Readers' Corner: Banking

Rajiv Anand, Executive Director, Axis Bank, answers your questions

I am planning to take a joint home loan with my father to construct a house. The land is in my father’s name. Can I still get a loan?

 

Yes, you can get a loan with your father as the co-applicant. It’s permissible to let the son come on the loan structure even if he’s not the owner. In case of a father and son coming as co-applicants, while permissible, it may reduce the loan tenure since the age of the applicant/co-applicant at the time of loan maturity should be around 60-65 years. For example, if at the time of loan application, the sons’ age is 28 years and father’s age is 55 years, as per this policy the loan tenure can only be 10 years.

 

 I have shortlisted three banks for home loan. One offer MCLR reset every six months. The other two offer it yearly. How do I know what will work the best for me?

 

The MCLR reset frequency determines the period at which the pricing of the loan would be subject to review. Incase a person avails a home loan at MCLR + applicable mark-up in Jan 2018 and the MCLR is reset every 6 months, the pricing on the loan would be reviewed starting July 2018 and every six months thereafter. Only the MCLR is reset, the applicable mark-up is not subject to change.  

 

In a scenario where the interest rates are expected to fall, it may be better to opt for a 6-month MCLR (lower frequency of reset) since the review of the pricing on the loan shall happen sooner. In the last one year, the rates have seen a downward trend and customers on MCLR have gained a benefit of 1 per cent plus in the last 12-18 months.

 

I had a dispute about charges with a multinational bankpertaining to my credit card around eight years back. The bank has reported this is non-payment to the credit bureau. Is there any possible way to convey to the credit bureau that this is a disputed amount? I have a clean credit record. Can a bank refuse to lend me money due to this?

 

Taking your two queries separately. On the first one, incase of a disputed transaction you may reach out to your bank to resolve the issue and request the bank to submit updated information to the bureau. Alternatively you may also write to the credit bureau regarding the disputed entry. The bureau will mark the entry as disputed in the report and in turn clarify details from your bank. However the final correction is made in bureau report only if the dispute is accepted by your bank.

 

On whether a bank can refuse to lend money, the answer may vary from bank to bank. However, one should note that non-payment of dues reported by a bank can negatively impact your credit bureau report and score. The extent of impact may vary depending on amount of transaction, recency of transaction and other factors. A non-payment may also be considered adversely by a financial institution while lending to you.

 

When withdrawing money from an ATM, I did not receive any cash. I conveyed the same to my government bank. I was told, the transaction will be reversed. It’s been more than 20 days and I have not received the money in my account. Ideally, how much time it takes to get such transactions reversed? How many days should I wait? What can I do for bank to act on it?

 

Incase the customer did not receive cash from ATM, the customer needs to lodge complaint via phone banking or by visiting nearest branch. Ideally cash should be reversed through system or basis reconciliation. Maximum time for resolution is seven days, as per the RBI guidelines. If the transaction is still not reversed at the end of the RBI prescribed seven-day limit, the customer can approach bank’s grievance redressal unit/nodal officer seeking resolution.

 

I had sent my office boy to deposit Rs 15,000 money in my bank account. One of the branch refused to take it. The other branch of the same bank took the money and pointed that only a certain amount of cash can be deposited into a bank account by a third-party. On another occasion, I sent the same office staff to the earlier branch. This time the bank teller misbehaved when the office boy pointed out the rules. The branch manager did not cooperate either. I have two questions. One, what is the daily cash limit an another person can deposit in someone else’s bank account as mandated by the Reserve Bank of India. Two, if I want to complain about the staff behaviour, what are the different ways?

 

There is no prescribed daily cash transaction limit by RBI specific for third party cash transactions and as such banks are supposed to accept cash over the counters from all their customers who desire to do so. Some banks may have additional guidelines on deposits by third-party as part of their internal due diligence framework. For complaints, as prescribed by the regulator, most banks have a complaint lodging mechanism which they are supposed to transparently communicate to customers via various channels eg. website, branch notice etc.

 

  The writer is Executive Director, Axis Bank. The views expressed are the expert’s own. Send your queries to yourmoney@bsmail.in