Though I gave the title of my post "HDFC...." as I took home loan from HDFC on 2012 but I would share the experience to some of my friends along with mine in respect of this home loan.
When I initiated my process of taking home loan in Kolkata, I, after very poor behavior of SBI, inclined towards the private players. At that time the difference between EMI between SBI and HDFC is very minimal . Now the points you can ponder about. Recently one of my friend took home loan from same SBI in Bangalore and it's smooth like a cakewalk. I suppose in Kolkata , due to the work ethics, the service and behavior of SBI was that bad. So instead of internet you must have a local analysis about that particular financial institution before taking a final call. The additional advantage of SBI will create a current account linked with your home loan. So if you put any money the EMI will dynamically adjusted with the principal.
Come back to the topic: before taking loan from HDFC apart from SBI I went to "LIC Housing Finance" (LICHFL), I found it's suspicious. The customer care guy was pressurizing me to take semi fixed scheme. If I remember correctly at that time EMI was 10.0 % in HDFC, LICHFL told "you would better go 3 years fixed where the EMI rate of interest would be 10:25-10.30", as they're trying to convince me EMI would only rise for next 5 years so I'd get benefit. I was not convinced and eventually I was correct.
Now what I found at that time ICICI & HDFC is more or less same. But here is another catch : initially I found the processing fees for the loan was same for both the bank and hence I went for HDFC which is more reputed home loan institution than ICICI.......IMO.
Now unfortunately within a month I found there was a new ICICI branch opened in our locality and to attract customer ICICI was ready to waive the processing fees :-((
So you must be very analytical and take your time to find who is your lender.
Now about the pros of HDFC.
Till 2015 June, I found HDFC is cool, giving option/offer to customer for a minimal conversion fees to reduce the home loan but after that I found HDFC is pathetic.
The reason is simple. There are consecutive two rate cuts by RBI. the last one (Sep 2015) is massive , 50 bps and unexpected though.
But HDFC is not ready to pass the benefit to the customer.
So I recommend for the present scenario, new loan customer, go for SBI!
