My chief grouse with HDFC Securities’ online trading interface is that the user interface is really, really, REALLY bad. It is unintuitive, and gives no natural way of doing the things one would expect such an interface to be used for. The user is essentially expected to figure out what to do by trial and error (and given that there is money involved you never really know what an error might cost you) and memorize a strange series of hoops you have to jump through to do something. The thing that really gets me is that getting an acknowledgement or record for something you did is almost impossible. I recently tried investing in IDFC Bonds through HDFC Securities. There is no mention of the word ’bond" anywhere on the links: One needs to somehow discover that you can do this through the IPO/FD section.
In order to buy the bonds (or anything else) you need to block funds from your associated bank account first - but do they tell you this first or indicate it in the interface? No. So you go through the application process and then are told there aren’t enough funds because you haven’t blocked any. The interface provides you the option of blocking the funds there - but there is no acknowledgement that this has happened correctly. I ended up in the situation where funds appeared to have been blocked, there was no indication that my application had gone through, and I had no idea what to do - whether to try applying again for example, for fear that my account would be debited twice And of course if there a place on the site which will show me this transaction it appears to be a carefully guarded secret (believe me I have spent much more time than I care to trying to look for it). HDFC Securities appears to think that just being online is adequate.
I don’t know much about other online trading platforms and their user interfaces in India, but I am tempted to abandon HDFC Securities because their user interface is torture. I don’t trade or dabble in shares often - I can only imagine how horrible it is for someone who is forced to endure it more frequently.