
Have a home loan? Here's how to squeeze the most out of it.
Jagadeesh Mohan, a former Phonepe executive, is working on a new business, one that revolves around overdraft (OD) home loans similar to SBI Maxgain. These are home loans that allow you to park surplus funds into the loan account at any point. The bank then charges you interest on the outstanding amount minus the surplus you have parked.
According to Mohan, replacing a standard loan with an OD loan and moving idle money into it from your savings account can result in huge savings. Yes, the money you move to an OD account won't earn any interest, as it would in a savings account, but it will help you save on interest the bank would have otherwise charged you on your outstanding loan. By forgoing 4-6% savings-account interest, you are essentially saving 8.25%, the interest on home loan.
Also read: How you can cut costs of holding demat accounts
Why not simply prepay the loan outstanding with the surplus, you may wonder. That's because the idle cash parked in the OD account that reduces your loan interest outgo can be withdrawn at any time and for any reason.
«Since interest is calculated on a daily basis, even if you park your surplus at the start of the month and withdraw some of it by the end of the month, you would still save some interest compared to a regular home loan account,» said Mohan, who founded Emisaver.com. According to his calculations, even ₹5 lakh parked in a Maxgain type home loan account can save ₹18 lakh in interest over the tenure of a 25-year home loan.
Hyderabad resident Ankur Pathak (43) bought his first flat in 2014, for which he took a regular home loan from HDFC Bank. He got to know about SBI Maxgain through a fellow resident of his society. He then did his own research and thought it would be
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