Online money transfer has made life easy and convenient. People can send and obtain money from any corner of the country from within the comforts of their homes. People don’t have to rely upon visiting a bank in order to transfer funds. The credit for this entirely goes to the electronic fund transfer schemes offered by the banks to its customers. At present, funds can be transferred electronically through schemes such as NEFT and RTGS, provided the sender knows the IFSC code of the beneficiary’s bank and his account details. For instance, people transferring money to an HDFC Bank account will require the HDFC Bank IFSC Code.

IFSC Code

IFSC code is a unique alphanumeric code that enables electronic transfer of funds via NEFT, RTGS or IMPS. It is an abbreviation for Indian Financial System Code. This code helps to identify the beneficiary bank and branch during electronic fund transfer. All banks and its branches in India that offer electronic fund transfer services have an IFSC code. You can find the IFSC code for every bank, be it HDFC Bank IFSC Code or Axis Bank IFSC Code, on the official website of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). It is also printed on the cheque book provided by the bank or on its official website.

This 11-digit code is divided into 3 parts. The first four digits denote the bank code, followed by a zero (0) and the last six digits signify the branch code. While the bank code remains the same for every branch, the branch code differs from one branch to another. For example, the Axis Bank IFSC code for GK-1, New Delhi branch is UTIB0000049 and the HDFC Bank IFSC Code for Lokhandwala, Mumbai is HDFC0000159.

What is NEFT?

NEFT is the abbreviation for National Electronic Funds Transfer. It is an electronic system of transferring funds from one bank account to another using internet banking and mobile banking. The funds can be transferred between two accounts of the same bank or of two different banks. It is also used to make automatic payments from your bank account towards EMIs, credit card bills, etc. Both the bank branches should be NEFT-enabled to be able to make an NEFT fund transfer.

All NEFT transactions are regulated by the Reserve Bank of India and are done in 23 half-hourly batches. The amount will be credited in the beneficiary’s account within a maximum of 2 hours. However, the funds are settled within 8 am to 7 pm on all working days, which does not include 2^nd and 4^th Saturdays.

What is RTGS?

RTGS is the short form for Real-Time Gross Settlement. It is an electronic fund transfer system that allows people to send and receive money on a real-time basis through mobile internet banking. It allows a person to transfer money from one account to another within the same bank or in a different bank, provided both banks are RTGS-enabled. It transfers money faster as compared to NEFT as the transfer requests are settled continuously on order per order basis.

The RBI also regulates all the RTGS transactions and settles them from 7 am to 6 pm on all working days. The transferred amount is credited in the beneficiary’s bank account within the 30 minutes of receiving the fund transfer notification.

Offline NEFT and RTGS Transactions

While people living in semi metro and metro cities are able to transfer money through NEFT/ RTGS at the drop of a hat, there are still many people who cannot. A lot of people in India do not know how to transfer funds online. This is because not everyone in our country has a mobile phone or access to a computer system. Even if they do, there are network issues and poor wifi connectivity which makes online fund transfer a distant dream. To allow such people to benefit from electronic fund transfer schemes, the NEFT and RTGS services can be availed offline.

The NEFT & RTGS transactions can be made offline by visiting the nearest branch of your bank. This makes it possible for people with no access to internet or computer system to make an NEFT or RTGS transaction. Moreover, people who are reluctant in making an online fund transfer due to a possibility of fraud can also go for the offline mode of NEFT/ RTGS transaction.

For instance, you have an account in HDFC Bank and want to transfer money through NEFT/ RTGS, you can do so by visiting your nearest HDFC Bank branch. Just make sure that branch you visit is NEFT/ RTGS enabled and has an HDFC Bank IFSC Code.

How to do NEFT & RTGS Offline?

In order to make an offline NEFT and RTGS transaction, you can follow the steps given below:

• Visit the nearest NEFT/ RTGS enabled branch of your bank
• Fill up the NEFT/ RTGS fund transfer request form. Make sure that you enter details such as the name & account number of the beneficiary, the amount to be transferred, name of the beneficiary bank and the IFSC Code of the beneficiary’s bank branch such as HDFC Bank IFSC Code
• Attach a cheque leaf along with the request form for an RTGS transaction
• Submit the request form to the bank officials
• The bank official will debit the amount from your account and transfer it to the beneficiary’s branch using NEFT/ RTGS

Please note that the banks will charge a fee for making an NEFT/ RTGS fund transfer. Since RBI has not fixed any charges for offline NEFT and RTGS services, the charges may differ from one bank to another. However, you may expect the charges to be somewhere between Rs 5 to Rs 50 for an RTGS transaction depending on the amount.