IDFC FIRST Bank, established in 2015 and headquartered in Mumbai, offers an education loan for study abroad with interest rates from 8.5% to 12.75%. The processing fee is 1.5%, and the loan amount can go up to ₹1.5 crore, with tenure from 12 to 180 months. Loans are collateral-free up to ₹75 lakh for select institutions, and up to 100% of education expenses can be funded, covering tuition, hostel, laptop, books, and other related expenses.
Applicants can claim an income tax benefit under Section 80E. The loan is open to Indian nationals, including NRIs, aged 18 and above, and pre-admission sanction is available for applicants without confirmed admission.
Required documentation includes a fully-filled application form for student and co-applicant, photo ID proof, proof of residence, a passport-sized photograph, proof of admission or entrance exam score, the last 6 months' bank statements where required, relationship proof for the co-applicant, balance fund proof, residence ownership proof, and collateral and income documents where applicable. Rate type, prepayment penalty, minimum loan amount, minimum CIBIL score, minimum salary, and employment type eligibility are not published for this product.
At 8.5%, IDFC FIRST Bank has one of the lowest starting rates of the 5 lenders we track for education loans (abroad).
Tax: interest is deductible under Section 80E (no cap, up to 8 years). Foreign lenders (labelled below) are not RBI-regulated — read their terms carefully.
They lend without Indian collateral and are useful for some students, but they are NOT RBI-regulated — shown here with a distinct badge. Compare their all-in USD cost against an RBI-registered Indian lender before deciding.
Every row is date-stamped with the day we last checked it, and links to the lender’s published material so you can confirm it yourself. A row we confirmed against the source reads “Verified”; one we could only sight reads “as of”, and is not presented as confirmed. Anything we have not re-checked in 60 days is marked “rate under review” rather than left to look current. We do not claim a fixed re-checking cycle — the date on each row is the honest answer.
No. Viewing rates is not a credit enquiry and has no score impact. A hard enquiry happens only when you formally apply to a lender.