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I took a home loan at a fixed rate of interest for three years. After that, the interest was to be on floating rate. After one year, the bank hiked the rate and is unwilling to give the promised rate. What can I do? Check the agreement signed with the bank first. There have been instances of banks going back on their verbal promises, when they finalise the written agreement. Since most consumers do not read the agreement before signing, they do not realise the mischief. If the agreement states that the loan is on a fixed rate of interest for three years, the bank cannot go back on that. Write to the Nodal Officer of the bank, along with a copy of the agreement. If he fails to resolve the issue, lodge a complaint with the Banking Ombudsman. A somewhat similar casecame up before the consumer court sometime ago. (State Bank of India vs N.K.Sharma, RP No 4403 of 2010, decided on 4-1-2012) In this case, an employee of the bank took a home loan at a special rate of interest applicable to employees. When he opted for early retirement, he signed an agreement with the bank, for payment of commercial rate of interest of 13 per cent as prevailing at that time with the condition that as and when the bank revised the rate, he would pay that. Subsequently, when the rate of interest went down in 2003 to 8.25, the bank argued that only an upward revision would be applicable and not a downward revision. The consumer court asked the bank to refund the excess interest collected and also pay a compensation of Rs 5,000, besides costs of Rs 10,000. The manager of my bank, offered a very good rate of interest if I deposited a certain sum in fixed deposits, which I did. After it matured, the bank gave me the promised rate of interest, but three months later, when another old FD matured, deducted Rs 12 lakh from it on the grounds that by mistake had a higher interest rate had been quoted for the FD that had matured earlier and excess interest had been deducted. Can they do this? This is unacceptable. To get your deposit, it offers a specific rate of interest, obviously higher than the other bank, and later, tries to recover it through another FD. This is unethical and an unfair trade practice. You should get back Rs 12 lakh with interest, as well as compensation and punitive damages. Approach the consumer court for compensation.
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