Hyderabad,May 16:With the State Road Transport Corporation raising the bus fares and auto fares increasing day by day, people who used to take public transport are now opting for a vehicle of their own.
Apart from ease of getting loans from banks and financial institutions, customers now have an increasing array of vehicles to choose from and this has led to increasing number of people buying a vehicle for their use.
Banks and financial institutions are vying with each other to attract customers and offer loans to them.
No day goes by without an advertisement appearing in either print of electronic media highlighting the bank’s willingness to part with its money for the public.
The offers look too tempting and customers are making a beeline to buy their vehicles.
If you wish to buy your gleaming new two-wheeler on instalments through any nationalised or corporate bank, it is better to think twice before doing so or better still drop the proposal altogether.
According to a survey conducted by INN, most of the people buying a vehicle through a Nationalised or a Corporate Bank end up paying a lot more than they bargained for.
The Banks end up charging the customers more in the name of ‘cheque bounce charges’.
What are the Banks’ policies? How does a cheque get bounced? When is the customer liable to pay the EMIs? What was mentioned in the agreements signed by the consumers? Whether the consumers are aware about the Bank polices or not? Who would be the responsible on failure of any customers’ payment? There are some of the key points the person taking a loan does not dwell too deeply on.
The bank officials or ‘customer service representatives’ as they are now called, do not explain this to a customer on their own. It is very rare that the customer gets down to the heart of the matter and asks such questions.
Maybe it is because their attention is on the brand new sparkling car of motorcycle they have so long dreamt of or maybe it is for any other reason, the consumers sign on the dotted lines without going through terms and conditions of mentioned in the loan agreement.
The ‘customer service representatives’ do not always explain the pros and cons of taking a loan to the customer.
A customer of one such bank was at the receiving end of the bank’s policies when his Santro car (AP 29 BA 9396) was seized by recovery agents employed by the ‘ICICI Bank’. The bank claims that the customer Mr Chandrasekhar Gupta failed to pay the instalments for the car loan on time.
Mr Gupta (Loan A/C No: Lahyd 00010393365) claims that he never failed to pay the EMIs on time. He said that he even requested the officials that he would pay the remaining EMIs at one go immediately after the car was seized but to no avail. The bank declined his requests and his remaining EMIs have gone unpaid.
Mr Gupta approached advocate PV Sai Krishna over the issue. Mr Sai Krishna termed the action of the ICICI Bank as against the Banking rules and regulations. He says that the Bank could not take away the vehicle without prior intimation. He said that the Bank should have issued a legal notice to Mr Chandrasekhar Gupta.
In another incident, Mr Abdul Hameed, a resident of New Hafeezpet fell prey to the HDFC Bank’s policy. He claims that he had bought a motorcycle on instalments and had paid all the EMIs on time. After paying all the EMIs he was under the assumption that he was now the rightful owner of the motorcycle.
He was flabbergasted when he received a call from HDFC Bank, informing him that he was still liable to pay one more month’s EMI. When he protested, he was warned of facing legal action.
Mr Abdul Hameed says, “Almost six months after paying all the EMIs, the HDFC is now insisting that I pay one month ‘due’ as claimed by Bank.”
“That is something I simply do not understand. Why should i pay another five thousand rupees?” he questions.INN