Ram Fincorp Released Rs 26,901 and Wants Rs 42,622 Back. Its Own KFS Says 173% a Year.

Ram Fincorp, an app operated by R.K. Bansal Finance Pvt Ltd, an RBI-registered NBFC, released a net Rs 26,901 to a salaried borrower in Bengaluru. It now wants Rs 42,622 back. The difference is not a penalty for a missed payment and not a late fee added afterwards. It is the price of the loan, and it is printed on the document the company itself produced.

What the Key Facts Statement says

The Key Facts Statement is the page a regulated digital lender must put in a borrower's hands before the money moves. It exists so that the true cost of a loan cannot hide inside an app screen. Ram Fincorp's KFS discloses interest of 120% a year and an all-in Annual Percentage Rate of 173.39%, repayable in six monthly instalments of Rs 7,103.

None of those figures is alleged. None of them rests on a borrower's memory of what a call-centre agent said. They are on the lender's own paperwork, and they are the reason the arithmetic works out the way it does. Rs 26,901 reached the account. Rs 42,622 is demanded. The cost of the credit is Rs 15,721 over six months. For every rupee the borrower actually received, roughly 58 paise is owed back on top of it.

Read the instalment rather than the percentage, because that is the number a borrower meets. Rs 7,103 has to be found on a fixed date, six times, out of a salary that did not rise to meet it.

What that does to the person paying it

A rate expressed as an APR is easy to skim past. An instalment is not. Rs 7,103 a month is a rent contribution, or a school fee, or a month of groceries for a small family. It falls due whether or not the salary landed on time, whether or not somebody was ill that month, whether or not the reason the loan was taken in the first place has gone away.

Small "instant" credit is sold on the promise that the sum is trivial. Rs 26,901 is a modest amount of money. Rs 42,622 repaid across six fixed instalments is not a modest obligation for somebody who needed Rs 26,901 urgently enough to borrow it from an app. At this cost the loan is hard to grow out of on the same salary that could not absorb the original shortfall. The common next step is a second app loan taken to cover the first instalment, and that is where a borrowing problem becomes a debt problem.

What the law actually requires here

Start with what is not in dispute. R.K. Bansal Finance Pvt Ltd is registered with the Reserve Bank of India as an NBFC. The RBI Digital Lending Guidelines of September 2022 require that the lending on a digital app be done by a regulated entity, and on that point this loan sits on the right side of the line.

The RBI does not fix a single ceiling on what an NBFC may charge. What it does regulate, tightly, is disclosure and conduct — and that is where a borrower's leverage sits.

• Everything must be in the Key Facts Statement. Under the Digital Lending Guidelines the KFS must carry the all-inclusive Annual Percentage Rate and every charge that makes it up. A fee that does not appear in the KFS is not a fee the borrower agreed to pay. If a demand includes a processing, platform, insurance or "convenience" charge that is nowhere on the KFS, that discrepancy is the thing to raise, in writing.
• Fees to the app are the lender's problem, not the borrower's. Any amount payable to a lending service provider must be paid by the regulated entity itself and not recovered from the borrower.
• Money must move directly. Disbursal and repayment must run between the borrower's bank account and the regulated entity's, without being routed through a third party's pool account.
• There is a look-up period. The Guidelines require an exit window during which a borrower may repay and walk away by paying the principal and the proportionate APR, without a penalty. Its length is set by the lender's board and must be stated in the KFS. Look for it on yours.
• The rate has to be defensible. Under the RBI Fair Practices Code, an NBFC's board must adopt an interest-rate model that accounts for cost of funds, margin and risk premium, disclose the rate and the gradation of risk to the borrower, and the RBI has separately told NBFCs that excessive interest is not to be charged. A disclosed rate is not automatically a lawful one, and a borrower is entitled to ask on what board-approved basis 173.39% was arrived at.
• Recovery has limits that do not move. The Fair Practices Code bars recovery that humiliates or intimidates a borrower, confines contact to reasonable hours, and prohibits interference with a borrower's privacy. Calls to an employer, to family members, or to a phone's contact list are not collection practice; they are conduct the RBI's own code prohibits.

What a borrower in this position can do today

None of the following costs anything, and none of it needs a lawyer.

