Sir,
My father is illiterate and cannot read or understand English. In Jan 2023, my father's firm C.C. facility was taken over by HDFC bank from SBI. They made my father sign the sanction letter without explaining all the conditions regarding charges and just orally assured my father that there wont be any hidden charges.
My father had a personal current account with SBI. HDFC bank then imposed a penal interest of 2% because of the condition in the sanction letter about Sole Banking Partner clause. However, my father had informed hdfc officials about this SBI current account and they had verbally assured that no charges will be imposed.
HDFC bank did not refund the extra interest charges up until after complaining to RBI ombudsman.
Similar other hidden charges like cash deposit charges etc. were imposed which has made the experiences with the bank unsatisfactory.
Therefore my father decided to move the cc loan facilities to KOTAK BANK which enhanced the total limit amount and also offered reasonable interest rate.
However now HDFC officials are saying that there is a foreclosure charges of 4% if loan is taken over by other bank during the tenor of loan. This charge amounts to 12 lakhs rupees which is a substantial amount. This condition effectively restricts the customer to bank unable to use other bank services.
Now the point is that my father is illiterate in ENGLISH and did not knew about this foreclosure charges at the time of signing sanction letter.
Is there any provision in civil law which can help my father avoid these charges ?
