Saraswat Bank — Overcharging on bank interest and penalties on home loan

Address:	Mumbai City, Maharashtra, 400014
Website:	saraswatbank.com

This is to put to the fore our request to revise interest rates on our housing loans (Acc no SL 5292 and Acc no SL 5282. Read mail attached below.) We subsequently received a reply, although not in writing, that our loan rates would be revised from the steep 11.75% pa to 10.5% pa. However, it comes with a caveat that we will have to pay 1% of our outstanding home loan as fee/penalty.
Background:
My sister had personally come to visit at your RASEC branch concerning reduction of home loan interest rate for our loans.

I was disbursed loan in 2012 for Rs 70 lac, she has prepaid significantly (approximately RS 38 lacs) in 2013. Her home loan account is SL5292.

My sister Tanvi Sheth was disbursed loan in 2012 for Rs 60 lac, she has prepaid significantly (approximately Rs 21 lacs) in 2013. Her home loan account is SL5282.

The loan was sanctioned @ a floating rate of interest of 11.5%. Since the floating rate on home loans have reduced significantly in last 2 years, we (Janhavi and I) had given a written application in September 2015 to Ms Kshama Nabar (Branch Manager - Dadar (e)) to revise the rate of interest to 9.5%

Inspite of having applied in Sept 2015, there is no revert or revision. Only when I visited the RASEC branch, did I come to know that the written application never reached RASEC.

We request you to take immediate cognisance of our request and revise the rates, retrospectively from the date of our original application (Sept 2015). We need to be relieved of the excess EMI that we are paying.

Let me bring to your notice a couple of things:
1. This request is not a pre-payment of a home loan for us to be charged with a penalty. This is a request for revision of rates.
2. We have paid all due processing fees for loan at application time and are regular with all our EMI payments for not only this loan but for two earlier housing loans as well.
3. Paying 1% of penalty on a Rs 28, 00, 000 outstanding loan - which is Rs 28000- defeats the entire purpose of asking for a rate cut, because what I save on rate cut on EMI, I will pay as penalty to your bank. Not to mention that this demand for a fee from RASEC department is unethical and takes advantage of customers like us.
4. Besides, your bank has not given me this request of penalty in writing.
We have always had a good relationship with Saraswat Bank Dadar East branch, where officials have gone out of the way to help us with things. But this attitude of RASEC with such a simple request, especially after we have adhered to all your regulations so far, is simply not right.
5. This rate revision request has been pending for action since September 2015. Therefore the revision has to be retrospective.