Today, a consumer looking for a loan is typically greeted with a plethora of "options". On the face of it, this should translate into a beneficial scenario for the consumer. However, given the limitations of time, the physical effort required to procure information on all available options, the complexity involved in analyzing and comparing the terms of each option and understanding the true picture, the process of seeking a loan becomes a mind-boggling exercise. And after all the effort, the choice that is finally made may not necessarily be the wisest one. Moreover, most banks and other lending organizations cannot possibly provide the consumer with a comparative analysis of all the options available in the market. It’s here that e-market places like apnaloan.com have a role to play.

Apnaloan.com caters to all kinds of loans and credit needs through a common contact point. The consumer has the option of analyzing services offered by different organizations in one place and this makes his job easier.

The loan process

The consumer today has a crying need for help in understanding the entire process of taking a loan, identifying and making a choice from those that best match his individual needs. In another sense, you have an unusual situation where the consumer perceives himself as the taker of a loan rather than a giver of business—due to the treatment meted out to him along the entire loan-taking process.

Apnaloan assists and guides the consumer at every step through the entire process of taking the loan. Based on his requirements, the customer can narrow down his options and apply for the deal that suits him the best. The company offers a wide variety of personal and financial products such as auto loans, personal loans, credit cards and home loans using the Internet as a primary consumer contact channel, for both residents of India as well as NRIs.

The loan-seeker is required to provide certain basic details like his income, the amount required and the reason for the loan. Every lending organization has a set of minimum requirements that must be met to be eligible for a loan. Based on these factors, Apnaloan selects and displays the options available and then the customer can choose according to his preferences of interest amount, loan duration or other criteria. "This is a much better deal for the consumer as he has access to all the information in one place," says Manish Bhardwaj, assistant manager, HDFC Bank.

In addition, Apnaloan also assists the consumer in the process of filling up the application and provides counseling by sending its representative to meet him personally. "Sometimes on meeting the customer we find that he doesn’t have all the documents required for a particular loan. Here instead of rejecting his application like most individual banks would do, we try and find him the next best organization where he can be eligible for the loan," explains BK Vishwanathan, COO, Apnaloan.com. "Current marketers of loan products are restricted to supplying loans from a single institution and are not, therefore, in a position to advise him beyond their offerings."