Car loan - Challenges

As some of you might have noticed BankBazaar’s portfolio is growing rapidly. The recent addition is car loan. As with any other business there were various challenges at various stages. First it was convincing the banks that our model is unlike any other lead aggregation model and that it is much cheaper and efficient. As would have known already BankBazaar doesn’t “sell” a loan. A loan application at BankBazaar is highly transparent and intent driven. The user has the option to compare various banks by the single most important parameter, the total cost of a loan, which includes interest rates, taxes and fees; pretty straightforward. In spite of the convenience provided it has never been easy to convince customers. This challenge gets compounded in the case of car loans. The dealer (who gets a significant cut of the loan, btw) hand holds the customer through the loan process. Customers fall for it not realising that the interest rate provided need not be the lowest and there is a lot of bargaining to do to get the best deal. One solution that has currently been put out at BankBazaar in association with HDFC is a discount in interest rate and processing fee. Let’s see how it goes. Do spread the word.