Professional loans are custom made credits for individuals in various professions. They are provided by lending institutions to professionals so that they can invest and expand their practise or fulfil personal funding needs.
A personal advance for doctors is thus a type of professional loan specifically designed to meet the funding needs of medical practitioners. These advances come with a high-value financing option against minimum eligibility and are available with unrestricted end-use, making them suitable for diverse funding needs.
However, before availing this type of loan, there are several things that a doctor should know. For instance, a medical practitioner must know the doctor loan interest rate, eligibility criteria, etc.before applying for the same.
Given below are some essential aspects of a personal loan for doctors that one should know of before applying.
- Interest rates –
Before applying for the loan, one should check the doctor loan interest rates offered by various lending institutions. It will enable them to opt for a suitable professional loan with competitive interest rates and at favourable terms. Additionally, they can also negotiate with their existing lenders for favourable interest rates and charges with the right eligibility.
While comparing lenders, they can use a loan EMI calculator to compute the most affordable option. To use the calculator, they should input the following data –
- The amount of loan for doctor
- The interest rate charged by the lending institution
- Repayment period
The calculator will display the total repayment amount and total interest amount along with EMIs payable.
- Fees and charges–
Along with doctor loan interest rate, borrowers should also check the fees applicable on their advance. Given below are some of the fees that lending institutions commonly levy–
- Processing fee,
- Penal interest,
- EMI bounce charge,
- Document/statement charges.
Apart from these charges, some lenders may charge a specific amount as part-prepayment or foreclosure fees. Additionally, you should also make sure that the lending institution does not levy any other hidden charges to keep the loan affordable. Apart from this, there are other questions that you must think about when looking for a doctor loan provider.
- Eligibility criteria –
Lending institutions also require medical professionals to satisfy the following criteria to be eligible for a personal loan for doctors–
- Doctors with BDS/BHMS/BAMS must hold an experience of two years after medical registration.
- Doctors with an MBBS degree should hold two years of post-qualification experience.
- Specialist doctors with an MD/DM/MS degree do not need to have experience. However, their MBBS degree must be registered with the medical council.
- Credit score –
Since personal loans are a type of unsecured advance, lenders refer to credit score to determine the repayment capacity of a borrower before approving his or her loan application.Therefore, Individuals should take the necessary steps to improve their credit score such as paying off all their debts in time, restricting their credit utilisation ratio to 30%, adopting a healthy mix of secured and unsecured credit, and so on.
- Application procedure and documentation–
Given below are the steps required to apply for loans for doctor in India –
Step 1: Go to the official website of a lending institution.
Step 2: Click on the online loan application form.
Step 3: Enter the requisite details in the application form.
Step 4: After the submission of the application form, the lending institution will get in touch with the applicant within a day to inform him/her about the approved loan amount.
Step 5: Applicants need to submit the necessary documents to receive the loan amount. They can also apply offline for a personal loan by sending an SMS or giving a missed call on the number provided by the lending institution.
Some lending institutions also provide pre-approved offers to applicants for a seamless loan application procedure. Besides professional loans, such offers can be availed on other credits like personal loans, business loans etc. To check your pre-approved offer, you need to provide only your name and contact information.
Apart from factors like doctor loan interest rate, fees and charges, one should also know about the documents that will be required during the application procedure. The necessary documents have been listed below –
- KYC Documents such as Voter ID card, PAN, Aadhaar card, passport, driving license or any other officially valid documents.
- Medical registration certificate
In addition to these aspects, borrowers must read through the loan agreement terms set by the lending institution before finalising their professional loan application procedure.