What is NEFT?, How to Transfer Money Through NEFT

NEFT is an abbreviation for "National Electronic Funds Transfer". The NEFT is a nation wide payment system facilitating one-to-one funds transfer. It operates on a deferred net settlement (DNS) basis and settles transactions in batches. The settlement takes place with all the transactions received before a certain cut-off time. NEFT is not available on the bank holidays, RBI holiday and Sunday.

NEFT Features

1. Minimum amount - Rs. 1
2. Maximum amount - No limit, but generally RTGS is preferred for transfer of funds over Rs 2,00,000
3. Transaction charges - Not more than Rs 2.5/- plus service tax for any transfer up to Rs 10000, not more than Rs 5/- plus service tax between Rs 10000 and Rs 1 lakh, not more than Rs 15/- plus service tax between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 2 lakh and not more than Rs 25/- plus service tax for those above Rs 2 lakh.
4. Timings - Available 24x7 , 365 days as the RBI has regularised that NEFT transactions will have round the clock availability on all days of the year and hence the bank customers can transfer funds through NEFT around the clock on all days including holidays.

Benefits of NEFT Transfer

• Available 24x7, 365 days.
• Funds transfer through NEFT is a safe and secure process.
• Funds get transferred very fast i.e. usually in a few minutes.
• You need not draw the physical cheque or send demand draft to the beneficiary for fund transfer from your account.
• The beneficiary will not have visit his bank branch to deposit the cheque/ DD in his account.
• No fear of loss/ theft of cheque/ DD.
• It saves cost and time.
• The customer can make intrabank as well as interbank payments.
• You get notified about the credit confirmation via SMS.

Charges for NEFT Transactions

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has waived the processing charges levied by it for NEFT transactions, w.e.f. July 01, 2019. Now the banks may pass on this benefit to their customers.

The RBI has advised the banks to not to levy any charges from their savings bank account holders for NEFT funds transfers done online w.e.f January 01, 2020. The RBI has also prescribed following limits on charges for NEFT Transactions that can be charged by the banks to execute any outward NEFT transaction through their branches:

• up to Rs.10,000: not exceeding Rs.2.5 (exclusive of tax, if any)
• Above Rs.10,000 up to Rs.1 lakh: not exceeding Rs.5 (exclusive of tax, if any)
• Above Rs.1 lakh and up to Rs.2 lakhs: not exceeding Rs.15 (exclusive of tax, if any)
• Above Rs.2 lakhs: not exceeding Rs.25 (exclusive of tax, if any)

Inward NEFT transactions will be completely free and not charge wll be levied.

In view of this, most of the banks have made NEFT transactions done online free. However, there are some nominal charges for RTGS done from bank branches.

NEFT Transfer Timings

NEFT is available 24x7, 365 days with effect from December 16, 2019. Earlier, NEFT transactions used to be available from 8 AM to 6:30 PM from Monday to Friday & 8 AM to 12 PM on Saturdays.

The RBI has regularised that NEFT transactions will have round the clock availability on all days of the year and hence the bank customers can transfer funds through NEFT around the clock on all days including holidays.

Check out here what is NEFT and RTGS.

Modes for NEFT Fund Transfer

1. Internet Banking: You can transfer funds to the beneficiary from your desktop/ laptop using Internet Banking channel
2. Mobile Banking: You can send money to the beneficiary through your Mobile app
3. Branch Visit: You can visit the nearest branch of your Bank and fill the NEFT form to carry out an NEFT transaction

How NEFT Works?

How to Do NEFT Transaction?

You may be interested to know what is NEFT and how it works? Above, it has already been explained what is NEFT? Here, the detailed process of how NEFT works and how to make fund transfer through NEFT has been described below:

1. First of all, you need to visit the URL of your bank
2. Log on to internet banking section using your login credentials i.e. user id and password
3. Home screen of the section will appear
4. Choose option "Fund Transfer" under the "Payments and Transfer" tab
5. There will be 3 options for making fund transfer which are RTGS, NEFT and IMPS
6. Choose "NEFT" option
7. Select the name of beneficiary from the list of beneficiaries, to transfer the funds
8. Enter Amount to be transferred
9. Verify the entered details
10. Click on "Confirm"
11. A 4-digit OTP will be sent to your registered mobile number
12. Enter the OTP in the space provided
13. Click on the "Submit" button to initiate the transaction

If the beneficiary is not already added for fund transfer, add the beneficiary first. and then proceed for fund transfer through NEFT.

Information Required to Furnish NEFT Fund Transfer

For initiate a Fund Transfer through NEFT, the remitter needs to furnish the following details:

• Account number of te remitter
• Name of the beneficiary
• Name of the beneficiary bank
• Account number of the beneficiary
• IFSC of the destination bank branch
• Amount to be remitted
• Cheque (for offline channel)

Get the details about What is NEFT and IMPS and their differences.