How to Transfer Funds into your Trading Account?

There are many things to consider when trading in the stock market, and one of the first decisions you’ll have to make is to fund your trading account. Choosing the right funding option can be the difference between immediate success and joining the long line of unsuccessful traders who failed because they started out without enough cash in their accounts. There are different transfer methods and fees involved with each method, so you’ll want to know how to choose which method works best for you and your trading needs before you jump in and start transferring money.

To transfer funds to the trading account, here are your options:

1.Transfer funds to your trading account using a payment gateway

Banks such as the SBI, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, and the Axis Bank offer online payment gateways. The biggest advantage of using payment gateways is that you can use either a net banking account or a debit card, and the transfer is completed immediately.

The following are some of the important things you need to remember if you are using a payment gateway for transferring funds:

• Your broker would charge a fee or Rs. 10 or Rs. 20 each time you use the payment gateway. If you plan to add money to your trading account frequently, this might be an issue because the costs will add up.
• Secondly, SEBI rules and regulations don't allow you to use a charge card as well as a credit card to add money to your online trading account. You would be only permitted to use net banking or debit cards for this purpose.

2.Transfer funds into your trading account using RTGS/NEFT/IMPS

National Electronic Fund Transfer, commonly known as NEFT, is a common method. Here are the basic details and the advantages of this method:

• It typically takes about 2 to 3 hours to transfer funds via NEFT.
• There are no additional fees such as transfer charges in NEFT transfer.
• NEFT allows you to transfer money into commodity and/or equity trading accounts.
• NEFT also permits you to use either online fund transfer or use a NEFT cheque

If your broker has an account in the same bank as you, NEFT transfer would be instantaneous. Therefore:

• You need to add your broker's bank account as a beneficiary.
• The transfer has to be done using an OTP and a password, as part of a two-level authentication.

Real-Time Gross Settlement or RTGS is similar to NEFT. However, RTGS allows you to only transfer funds of more than Rs. 2 lakhs.

While RTGS and NEFT can be availed during official banking hours - between 9 am and 6 pm - an IMPS fund transfer can be used at any point in time apart from specific NEFT timings and official holidays. The two most important things to remember about IMPS are:

• IMPS is a 24X7 facility.
• IMPS requires transfer charges.

3. Transfer of funds into your trading account using cheque/DD

The third option, which is widely used, is money transfer through a cheque or Demand Draft. However, the disadvantage of this method is that it is not applicable for online trading account fund transfers.