All ya would be investors and traders. I know how important having a good trading account is, and that is the reason you are here, reading this review hoping it would help you make a better decision. Let me try and put my 2 cents here and hopefully it helps you take the right decision.
I have been using HDFC for close to 2 years now. I have listed down some of the pro’s and con’s of HDFC and also tried to provide some info on how the competitors are doing on these parameters. So let’s get started with the good stuff then.
*The Good
*1. Interface is pretty good. It’s not too difficult to use, and after a while you get comfortable with it. So I would give it a thumbs up on the interface. I think it is probably better than ICICI in this respect, but not sure how it compares with Reliance Money.(PS: I am just talking about the interface here, not the features which are provided by the trading account. So HDFC interface might be better but ICICI might provide more features. We shall get to that later).
Seamless integration of the trading account, demat account and saving account. HDFC gets a thumbs up here, although there is not much difference between ICICI and HDFC when it comes to this. I guess this is where both HDFC and ICICI beat Reliance Money.
Trust. I know this is a very important component. I also know that most folks who have used HDFC, use it because they trust it. I have not had problems to date(touch wood). I do not know of any issues with ICICI users and Reliance Money users as well, although I did hear there were issues with Sharekhan and India Bulls users. For the most part there are no hidden charges, and you get a detailed report within a few days of making a transaction, so in this respect it’s good.
Site stays up most of the time. Now I know how important this is to most of you. Again I have not had issues with HDFC and I know this is a major issue for ICICI. When ever the trading is heavy ICICI locks you out, which is exactly what you do not want. No issues with Reliance Money from this perspective.
*The Bad
1. Commissions are high. This works out to close to 0.7%(0.5% brokerage+ 12.36% Service Charge on the brokerage+ STT @ 0.125% of the total trade) for delivery trade and about 0.14% for intra day trade(Brokerage - 0.1%+ Service Tax @ 12.36% of brokerage and 0.025% of STT on the total trade). This is much higher than Reliance Money, but lower than ICICI(definitely). One thing you need to remember though is that on intra day trade if the total brokerage is less than Rs 100, then the brokerage charged is Rs 100. So for example, if you are buying 4 lot’s(lot size= 50) of Nifty Call options and the option is charged @ Rs 25. Then for each lot the brokerage would be 5025*.01= Rs 12.5. Since this is below Rs 100, you would be charged Rs 100. Now for 4 lot’s you would be charged Rs 400 brokerage on Rs 5000 total trade, which is 8% brokerage!(This applies even you submit a single order for 4 lot’s).
Market Research / Recommendations are not good:-(. IDBI Paisa Builder is much better in this respect. They provide a lot of recommendations. I believe ICICI & Reliance Money are better in this respect, but then you can always sign up for an account with poweryourtrade, which should fill this gap.
Help is pretty bad. There is help available on the site, but it’s of not much use. You need to burn your fingers a couple of times before you figure out how to use the site.
Pre Market Orders not possible: This is the real killer for me. Working professionals should be able to submit their orders before going to office(at least the option should be available) and the trading account should take care of the rest, but this is not possible. You can submit orders only when the market is up, which does not make sense to me. It’s the thing I miss the most. The problem is that Reliance Money and ICICI also do not provide this feature, so no point switching to Reliance of ICICI for his particular feature.
The Stop Loss orders do not work properly for Options. Again this a problem. I want to submit a stop loss order to ensure that if there is an upward swing then I can catch the swing but at the same time if a profit making option starts going red it should sell it. This does not happen though. What happens is that the order gets converted to a regular order and as soon as it hits the stop loss, the option is sold. So I do not actually make a loss because the order is executed at the correct stop loss price, but I miss out on potential profit.
*The Ugly
*Ok, lot’s of people have written about this, the customer service is bad. But I have spoken to different folks and also done a lot of research on the web and what I figured was that HDFC is bad, but ICICI and Reliance Money are not too good either.
Anyway, I gotta sign off now. Post your comments, and I shall expand this review a bit more. I am collecting data on this, so hopefully I would be able to present more information later. Incidentally, I am running a survey right now where I am collecting data from different people about their experience with different trading accounts, and from the responses I got, most of HDFC folks are quite happy and are not considering switching, but looks like ICICI people are not too happy and they want to switch. If you would like to present your perspective you are free to take the survey at: https://eSurveysPro.com/Survey.aspx?id=6c011e7c-093b-4d09-a40c-bafb8966d003 . Your input would go a long way to making this a better review. The survey will be open till Dec 31, 2007.
Thanks and Best Regard!