ICICI Bank

ICICI Bank Basic Home Loan

The ICICI Home Loan is a term loan, or a home loan with a varied tenures offered by the bank. The basic Home Loan isn’t a differentiated product. It can be availed by anyone who falls within the eligibility criteria.

Why should you take it?

The advantages of this loan are linked to the basic functionalities provided by the bank itself.

1. It’s provided by a trusted private sector bank
2. The ICICI Bank website provides a calculator that will help you arrive at a fairly accurate approximation of the amount you can borrow and the EMI you will be paying. You can also extend this feature to get an instant approval/sanction without actually choosing a property
3. The bank provides an online site for the management of your loan, which can increase your convenience significantly.

What should you consider?

1. If you are an existing ICICI Bank customer, you can check for pre-approvals, better rates and reduced documentation, in addition to the income instant sanction.
2. Make sure you compare interest rates across both private and government sector banks before you apply for the loan since you may get a better rate of interest if you do your research or are an existing customer.

ICICI Bank Step Up Home Loans

The ICICI Bank step up Home Loan is a product meant specifically for young salaried professionals. The loan is designed in such a way that you can get a larger loan amount than usual, within the same tenure. Young Salaried professionals will be best served by this loans, but you need to be working with a specific set of organizations to be eligible.

Why should you take it?

The loan is designed to make it easy for you to own a home even if you are just starting your career. The loan has the following benefits:

1. You can get an enhanced loan amount by 20% (as compared to a basic home loan)
2. You can keep to the standard maximum tenure of 20 years; and the standard interest rates (as a basic home loan) will apply
3. The EMI for your initial years will continue to remain low, and the EMI’s will go up in subsequent years
4. Loan amounts can be availed for up to 3 crores
5. You can avail of this loan with a monthly income as low as Rs.20,000 per month.

What should you consider?

1. The loan is not available to people over 40 years of age
2. If you already have a home loan running, you will not be eligible for the step up loan
3. You should check with the bank on what the revised EMI’s will be, to make sure that you have the capability to repay this loan once the EMI is revised upwards.
4. You cannot make pre or part payment on this loan in the initial stages. So if you’re expecting a windfall or large financial gains in the near future, this may not be the option for you, since you can’t use those funds to pre or part pay this loan.

ICICI Bank Extraa Home Loans

The ICICI Bank Extraa Home Loan is a product that is designed not only for all eligible customers to be able to enhance their loan amount by 20% (as compared to a regular home loan), but also to extend their repayment period to up to 67 years of age. In order for the bank to provide a longer tenure, you will be required to pay a certain amount as a Mortgage Guarantee. ICICI Bank Extraa Home Loans are offered in association with Indian Mortgage Guarantee Corporation (IMGC), a joint venture between National Housing Bank, Genworth Financial Inc., Asian Development Bank and International Finance Corporation. This loan is best for

1. Middle-aged salaried persons
2. Self-employed customers who may face difficulties in getting higher loan amounts sanctioned due to the seasonality of their business
3. Young salaried persons (upto 37 years of age)

Why should you take it?

The loan is designed to make it easy for you to own a home by giving you access to higher loan amounts and extended tenures. In essence, you will be offsetting the risks that the bank sees, by paying a mortgage guarantee upfront.

1. You can get an enhanced loan amount by 20% (as compared to a basic home loan)
2. You can increase the home loan tenure to up to 67 years of age, thus keeping the EMI’s low

What should you consider?

1. While the tenure is extendable up to 67 years, do remember that the maximum tenure will still be up to 30 years
2. These loans will come at a higher rate of interest

30 year Home Loans

The ICICI Bank 30 year Home loan is designed to allow you to borrow for longer periods at the same Interest rates (and EMI’s) of a regular loan. This loan is meant for Women borrowers and salaried persons in specific organizations.

Why should you take it?

The advantages of a 30 years term loan are that you can keep your EMI’s low by borrowing over a longer period. In addition :

1. You can get loans for both fixed and floating interest rates
2. Your EMI’s could be as low as Rs.773 per lakh, depending on specific factors that will decide the interest rate applicable to you

What should you consider?

