Loans

The rate is only half the decision on a car loan; the other half is how much of the on-road price the lender will fund

Public sector banks are materially cheaper than NBFCs on education loans, and for study in India they should be the first call — but they are slower and stricter on collateral, which is why families under an admission deadline end up at an NBFC paying several points more.

Gold loans are fast, need no credit score, and are cheap relative to unsecured credit — but they carry a risk no other retail loan does: default means your.

Twelve lenders compared on advertised rate, benchmark, processing fee and tenure — and why the benchmark matters more than the headline rate.

Where personal loan pricing actually comes from, and the two costs that decide the deal.

For a long-tenure home loan in India, floating is almost always the right answer — not because rates will fall, but because genuinely fixed-rate home loans are rare, expensive, and usually fixed only for an initial period before reverting to floating anyway.

Settling a loan and closing a loan are entirely different outcomes on your credit report

Most rejections are not about income

The Kisan Credit Card is the central instrument of Indian farm credit, and its economics turn entirely on the interest subvention and the prompt-repayment incentive.

Default on an unsecured loan is a civil matter, not a criminal one

New car loan rates at major banks start at about 7.60% p.a. (Bank of Baroda, PNB); SBI charges 8.40%–9.35% and HDFC Bank quotes from 9%.

How far the CGFSEL guarantee goes, and what banks ask for above it.

No-cost EMI is not free

Consolidating credit card debt into a personal loan is one of the few pieces of financial advice that is almost unconditionally correct on the arithmetic: cards revolve at roughly 42% annualised, personal loans at 11–18%.

The published rate on an education loan matters less than what happens during the moratorium

For overseas study the decision is rarely just the rate — it is the currency

Several lenders price electric vehicles below comparable petrol models under green-loan programmes, and the concession is worth asking for by name because it is not always offered — check the quote you are given against current car loan interest rates and our ranking of the best car loans.

On floating-rate term loans taken by individuals for non-business purposes, RBI rules bar foreclosure charges and prepayment penalties

Gold loan rates span roughly 9% at banks to the high teens at NBFCs, and the rate alone is not the cost

A balance transfer is worth doing when the interest you save exceeds the total switching cost

Two separate limits decide your loan, and the smaller one wins.

Home loan rates at major banks start at about 7.20%–7.25% a year (Bank of Baroda 7.20%, SBI and PNB 7.25%); the repo rate is 5.25%.

Under the new tax regime, the Section 24(b) deduction on interest for a self-occupied property is not available, and neither is the Section 80C deduction on principal.

A top-up on an existing home loan is usually the cheapest large borrowing available to a salaried Indian outside a loan against fixed deposit — typically priced a little above the base home loan rate and far below the 10–24% of an unsecured personal loan.

Self-employed applicants are not turned away, they are priced differently — typically 25–75 basis points above the salaried card rate, with more documentation and a longer sanction.

This is very often the cheapest credit a salaried Indian can access, and almost nobody knows it exists

You can borrow 80–90% of a policy's surrender value — but only on plans that have one, and not on a term plan.

A loan against property is cheaper than a personal loan and more expensive than a home loan, which is exactly where it should sit

Raising money against shares and mutual funds without selling — and the margin call that comes with it.

NRIs can borrow to buy residential property in India on broadly similar rates to residents, but on materially shorter tenures — commonly capped around 15 years against 30 for residents — which raises the EMI substantially for the same loan.

An overdraft charges interest only on what you draw and only for the days you draw it, which makes it the right instrument for irregular, short-term needs and the wrong one for a fixed purchase.

Transferring a personal loan is worth far less than transferring a home loan, because the tenures are short and the interest is small in absolute terms.

Personal loan eligibility depends on credit score, net income after EMIs and employer. RBI sets no minimum CIBIL score; 750+ helps most.

Below about 650 an unsecured loan is priced at 20–24% where it is offered at all, and a secured alternative is nearly always cheaper.

Why the advertised floor and the rate you are actually offered are rarely the same number.

A plot loan is not a home loan with a different name

Who PMAY-U 2.0 actually covers, and why the eligibility test happens before any builder or lender gets involved.

RBI regulates lenders, not apps. Check an instant loan app in RBI's DLA directory and confirm its lender is a registered bank or NBFC.

Section 80E allows a deduction for the entire interest paid on an education loan — no cap at all — for up to eight years.

Two-wheeler loans carry the highest rates in vehicle finance — often into the high teens or beyond — on small amounts where the processing fee is a large proportion of the total.

Used-car finance is priced several points above new, with shorter tenures and lower funding — because the collateral is harder to value and depreciates.

Vidya Lakshmi is the central government portal for education loans — one application form reaching multiple participating banks, with no intermediary and no fee.