Axis Bank Home Loans @ 8% - Beware of 'Thugs' !!!

I am one of the victims of Axis Bank's offer of home loans @ 8% (fixed rate for first 12 months). They had organized a big Expo in Koramangla Indoor Stadium, Bangalore on 6th, 7th and 8th Nov '09. Since I was unhappy with the higher rate being charged by my current home loan provider, I found the offer from Axis Bank prima facie attractive and applied for the same. In fact, I forwarded their proposal to many friends and neighbors as well.

Then began the ugly story... The Axis Bank agent, Mr. Keerthi Jayappa, who had taken all the papers from me in Nov '09, came to my place in the first week of Dec '09 with an approved loan sanction letter. He got the Agreement Book signed, and also took away some undated cheques and a duly authorized ECS form. He told me that the disbursement / takeover would be completed in next couple of days, and that the first EMI would be collected in Jan '10 from my bank account through ECS. However, to my utter shock and disbelief, Axis Bank encashed one of my cheques (equal to one monthly instalment) the very next day without my knowledge, that too when the disbursement had not even been processed by them. When I called the agent, he first had the courage to say that one advance EMI was supposed to be paid by the customer in order to avail of the offer of 8%.

As next step, I called their home loan manager, Mr. Vilas Namannvar and gave him a piece of my mind, followed by a strongly-worded email. After several phone calls, they finally apologized and 'unofficially' admitted that they were facing this problem with many other clients who had opted for the 8% scheme, and that they were in the process of refunding the advance EMI to all of them. I got my money and documents back after 4-5 days, but never got any reply to my email although Mr. Vilas had promised that he would respond.

It's a glaring case of poor corporate governance where a reputed bank has tried to openly misguide people at large, with an itention to make money through unfair means. Ironically, the bank's CFO, Mr. Somnath Sengupta got "Best performing CFO in the Banking Sector" award from CNBC-TV18 around the same time in Nov '09.

Many more complaints against Axis Bank home loans can also be found here.