the day you submit foreclosure DD from new loan vendor.
SBI doesn't.
I took this battle up with SBI and after citing them the RBI regulation and a relentless follow up they paid me interest for the time they had taken to credit the DD amount to my loan account.
"Jago Grahak Jago"
Jan 2017
If you have read through the thread history, it needs no explanation why I decided to finally switch the loan, chosen HDFC for competitive rates.
When new loan rates were revised to 8.6 the bank refused to switch to new rates even by paying conversion fees. One of the bank babus(as this thread mentioned before) told no change is possible for 1 year and almost dared to go wherever we want(i.e. switch the loan).
After getting a disbursement which HDFC said won't be online, but necessarily a demand draft, next rude shocks at SBI were:
The manager said that it would now take at least 8 to 10 days to credit this demand draft to the account. This was shocking, as it implies I'll be paying interest to both banks for that many days. If they indeed take anything longer than a couple of days I am going to complain to the ombudsman. A demand draft is supposed to be honored on immediate basis.
The manager contacted a senior official to whom she told a blatant lie that I never told her my intention to switch the loan. The fact is we not only told her, she only had signed the document called "list of documents" etc. which is required in the loan switch process. Even in whose favor to draw the draft was answered by her and now in front of her senior how can she say that we never told her that we are switching the loan.
Now the bank says they could have offered us the current market rate. Now this is on top of the arrogant answers daring us to switch the loan given by the branch before.
This is a ridiculous financial institution in India. Shame on us that we have made it the biggest bank and the biggest loan vendor. Folks, wake up and DEMAND quality service from these brats or don't do business with them just to save a few bucks. Unless we are demanding the quality of service in our country is never going to improve.
Jan 2017
Recently got this shocker: The online statement of SBI Home Loan account is USELESS. It shows entirely incorrect figures which have no meaning. To know your loan balance you have to go to the branch, stand in a queue, wait for hours and they will give you a printed statement. I am shifting away my home loan from SBI and got to know this discrepancy when the online figure did not match the official outstanding letter issued by SBI.
Dec 2016
Most banks offer what is called a "loan conversion" i.e. switching to more current(lower) rate, by adjusting the "spread" from the lending rate.
Knowing service of this bank, wasn't expecting any great help in this. Quite expectedly the bank babu, who called himself branch manager, gave a stereotype answer that there is no such change possible. More interestingly he said "if you want to switch to other bank go ahead and switch". This is the state of thick skin that sbi babus have got.
Oct 2016
True, it's the biggest bank in India. But how? Is it because of some great services and products? Certainly not. It's largely due to Govt backing.
A sense of lethargy, taking their position for granted is clearly seen on all staff's faces, whichever branch you go to. If they were to compete in open market with private banks, they would have got wiped out with such laidback staff.
No doubt they are a leading bank when it comes to home loans with very competitive rates. They afford it owing to their size. Their sales staff in home loans is somewhat alright as compared to rest of the staff.
They force you to open a savings a/c if you want loan, although there is no such rule in the banking industry. But read on to know what they would do with your account to siphon out money silently.
Secondly, when providing EMI mandate they refused to accept any other bank's mandate and said we must pay the EMI through their account only. Another compulsion that is illegal. Even HDFC Bank made me do that though many other banks don't force this.
Here is the icing on the cake: Without any consent of mine, they started deducting insurance premium from my savings account. Asking them over phone drew this response "This is mandatory, we are deducting on every borrower's account". Worse, on visiting the branch asked to sign a paper saying, just sign here as your consent for deduction of these insurance charges.
Now the most outrageous part: When asked "How can you charge an insurance premium, you never told me what this insurance product is for, what risk does it cover etc.", a shameless answer came "You should have come to the branch and asked".
So, they deduct money without consent and when questioned give above kind of arrogant reply. The bank staff is simply not able to digest that what their bosses say "is mandatory" can be questioned by a customer.
On raising the voices and an ugly fight the bank asked to write down an application to revert the charges and says it will be done in 15 days.
Quite predictably nothing happened in 15 days.
Then I filed a complaint through customer care number of the insurance company and still following up for reversal of charges of an insurance that I had never bought in the first place.
As of this writing the follow up is still going on.
The bank provides no monthly statement, no passbook. I was just lucky to spot above fraudulent deduction on my account.
Provisional statements required for income tax purpose were provided hand written by the staff on request. They said only after loan completes 1 year, those will be available online. No idea why it should take 1 year just to get online IT statement.
Their IT is in stone age.
Customer service is pathetic. Filing a simple ticket goes through a horrible UI. Most funny part is you receive an SMS "To see the resolution of the issue, visit the branch". That's a joke.
Another serious issue: I have been receiving SMS alerts on somebody else's bank account. Can only imagine that my account alerts are going somewhere else. Complaining has simply not helped as the complaint was "resolved" by asking to visit the branch and branch says my mobile number is correct and they can't do anything beyond that.
Once tried using their mVisa application and could not get a single transaction through. Firstly you have to be lucky to spot that they support mVisa in their mobile application. Surprisingly you have to select it before you login. Once you login you do not get to see mVisa option at all. Anyway, even if you discover, it won't work.
There are tonnes of problems with staff's attitude, internet banking and mobile banking. The problem is it is nearly impossible to make them realize that they ought to solve these problems. The reason is, due to their size and leadership position they care the least about customer satisfaction.
Stay away, unless you want very competitive interest rates on home loans and are willing to accept a laidback service.