• Secure the documents before anything else. Download and save the Key Facts Statement, the sanction letter and the loan agreement. Screenshot the app's repayment screen. Then pull the bank statement line showing the exact amount credited on the exact date. The gap between what the KFS says and what the bank shows is the entire case, and once an app is updated or an account is closed, those screens can become hard to retrieve.
• Reconcile the demand against the KFS, line by line. Write down every rupee being asked for and match it to a charge disclosed on the statement. Anything left over is unexplained, and unexplained is exactly what you put in writing.
• Complain to the lender in writing first. Send it to the grievance redressal officer the NBFC is required to name, ask for a full account statement showing every credit and debit, and ask for the clause authorising any charge you could not match. Use email so that the date is fixed. This step also starts the clock you need for the next one.
• Take it to the RBI. If there is no reply within 30 days, or the reply does not answer the question, file at cms.rbi.org.in. The complaint is free, it is filed online, and disclosure and recovery conduct by a registered NBFC are squarely within the RBI's remit.
• Confirm who actually lent to you. An app is a shopfront; the lender is the entity named in the agreement. Check that name against the RBI's register through sachet.rbi.org.in. If your paperwork names no registered entity at all, report that there.
• If recovery turns to pressure, log it and report it. Screenshot the call log, save the messages, note who was contacted and when. Threats, and contact with your employer or your contact list, can be reported at cybercrime.gov.in or on 1930, alongside the RBI complaint.
• Do not take a second loan to pay the first instalment. It is the single decision that turns a difficult six months into something much longer, and every app in this market is built to make it the easiest option available.

Why we are naming the company

Everything set out above comes from Ram Fincorp's own Key Facts Statement and from published RBI regulation. There is no anonymous allegation in it and nothing that depends on a document we cannot see. We name R.K. Bansal Finance Pvt Ltd because somebody typing "Ram Fincorp" into a search box at eleven at night, with a bill due, deserves to find the disbursal figure, the demand figure and the disclosed APR side by side before they tap accept.

We do not link to the app, the company's website or any app store listing, and we will not. Sending a reader who is already short of money one click closer to the loan would defeat the only purpose this article has.

Right of reply: R.K. Bansal Finance Pvt Ltd has a standing invitation to respond. Any correction, clarification or statement — including the board-approved basis for the disclosed rate — will be published in full and unedited alongside this piece. Write to editor@oquilia.com.

Evidence · redacted copy to be published

Ram Fincorp Key Facts Statement disclosing 120% per annum interest and a 173.39% APR on a net disbursal of Rs 26,901

Your rights, and how to report

The lenders in this series are RBI-registered NBFCs, bound by the RBI's Fair Practices Code: no recovery calls before 8 am or after 7 pm, no contacting your employer, family or references to pressure you, no abuse or threats, and the all-in APR must be disclosed in the Key Facts Statement. Read the full plain-English guide on Oquilia's loan-harassment help page.

To report a lender: start at RBI Sachet, escalate unresolved complaints to the RBI Ombudsman (CMS) after 30 days, and report threats, harassment or data misuse at the National Cyber Crime portal or on 1930. Keep every screenshot, email and call log - that record is your evidence.

More from this investigation

• Zayloloan: 1% a day and a 458% APR - one firm, four apps
• Rupee On Time: an effective rate of about 635% a year
• Toofan Loan: 269 borrowers exposed in one email

Frequently asked questions

Is a Ram Fincorp loan legal in India?

Ram Fincorp is operated by R.K. Bansal Finance Pvt Ltd, an NBFC registered with the Reserve Bank of India, so the lending itself is lawful. The RBI does not cap what an NBFC may charge, and a high rate that is properly disclosed is not automatically unlawful. What the law does control is disclosure and conduct. The Key Facts Statement here discloses interest of 120% a year and an all-in APR of 173.39%, repayable in six monthly instalments of Rs 7,103, against a net disbursal of Rs 26,901 and a demand of Rs 42,622. Under the RBI Digital Lending Guidelines of September 2022, every charge must appear in that KFS, fees to the app must be borne by the lender and not the borrower, money must move directly between your bank account and the regulated entity's, and there must be a look-up period letting you exit by repaying the principal and the proportionate APR without penalty. Under the RBI Fair Practices Code the board must have adopted an interest-rate model for the rate, and recovery that humiliates or intimidates you, or that reaches your employer, your family or your contact list, is prohibited outright. Practically: save the KFS, the agreement and the bank statement line showing what was actually credited, match every rupee demanded against the KFS, write to the NBFC's grievance redressal officer, and if there is no proper reply within 30 days file free at cms.rbi.org.in. Report threats or contact with third parties at cybercrime.gov.in or on 1930, and check the lender's name on the RBI register through sachet.rbi.org.in.

Can a loan app call my office or family?

No. Under the RBI Fair Practices Code, recovery agents may not contact your employer, family or references to pressure you, may not call before 8 am or after 7 pm, and may not use abuse or threats. Approaching your workplace or contacts to shame you over a loan falls outside lawful recovery, whatever an app's agreement says.

How do I report a loan app to the RBI?

Start at RBI Sachet (sachet.rbi.org.in). If the NBFC does not resolve your complaint within 30 days, escalate to the RBI Ombudsman through the Complaint Management System. For threats or data misuse, use the National Cyber Crime portal (cybercrime.gov.in) or call 1930, and keep all screenshots and statements.