The longer term means that you will end up paying out more interest. The interest component of your loan should be taken into consideration before choosing this type of loan.

ICICI Bank Pragati Home Loan

The ICICI Bank Pragati Home Loan is meant to appeal to a wider section of society and to enable persons with a lower income bracket to avail of a loan to buy or construct a home, or even a non-residential premises. This loan can be availed by salaried persons who have a minimum monthly income of Rs.10,000, and by self-employed persons who have had an existing business for at least 5 years.

Why should you take it?

1. For salaried customers who have difficulty in getting loans sanctioned due to a lower income level, this is a good option to consider
2. You can get loans from as low as Rs.5 Lakhs to as high as Rs.50 lakhs with this product
3. You can get a loan at a lower interest and up to a tenure of 20 years.

What should you consider?

1. Since this is product for persons of lower means, the maximum loan values you can get range from between 60 - 65% of the property value. You will need to make the rest of the payments for the property yourself - and before availing of the loan.
2. Eligibility for this loan is not as easy as others - for salaried persons, you need to have a minimum of 1 year of work experience, and for self-employed or business income persons, you need to have had a business for 5 years (with a minimum of 3 years in the same business). Also persons drawing their salaries in cash are not eligible for the product.

ICICI Bank Saral Rural Housing Loan

ICICI Bank Saral Rural Housing loan is meant specifically for borrowers from rural areas and enables them to get funds to purchase a property of their own. This product is available only to borrowers who are purchasing, constructing or repairing and renovating property in a rural area.

Why should you take it?

1. You can get loans for amounts up to 90% of the property value
2. You can get loans for amounts between Rs. 5 - Rs.15 lakhs
3. Loan tenures can extend from 3 - 20 years

What should you consider?

This loan is available only at specific locations, so you need to ensure that the loan will be available in the area of your property.

Top Up Loans

ICICI Bank offers top-up loans to its existing Home Loan borrowers.This loan is essentially an amount that can be added to your existing outstanding amount, at the same rate of interest, and with minimal documentation.This option is for any existing customer of ICICI Bank home loan products.

Why should you take it?

The biggest advantage of a Top-up loan is that it gives you quick and easy access to funds without going through a large amount of documentation or eligibility checks. Essentially, since the bank has already lent you money, they would be willing to extend the amount that you are borrowing from the bank. These funda can then be used for any number of purposes - business or personal.

What should you consider?

While Top-up loans give you easy access to funds, remember to note the following

1. If your credit history is good, and if you are in general a person who has a good eligibility for various loans, you may want to look around in the market to check if you can get loans at cheaper rates.
2. The tenure of the top-up will be the same as your existing Home Loan tenure, so if you are only a few years out from closing your loan, you may find that the EMI’s you will pay on your top-up loan will be high - depending on the amount you are borrowing.

Mortgage Overdraft Facility

ICICI Bank offers a mortgage overdraft facility to its salaried account holders who have taken home loans. Once the overdraft is in place, you can get instant access to funds, and the interest rate will be applied only on the amount you utilize. The overdraft will be linked to you. This option is available only to eligible salary account holders who have already availed of a Home Loan from ICIC Bank, or to customers with an ICICI savings account working for a select group of corporates.

Why should you take it?

The advantages of the ICICI Bank overdraft facility are:

1. You can get a minimum of Rs.5 lakhs and a maximum of Rs.1 Cr as an overdraft available for instant use
2. Even if you part-pay some amount of your loan, your overdraft limits don’t change
3. There is no lock-in time to this facility, you can choose to close your overdraft at any time
4. Since the overdraft facility is linked to a salary/savings account, a Sweep or Reverse Sweep can be applied to the overdraft facility. With a Sweep facility, any amount available in the overdraft at a point in time can be accessed seamlessly from the account. With a Reverse Sweep, any amount that is excess in the account can be transferred back into the overdraft account - ensuring you pay less interest.

What should you consider?

1. The interest rates in an overdraft will not be the same as on your home loan. Different rates will apply for this product - usually higher
2. There is an annual renewal fee that will be applicable on your overdraft account
3. Your overdraft interest rates are subject to revisions based on the base rate (similar to your home loan)