I was buying a Maruti Zen from Vipul Motors, Gurgaon and was planning to pay the entire amount upfront as cash, However the dealer offeredme an interest free loan for a year from ICICI bank. Even though no loan would ever be interest free- I had to forego the dealer discount to a certaindegree), I went ahead for it. I am listing out the entire tenure of the loan –
Paper work, Approval and form filling –
NO tension whatsoever, ICICI Bank person came down to my office, and got all the documents and took my signature wherever required. Theloan was approved within a day, and the same evening a call from ICICI Bank confirmed the loan approval. May be the fact that the dealer himself was involved here made the correct sounds. I had to give 11 post dated cheques, and that was it. I was given two options for the cheques, I could date them for the7th of every month, in which case I had to pay the first installment upfront, or sign them for the first of every month and start paying from thenext month, I opted for all cheques dated 1st.
Around the Year –
All my cheques went smoothly, except for one, when the salary got credited late to my account. I called up the ICICI Bank helpline, and they told me that they would send the cheques again for clearing a weeklater, they did that and it was cleared easily, NO trouble for me.
Closing the loan-
I had to go to the ICICI Bank Loans office at Jhandewalan inDelhi, they asked for the loan account number and printed out all the details, the lady at the counter was helpful and told me that since one of my chequeshad bounced, I would have to pay interest for that 1 week period, which cameout to be around 300 bucks, Cool….and there was a cash counter right there, Ipaid up, got the receipt and she issued a form -33 ( the required form by thetraffic department in Delhi to close the hypothecation, )… this entire processtook me less that 2 hours……. There were some people there with raised tempers, seems like it does not work out as smooth for everyone. However my interactionwas good.
Overall:
Decent deal, clear and simple processes, However I feel thethings were easier in my case since the dealer was involved in the initialapproval process, and since no cheques bounced, My advice- if you take a loanfrom any private banks , keep your account clear at all times, you slip once, and they load you with charges and more charges……