Guides
One question, answered properly.
Practical, plain-language guides to borrowing in India — documents, eligibility, ratios and decisions, each answering one question properly.
Guides
Home & property
7 guides
How much home loan can I get? Five numbers that decide it
The amount a lender will consider is set by five things: assessed income, existing obligations, the property's loan-to-value, the tenure, and your credit behaviour. Here is how each one changes the answer.
↗Loan-to-value (LTV), and the margin you fund yourself
Loan-to-value is the share of a property's value a lender will fund. What it means, why it is not the same as the price, and what the remainder costs you.
↗Home loan documents: the complete checklist
The documents a lender typically asks for on a home loan — identity, income and property papers — grouped by the question each one answers, and how to prepare them so the file reads cleanly.
↗The costs a home loan does not cover
Stamp duty, registration, processing, legal and valuation, insurance and margin — the costs outside the sanction, and how to plan for them before you commit.
↗Should you prepay your home loan?
Prepayment reduces total interest, but it is a decision about liquidity and alternatives as much as arithmetic. How to weigh it honestly.
↗Joint home loans: how a co-applicant changes the numbers
A co-applicant can raise the amount a lender will consider and share the repayment — but the obligation is shared too. What to weigh before adding a name.
↗Is a balance transfer worth it? The arithmetic that decides
A balance transfer only wins if the total saving beats the total cost of switching. How to compare across the remaining tenure rather than the headline rate, and where the arithmetic usually breaks down.
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Personal & vehicle
4 guides
Personal loan or loan against property?
Unsecured borrowing is faster and needs no collateral; a loan against property is usually larger and cheaper but puts an asset on the line. How to choose between them.
↗What actually stays on your credit report
The report a lender reads: repayment history, open loans, enquiries and settled accounts — and why recent behaviour carries the most weight.
↗What a lender checks before approving a personal loan
Unsecured lending is priced for risk, so a lender reads income stability, credit behaviour and existing obligations closely. Here is what carries weight, and what works against you.
↗New or used? How vehicle finance changes with the car
A vehicle loses value, and lenders lend against a falling asset. How that shapes the margin, the tenure and the risk for new and used vehicles.
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Education & gold
3 guides
The education loan moratorium, and the interest that keeps running
Repayment on an education loan usually starts after the course, but interest does not wait. What the moratorium does, and how to keep it from inflating the loan.
↗Education loan collateral and the co-applicant
Beyond the admission letter, an education loan is assessed on the co-applicant's strength and, for larger or overseas loans, on security. What that means in practice.
↗Gold loans: valuation, LTV and what happens if you default
Gold is valued on purity and weight, the advance is capped against that value, and a missed repayment can end in auction. What to understand before you pledge.
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Business & working capital
3 guides
Cash credit, overdraft or term loan?
Three ways to fund a business, suited to three different needs: a revolving working-capital limit, a flexible account limit, or a scheduled loan for a defined asset.
↗What a lender reads in a business loan file
A business loan is assessed from turnover, banking, returns and vintage — and from whether those tell one consistent story. What matters, and what undermines it.
↗The working-capital cycle, explained
Cash goes out before it comes back in. The gap between paying for what you sell and being paid for it is what working-capital finance exists to cover.
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Cross-cutting
5 guides
FOIR explained: how a lender decides what EMI you can carry
FOIR — the fixed-obligation-to-income ratio — is how a lender tests a proposed EMI against your income and existing obligations. What it measures, what counts, and why the same income can give different answers.
↗Fixed or floating? How the choice changes the loan
A fixed rate trades certainty for flexibility; a floating rate moves with the lender's benchmark. What the choice really decides, beyond the opening number.
↗Reading an amortisation schedule
The schedule shows how each instalment splits between interest and principal. Read it, and the behaviour of a loan — and of prepayment — becomes obvious.
↗How many loan applications is too many?
Each application can leave an enquiry on your credit report, and a cluster of them in a short window can read as pressure. How to approach lenders in sequence.
↗What 'pre-approved' actually means
A pre-approved offer is an indication, not a commitment. What it is based on, why the final terms can differ, and how to read the offer honestly.
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