A gold loan is a method of financing in which a borrower pledges their gold with the lender for a short period. The lender after performing a quality check of the Gold assigns the amount which can be provided to the borrower in exchange for the gold so pledged.
Gold loan is one of the safest ways of arranging finance. It is a secured mode of getting finance so it also does not keep banks at the edge of their seat. In case funds are not received, they can sell gold in the open market and can recover their money. The benefit of the person getting a gold loan is that a gold loan is a very easy way to arrange for finances in a very short period. The procedures of getting a gold loan have also been very simplified.
With the advancement in technology and a rapid explosion of digitization, most of the services of banks have been bought online. Now customers with just a few clicks can get a gold loan very easily which some years ago seemed impossible.
Banks and lenders have invested significantly in developing their mobile apps and websites through which they provide almost every banking service to their customers. This saves a lot of running costs on the part of banks and customers gets benefited from the ease of operations and saving of their time and energy which earlier got invested in visiting the bank branches again and again for documentation and other stuff.
Nowadays one of the easiest ways to apply for a gold loan is online mode. The customer just has to visit the branch once to deposit their gold with the bank and all other tasks can be done online. Through a bank’s online portal getting a bank loan is just a matter of some seconds. Many banks provide gold loans at competitive rates. Gold loan interest rate vary from bank to bank. Some of the major banks and their interest rates are disclosed below:
SBI gold loan (9.50%)
HDFC gold loan (9.90%)
Dena bank gold loan (7.10%)
Axis bank gold loan (10.50%)
These were only some of the major lenders. There are many available in the market to choose from. HDFC gold loan is known to charge one of the lowest interest rates in the market while HDFC and Axis banks are famous for their services such as fast disbursement and after-sales services, SBI itself holds the reputation of being the largest banks in the county. So each service provider which makes it better than the other. The customer should carefully analyze all the options available and choose the best one for them.
Even to apply online for a gold loan a customer has to fulfill certain criteria-
The customer has to be of 18 years of age or above to avail of the gold loan
The customer must be an Indian resident
The customer must have a self-owned house property in his/her name
The gold must be in the possession and ownership of the customer who is applying for such a gold loan
Various documents are also required to be filed even though a customer is applying through online mode-
Proof of identities such as Adhaar card, Voters ID, Pan card, and any other identity proof accepted by the bank
Proof of residence such as Utility bill of the house/ Adhaar card/ Voters ID, Pan card
The good thing about a gold loan is that it can be availed by the person even having a low or an adverse CIBIL score. As a gold loan is a secured loan, banks are not much concerned about the CIBIL score of an individual.
Conclusion:-
Getting a gold loan has been made very easy by the banks. One of the fastest ways to avail of a gold loan is online, that is by visiting the portal of a bank from which you are interested in taking the gold loan. By taking everything online, digitization has proved to be very beneficial for banks as well as customers.