ICICI direct.com - Beware Of Hidden Rules & Charges.
Online stock market trading is gradually gaining ground in India with increased penetration of broadband services. There are more than ten popular trading platforms are available for Investors.
Some of my friends & new investors in the stock market want to know , Which is the best online trading platform in India? I am still unable to figure out the best trading platform among popular ones. However I would like to share my views on ICICI Direct.Com .
I have been using ICICI direct.com for more than five years now. I opened it because I had an account with Icici bank, so felt convenient.
ICICI direct.com was the first amongst e-trading sites which introduced integrated seamless operations for on-line trading and banking in the country.
ICICI direct commenced services on 17 Apr. 2000. It is and remains the first to offer integrated services of banking, depository services and e-broking,
ICICI direct.com is stock trading company of ICICI Bank. Along with stock trading and trading in derivatives in BSE and NSE, it also provides facility to invest in IPOs, Mutual Funds and Bonds. Trading is available in BSE and NSE.
Dear friends, before knowing the details of Icicidirect.com services, I would like to suggest the investors, It is true that stock market investments can give amazing returns in a short time. However, it is only rare.
It is almost impossible to time the markets exactly. One should always need to take some risk in stock markets. So plan your investments, according to your risk taking capacity. It is very risky to look for immediate financial gains.
Finally I suggest you all, Please decide yourself whether you are a trader or investor or both. I am an investor. I will never do trading but invest for short term.
Now if you are planning to open a demat and trading account with ICICI Direct.com it is better to understand the following advantages & disadvantages.
Advantages :
Icici direct.com Online trading is very user friendly and one doesn’t need any software to access.
The biggest advantage is there is no hassles of filling IPO forms ... Ipo is just clicks away. similarly for mutual funds, postal savings, F&O, etc .
One big advantage of net trading is that you don’t have personal or physical interface with the broker or advisor. This could be very good for those who take their own decisions and are self-directed traders
The three in one account is the most useful & convenient for online investors. It integrates your banking, broking and demat accounts. All the accounts are from ICICI and very well integrated. This feature makes ICICI the most interesting player in online trading facility. There is absolutely no manual interfere require. This is truly online trading environment.
Unlike most of the online trading companies in India which require transferring money to the broker’s pool or towards deposits, at ICICIDirect you can manage your own demat and bank accounts through ICICIdirect.com. Money from selling stock is available in ICICI bank account as soon as the ICICIDirect receive it.
Finally the good part is as I said, a plethora of products and it works well in off-market hours. So if you are not an active trader and don’t mind that that little bit of extra brokerage, it might just fit your needs.
Disadvantages :
The trouble begins with the initial sign up itself. The process of signing up and opening an account with ICICI direct sometimes takes as long as three weeks. This is much longer than other online brokerage services like Indiabulls, Sharekhan and Kotak securities.
Please beware of lots of hidden rules and charges.
Poor customer service.Their customer care doesn’t respond and even email to their Head, quality of service is broken. It’s really frustrating.
At times the website is very slow. In times of heavy load, even the so called Low Bandwidth Site refuses to load. Getting access to ICICIDirect.com website during market session can be frustrating.
ICICI direct Brokerage is high & non negotiable compare to other brokerage houses.
The brokerage charged by ICICI is ridiculously high. Small retail investors often do not know enough about how much brokerage they’re paying. Most get carried away thinking ICICI is a ’big company’ they can trust,
Most brokers will charge you barely .10% or .20% for delivery based transactions. ICICI charges a whopping .70 %. This is a big differences since brokerage is not a valued added service.
Encourages speculation and day trading. People, who trade may be once a month, will start trading four times a month. So surely the number of trades will increase gradually. Speculative trading is very risky.
ICICI options and futures trading is very amateurish. For those who’re into options trading, there is a system generally prevalent in the market of selling ’Covered options’. This involves selling a call option of a stock you already own and if the price goes up, giving delivery of the stock. ICICI doesn’t permit this. You have to square up your position at the end of the month. So ICICI is just not meant for those who’re into trading derivatives
Not all stocks are available under Margin Plus.
If you are interested in day trading and F&O, I would not recommend ICICI direct despite some very good feature like seamless transfer of money and margin against share.
Brokerage and fees
Account opening fees : Rs 750/- (One time non-refundable)
Brokerage : ICICI direct.com brokerage varies on volume of trade and inclusive of demat transaction charges, service taxes and courier charges for contract notes. It ranges from 0.1% to 0.15% for margin trades, 0.2% to 0.425% for squared off trades and 0.4% to 0.85% on delivery based trades.
Finally considering both the merits & demerits of Icicidirect.com, personally I would not recommend to open the online demat account in ICICI direct.com.
It is always better to take the help of a professional and qualified investment advisor before opining the online demat account..