Just thought I'd vent a little. Nobody likes lawyers, a given. But bankers are just a little behind them, in my experience. So..., I started this Indian adventure by talking to the Indian finance people. They ran my numbers, okayed me for a loan, needed 10% down, no problem. Ten minutes and I'm pre-approved. But I thought I'd give my own bank a shot at this, local people, ya know, and I've banked/borrowed money/payed off loans there for more than twenty years. Same initial experience, she (hereby know as "the lady", ran my numbers, said I was good, and was all smiles. Then, at the end, it gets stupid. She says that new banking policy asks to see your income tax forms to verify your income. No problem, I skooted right home and brought them right back. She studies them for a couple of minutes and states, "you only have $5000 in income. I said, "no, thats not correct, you must be looking at the wrong figure. Who makes 5K in income?" I take the forms and show her the W2s from both my jobs, which clearly adds up to what I told her. "No, she says, line 2bc#8cc (whatever) says that you make 5 K." I'm still being polite, and again state, you must be looking at the wrong line. She then takes it out of her office to somebody who is more "qualified" to read income tax forms and comes back in ten minutes with, "the other person agrees that you have 5 K in income, but I'll check it out with my more experienced superior tommorrow and call you back." Next day, an hour after she said she'd call me, I call her and she says, "you're right, you're approved." THEN, I clearly ask her, cause now I'm seriously thinking about the purchase, HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE TO PROCESS MY LOAN? Sign the paperwork and such, and walk out with the money? The lady says, "Oh, that's NO PROBLEM, just come in and sign a few papers and it's 15 minutes. I asked her again, in a different way, to be sure, and she assured me it was no problem at all. NEXT DAY, I stroll into the bank at ten after nine, I'm ushered into her office, she looks at the paperwork I've brought, and she states, with no smile, "oh, I can't do this loan today at all, NO WAY. The person who usually does this is not here, and I'm too busy. MAYBE, if I work late tonight, I can get it done tommorrow. At this point I'm still being calm, and stated, "well, that's a problem, cause I already called the dealer and he's prepping the bike, I've already called my guys to cancel work for today and I've made plans with my wife. You said yesterday it would be 15 minutes." She says, "Well, I might get a chance to get it done this afternoon (?), but I can't promise anything." I left the bank, and the more I thought about it, the madder I got. I drove two blocks to another bank, talked to a nice young guy, and he approved me and would get the loan for me in an hour. But, the terms were not very good, so I declined. Finally, I just said **** this, pulled out all my savings, (which is not what I wanted to do) and drove up and did the deal with Indian. No problem, 15 minutes and friendly as hell. TOMMORROW, I'm gonna go down to my "friendly neighborhood bank, we're there for you, blah, blah, commercial blah, and close my accounts. I'm really steamed. It is true that I'm no a high roller, just a modest, honest small businessman/carpenter, but I'm not gonna just roll over because they have the "power".
