I’d used the online funds transfer facilities of my bank many times before using the NEFT method. This time though, I stumbled upon the RTGS account of DELL. I was curious since I’d been using NEFT all along.

So I did some research and here’s what I found:

The basic requirement for transferring money electronically on your own is to have a NetBanking Account from your Bank. Almost all private banks offer the service of a NetBanking account to their customers freely. The only thing you need to do is to fill in the form and mark all the services you need to avail on that form.

The first step to take before making an online transaction using this account is to add a payee to your list of parties with whom you would like to carry out these transactions. This can be done very easily by providing the Bank and Account Details of the concerned party. Details provided by you are verified and the party is a added to your list of payees in a maximum time of 24-hrs after which you can perform your transactions.

EFT or electronic funds transfer to accounts within the same Bank is done very easily and it takes place almost instantly. But transferring money to accounts outside your own bank takes more time. Funds transfer to other banks can be done in two different ways that serve different kinds of needs and functions. They are:

• NEFT – National Electronic Funds Transfer
• RTGS – Real-Time Gross Settlement.

NEFT is suitable for customers who want to transfer relatively smaller amounts. This kind of transaction may take something between a day or 3 days to reflect into the payee’s account. This is because NEFT operates on a Deferred Net Settlement (DNS) basis which settles transactions in batches. In DNS, the settlement takes place at a particular point of time. All transactions are held up till that time. For example, NEFT settlement takes place 6 times a day on weekdays (9.00 am, 11.00 am, 12.00 noon. 13.00 hours, 15.00 hours and 17.00 hours) and 3 times during Saturdays (9.00 am, 11.00 am and 12.00 noon). Any transaction initiated after a designated settlement time would have to wait till the next designated settlement time. NEFT transactions attract a maximum charge of Rs 5/- for a transaction below Rs. 1 lakh and of Rs 25/- for transactions above Rs. 1 lakh.

RTGS system is primarily for large value transactions. The minimum amount to be remitted through RTGS is Rs.1 lakh. There is no upper ceiling for RTGS transactions. Also, under normal circumstances the beneficiary branches are expected to receive the funds in real time as soon as funds are transferred by the remitting bank. The beneficiary bank has to credit the beneficiary’s account within two hours of receiving the funds transfer message.The RTGS service window for customer’s transactions is available from 9.00 hours to 16.30 hours on week days and from 9.00 hours to 12.30 noon on Saturdays for settlement at the RBI end. However, the timings that the banks follow may vary depending on the customer timings of the bank branches.

RTGS transactions attract a charge of Rs 25/- for a transaction between Rs. 1 lakh to Rs. 5 lakh and of Rs 50/- for transactions of Rs. 5 lakh and above. Also note that RTGS facility is not available with all the banks. As on December 31, 2008 more than 52,000 bank branches are RTGS enabled. The list of such branches is available on RBI website.

The debit of the transferred amount from your account happens instantaneously, the credit to the beneficiary account happens in some time, depending on the kind of transaction. In case, the transfer is unsuccessful for various kinds of reasons the transfer amount is credited back into your account along with any fee charged for that transaction.