I am not a salaried employee, so as a freelancer with inconsistent income, I get loans and cards via relationship building. It's a long and slow process, but that's the only avenue available to me. I had OneCard Federal for 3 years and I hardly get any limit increase on it. All my cards are 3+ lakhs except my Federal OneCard. I read that OneCard BOB users were getting lots of increases, some having even over 7.5 lakhs. I am getting a consensus that BOB is typically more generous with limit increases and loans. So I plan to slowly start building BOB relationship and switch my OneCard over to BOB. However, I don't want to maintain a minimum balance on yet another bank account. So I'm looking at Lite, but are preapproved loans and cards available with a Lite account?
You can skip the following if you want but will help paint a better picture of my concern.
You can skip the following if you want but will help paint a better picture of my concern.
Most of the people here are business owners or salaried employees, so you may not understand my unique situation. As a freelancer with inconsistent income, I use pre-approved loans and credits to fill the gaps and live in relative financial stability (i.e. pay rent and bills on time etc) as I do have faith in my ability to repay debt and credit. I sometimes earn as low as ₹5k some months to like ₹3 lakhs in others, and there is no consistency in dates, some project milestones are long and I only get paid after I complete it. So only way I'll be eligible for cards is through building relationships and perfect credit (no default, missed, or late payments.). I have attained HDFC regalia card among others without consistent income or a job this way. Through banking relationship and pre-approved offers.
I am worried BOB Lite because...
I had one of the worst experiences getting Axis Bank Infinity (now AMAZE), a supposedly "fully digital" baking account. I had to deal with manual verification as video KYC was not enough based on arbatery decision by branch among other issues, but the biggest slap in the face was... I kept getting pre-approved loan offers after building a relationship with the bank only to realize I needed to upgrade my account to a regular savings account to avail loan through digital personal loan portal. The bank staff themselves did not know this. It took 3 months of escalations to finally figure it out. I upgrade account and loan offer goes away because I had applied for a "pre-approved" Neo card and that one inquiry (HDFC doesn't do this, preapproved is preapproved, but axis does? Weird.) was enough to remove the 4 lakhs loan offer. So I am stuck with a MAB requirement account without any active pre approved offers. I want to avoid having to open BOB if I need a MAB account for loans and stuff.
I am worried BOB Lite because...
I had one of the worst experiences getting Axis Bank Infinity (now AMAZE), a supposedly "fully digital" baking account. I had to deal with manual verification as video KYC was not enough based on arbatery decision by branch among other issues, but the biggest slap in the face was... I kept getting pre-approved loan offers after building a relationship with the bank only to realize I needed to upgrade my account to a regular savings account to avail loan through digital personal loan portal. The bank staff themselves did not know this. It took 3 months of escalations to finally figure it out. I upgrade account and loan offer goes away because I had applied for a "pre-approved" Neo card and that one inquiry (HDFC doesn't do this, preapproved is preapproved, but axis does? Weird.) was enough to remove the 4 lakhs loan offer. So I am stuck with a MAB requirement account without any active pre approved offers. I want to avoid having to open BOB if I need a MAB account for loans and stuff.
Last edited:
