Imagine you already have a home loan and now after few years of payment, you again need some extra loan for some purpose? What would you do? One would ideally think of applying for a fresh loan from scratch and might get it too. But there is a faster option to get a loan if you already have a running home loan and its called top-up loan.

How does top-up loan works?

When you take a home loan for the first time, you have some home loan eligibility up to which you can take the loan. If you have consumed that full limit, then you are not eligible to get any further loan immediately, but over the years when you have paid back some part of your loan and if your income has also increased, then it may happen that your loan eligibility has gone up. At that point, you are eligible to take up a top-up loan which is over and above your existing home loan. What exactly happens if you get a loan up to an amount of your loan eligibility minus your existing outstanding loan.

Almost all the bank rules say that you are eligible for a top-up loan only after 6-12 months of paying off the earlier loan because only after some time is over, your loan eligibility changes.

Let’s take an example

Assume that Ajay, a software engineer working in Bangalore has an income of Rs 10 lacs a year. Assume that his loan eligibility was Rs 50 lacs and he takes a home loan of Rs 45 Lacs. Now assume that he has serviced the loan EMI for the next 3 yrs and now his overall income has gone up to 12 lacs per annum and his outstanding loan balance now is only Rs 38 Lacs. Now based on his current income, his new loan eligibility is 55 lacs.

Now if he applies for a top-up loan, the bank will deduct the 38 lacs of an outstanding loan from his new loan eligibility of 55 lacs and only provide him 17 lacs (55-38) of the top-up loan. The documentation and the overall process will be faster in this case, as there is an existing relationship and also the history is known by the bank. Below is the graphical representation of the same example I took above.

You need to have a good repayment track record to avail a top-up loan. Just because you have some loan eligibility does not mean that there is a guarantee of getting a top-up loan. The final decision is always with the loan provider. The bank will also investigate with you the purpose of taking the top up loan. Below you can see for what purpose the top up loan can be taken.

• Renovation at home
• To be used as a personal loan
• To buy another property
• To buy a plot or Land
• Purchase of consumer durable products
• Children’s marriage/education
• Business requirements
• Medical expenses

5 Benefits of Top-Up Loan

Benefit #1- Tax Benefits on a top-up loan 

You will get tax benefit on a top-up loan only if the loan amount is used for buying a house (on principle and interest) or if you are using it for renovation purpose (interest part). For any other purpose, if you use the money, you will not get any tax benefits.

Benefit #2- The interest rate for a top-up loan 

A The interest rate for the top up loan is around 1.5% to 2% higher than the home loan interest rate of the bank, which means it can go up to 11.5% to 14% finally.

Benefit #3- No Security Required

A top-up loan does not need you to mortgage some asset, because its given on top of your home loan and anyways your home documents are with the bank. So one important point to note here is that even if you close your original home loan, you need to also close your top up loan before you can ask back your original house papers from the bank.

Benefit #4- Top-up loan amount 

 Generally, the amount of top-up loan cant exceed the original home loan amount you have taken and also there is always an upper limit defined by the bank for the top up loan, which can range anywhere from 15-40 lacs. So if you have taken a Rs 30 lacs home loan, you can take the maximum top-up loan of another Rs 30 lacs if your eligibility supports you after some years.

Benefit #5- Processing Fees

Almost all the banks will charge a processing fee for approving the top up loan . The charges are same as their home loan processing charges . For example – if you take a case of HDFC LTD , the charge 0.75% of the loan amount or Rs 2,000 which ever is maximum as the loan processing charges for the top up loan.

Top up Loan is a good alternative of Personal Loan

By now you must have understood that a top up loan is a much better alternative to a personal loan. there are a much higher chances of getting a top up loan if you already have a home loan and have a clean and good track record of payment in past. Also if you have already passed 3-4 years of your home loan repayment , you can get a decent amount of top up loan. Given the interest rates of personal loan can be as high as 18-24% , its always a good idea to try for top up loans.

Let me know if you knew about this concept or not ?