If someone wants to go for a DEMAT Account, which one would you suggest? I have heard of ICICI, ShareKhan and MorganStanley
Is it better to go for one with online trading? Please share your experiences. In case, you are planning to make a post on this topic send me the link. I shall publish it here 
How is ICICI Direct? I have seen many people use it. But then knowing ICICI’s online reliablity, I wonder how it is.
Deepak. Help please
I have had no issues with ICICIDirect. On weekends, the site goes down for ‘maintenance’ but otherwise I think it is pretty good. The only thing that bugs me are the charges…I believe that these are a tad higher than other brokerage houses. And of course, they ‘lost’ the customer’s papers during the Mumbai floods !!!
I use ICICI direct, they give wonderful service. Brokerage charges are also pretty reasonable.
I don’t understand multiple DMAT account concept. Why would someone need more than one DMAT?
Prabhu….
Few things u need to consider before you open a demat and online trading account…
1) try to open an account with a bank where u already have banking account…it reduces a whole lot of headache of pay in & pay outs. you can sync ur trading account with ur bank account there by making fund flow easier…
2) make sure the account you give to ur brokerage is the one u have given in your tax returns also…as ur PAN will be mapped
3) charges on broking depends on the volume you trade..so chose one depending on it
4) if i am correct sharekhan expects you to have a HDFC bank account to open a demat and trading account with them…
5) Morgan Stanley if i am correct does not has retail brokerage ..
ps: I am in this industry..hence so much gyan
..sorry for it
Mukunth,
Really? ICICI Bank site is getting frequently down off late. Especially, when I want to do funds transfer
Bachodi,
I am NOT looking at more than 1 DEMAT account
Srivathsan,
Why are you sorry, man? Thanks for the information. Your inputs are valuable
Very very important is that you issue FREEZE instruction to your bank when the DMAT is not operational for quite some time.
Recently there has been a rise of illegal sales from other dmat account.
So, if you are planning NOT to use the dmat for some time, get it FREEZED else somebody can sell out the shares from there illegally.
All the major dmat account depositaries have been facing this risk.
cheers
mohan!
Veerasamy released today man……
I’m using ICICI for sometime. The service is OK. There are few glitches like the Networth link won’t work during trade hours, the graphs will not work most of the times,etc. Their brokerage charges are more than other providers. And yes, they have lost all the documents that I’ve submitted: http://blog.grprakash.com/2006/12/22/icici-bank-is-flooded
I’m thinking of opening an account with ShareKhan/Kotak, but not sure of their service quality either.
Hi Prabhu: What I would recommend is Sharekhan. I am opening an account with Reliance money also but that is too young for me to recommend yet.
Sharekhan has been good to me over the last three years and charges a lot lower than ICICI Direct. 0.5% for delivery versus 0.75% at ICICI Direct. But ICICI Direct also allows you to buy mutual funds online (which Sharekhan hasn’t yet started).
Sharekhan links to a number of banks ; I have an HDFC bank account. Transfers from HDFC to sharekhan are instant, the other way takes one working day. ICICI Direct gives you a bank account to link to – you can’t choose to link an HDFC account for instance. This does not work well if your company pays salary into your HDFC account
Also what do you want to do with the demat – do you want to just put your existing shares there or do you want to buy regularly? Online trading works best if it’s linked with the demat account – in fact in most online trading its mandatory. So Sharekhan has its own demat, so do ICICI and reliance money.
I suggest you take an online account because you don’t know when you might decide to buy shares…
- Deepak
ICICIBank is different from ICICIDirect…I am sure that they cannot afford downtime on a trading platform. Also, as pointed out on one of the comments, get an account where your bank,demat & trading are seamless & is in 1 place…otherwise you would be hassled in filling up demat slips for off-market trades !
prabhu, my friend jazeem suggests geojit
I am using ICICIDirect and Sharekhan.
I am paying annual charges for Sharekhan as 500 Rs. and for ICICIDirect 750 Rs.
ICICIDirect also gives some corporate schemes where they are charging brokerage as low as 0.05% (yes its point zero five percent) with waiver of annual maintenance charges for first two years.
Everything else Deepak has already mentioned…
My suggestion is if you are not going to do daily trading/short term trading then don’t go for online accounts. If you are looking from long term investments (which is highly recommended) perspective the offline process is pretty simple. You will save on annual maintenance charges and offline-brokers charge very less brokerage compared to online brokers.
Converting your existing shares into Dematerialized form or transferring from other Demat a/c into ICICIDirect a/c is very expensive. I am not aware of what Sharekhan charges.
HTH
Hi Prabhu
I have been using ICICIdirect for a few years now. I have had no problems with ICICI direct (I cannot say the same for other ICICI products). It integrates with my ICICI bank account, so incase I have a problem either with my bank account or the demat account I just need to go to one place.
can any one pls suggest some links to know about DEMAT, mutualfunds? I want to invest but b4 that i want to know about those…
Hi Sami,
I am investing in the stocks with the help of a weekly email newsletter called Infostock Newsletter. I find it very good comparing others. If you want to get some good knowledge just visit http://in.groups.yahoo.com/group/infostock_dka
Please give my name Geetanjali and email gptingm@gmail.com for that I will get additional benefits.
Geetanjali
hi
i have used ICICIDirect for sometime and it solves most of your onlineissues and gives good banking support( icici a/c).
i have seen people using sharekhan which is also good but lags a lot when it comes to banking support. but now days because of the ECS facility i have heard those things are solved.
+
1. good banking support( swap Rs b/w savings to demat )
2. can do all sorts of mutual-funds, sips
3. quite estabilished guy
-
1. Site is pretty slow when it comes to transaction
2. Lot of people using it.
Hi
I have a 3-in-1 A/c with Icici Bank (Bank a/c, Demat A/c & Trading a/c), of which i am operating the trading a/c portion since last couple of years without any issues. I have not seen or used any other demat or trading a/c like Karvy, Sharekhan, etc.
ICICI Direct is a versatile a/c using which you can invest in shares – both IPO as well as secondary market, mutual funds including SIPs/STPs, Post office saving schemes, RBI Bonds, etc. Since it is connected to ICICI bank savings a/c, we can transfer the funds (during business hours) & allocate it depending on our requirement.
In secondary market, it also provides opportunities for day trading including margin trading.
We can also do derivatives trading in shares (futures & options) as well as commoodities. I think ICICI is the only online portal providing commodities trading to retail investors.
Plus, they send lots of research reports on companies with clear-cut recommendations & time lines. They also conduct Knowledge Programs in all cities wherein they impart the basics & nuances of online trading, derivatives, commodities, ideal portfolio management, etc.
One trouble, if you can call it that, I am facing is whenever I forget password, it takes at least a week to get it & re-start my demat/trading a/c.
Overall, I feel ICICI Direct is a fantastic site with reasonable speed & good security features.
If you already have a savings a/c with ICICI Bank, I feel you should go ahead & open the demat and on line trading a/cs too with them.
Hi I am new to Stock broking…can anybody tell me on how to start with the process…please helpme…