Worst place to borrow money. Review on Home Credit India

I took two loans from this company, I'm going to share my experience. If you don't want to go through the whole review, just read the short review.

Short review:

Pathetic service, customer care executives behave like robots, they repeat everything on and on, until you disconnect the call. Money recovery is very very forceful, just bounce one cheque even if you have paid all your EMIs on time and they will harass you like you have committed a heinous crime. If you know you can pay their EMI on time without missing a single ECS, go for them, else just don't avail their service at all.

Long review:

I will write this review in sections because there is a lot to say.

Background:

I took a loan for a mobile which I paid every month without missing a single EMI. There were delays of 1-2 days but not more than that. Still they behaved as if I haven't paid their EMI for months and I was avoiding them. My loan was cleared and after about a year, I got another call from them telling me how I was a good customer, how I never missed a single EMI, etc. All this was to sell me another finance product. This time they were offering Rs. 50, 000 without any document or collateral. It sounded too good to be true, so I inquired about the interest rate, they said it was more than 4% per month!. I told them I'm not interested and disconnected the call.

After about a month, I got another call from them selling me the same thing, I gave the same reply and disconnected. This went for almost a month, they kept calling every alternate days. Finally I agreed to take their loan, if I say it correctly, they convinced me to take their loan. My loan was approved and money was deposited within 15 days to my bank account.

Moral: Do not ever let them convince you to take a loan if you don't really need it. They are very good at convincing you and you will most likely fall in their trap.

Customer Service:

I think they have two teams handling customer service, one team is human and the other ones are robots. When they call to convince you to fall in their trap, they use humans. When you call them regarding any query you might have, they use robots. And literally I mean robots. If you have a conversation with them somehow, either they contact you regarding cheque bounce or any update or you call them, a robot will handle the call. They will repeat everything on and on until you grow tire and disconnect the call. They do this intentionally or is it their habit is a big mystery. I think they don't talk this way to any people they know like their friends. They treat all customers as retards or unworthy of trust, hence they repeat everything. You will be overloaded with information.

One thing to note is that your query will be resolved.

Moral: Make sure to avoid conversation with them.

Money recovery:

If in case you miss an ECS, you are one of the most wanted criminal in their hit list. They will start calling you from morning 7:00 am all the way up to evening 6:00 pm sometimes even later. The usual frequency of their call will be 5 - 15 mins if you don't pick up. This will start on the first day after missing ECS. On the second or third day, they will call any reference number you have given with the same frequency if they don't pick up. Once you pick up their call, the usual robot conversation begins, repeating everything over and over. They will force you to make a promise of paying on certain date. Sometimes they even threaten you or your reference about police coming to your place, etc. If you miss that date, the process starts all over again - keep calling -> robot like conversation -> force you to make a promise. This time they will also send a money collection agent(the agent will usually call you before they visit).

I have seen and experienced many other finance providers, but all are very subtle except if you are way behind your due, like several months. But Home Credit treats each day as a month. So 2 days behind means 2 months behind according to them. Once they called me and said I was levied a penalty of Rs 350 because I was 1 day behind my due(they waived it off though after much argument)

Moral: Pay every EMI on time, that's it!(or don't take any loan from them).

Staff Attitude:

As mentioned, they treat every customer as a retard, helping you means extra work for them, so they do it in very rude way as if they are forced to do it(or they make it appear so that you don't call them again).

Moral: self explanatory.

Conclusion:

If you really need finance, explore every other options possible before choosing Home Credit. You will get your money, but you will loose your peace, mental health and a lot of interest(pun). It should be your last option for your last option.