ICICI Direct Review, Brokerage Charges, Demat A/C, Platforms & more

ICICI Direct is a retail trading business that provides investment services from ICICI Securities.

As a subsidiary of the ICICI Bank, the broking house is a technology-driven open conciliator that provides many financial trading-based services to their respective traders and investors throughout the nation.

In this article, we will be discussing their products and services, offers, brokerage they charge, other relevant charges they impose in terms of a varied number of taxes, and most definitely, the platforms they have to offer to their respective clients for remote-based trading.

Table of Contents

• Rating & Review
• Overview
• Brokerage Charges
• Other Charges
• Account Opening Charges
• Offers
• Account Opening Process
• Products & Services
• Research & Tips
• Exposure
• Trading Platforms & Apps
• Customer Care
• Complaints
• FAQs
• Open an Account with ICICI Direct Now!

ICICI Direct Customer Ratings & Review by Top10StockBroker

Thus, ICICI Direct is already a huge name, which is evident in its customer ratings & reviews. The company has secured an overall rating of 4 out of 5 stars based on 4026 customers.

These reviews are based on various services listed in the table above, like Research, brokerage charges, etc.

About ICICI Direct

India and its population are slowly taking a shift towards high-tech platforms and resources for trading and what better than ICICI Direct for starting this journey? The retail stock broking entity furnishes a wide range for trading and investment purposes.

ICICI Securities is part of ICICI Group. The broking house provides these services to more than 20,00,000 customers through ICICI Direct.

Their website offers a complete suite of investment products such as Mutual Fund & IPO, Online Equity Trading, Fixed deposits, Bond, Derivatives Trading, NCD, wealth products, Home Loans, etc.,

ICICI Direct.com is one of the most visited investment portals in India. It provides a 3-in-1 account, including ICICI Bank Account, ICICI Demat Account, and ICICI Trading Account offering for retail stock market investors in India.

It is a straightforward and efficient way to invest in various financial instruments with one of the Best Stock Brokers. Customers can visit any ICICI Bank branches or ICICI Direct offices to get in-person help on financial products.

In addition, ICICI Direct provides timely pay-in and pay-out and hassle-free settlements.

Open Demat Account with ICICI Direct – Fill up the Form Now!

ICICI Direct Brokerage Charges

The chart mentioned above of contents has been deliberately positioned there to give you specific and proper knowledge about every sort of brokerage charge that ICICI Direct imposes upon their respective clientele.

As you can conclude from observing the table, they typically impose a brokerage fee worth Rs.20 per order or relatively free for Futures and Delivery segments.

This data is in context with the most attractive plan, ICICI Direct Neo. It has a market demand highly proportionate to the best brokerage plans in the market.

ICICI Direct charges Rs.300 per annum for the annual maintenance charges for Trading Account and Rs. 0 per annum for the yearly maintenance charges for Trading Account.

They also have made it mandatory for their respective traders and investors to maintain a minimum balance of 75% Margin concerning the Margin Money to trade seamlessly.

For a detailed calculation of brokerage & other charges, check out our ICICI Direct Brokerage Calculator.

ICICIDirect Brokerage Plans

ICICI Direct offers 6-types of brokerage plans, the best of which has already been briefed, i.e., the NEO Plan.

ICICI Direct Prime Brokerage Plan

The brokerage is based on the trading volume: high brokerage for low volume and low brokerage for high volume traders.

Therefore, those traders/investors who trade in high volumes can benefit from the low brokerage.

The ICICI Direct Prime Brokerage Plan has many advantages that reduce brokerage charges. For example, it offers an eATM facility and an equity ATM facility, and it comes with a limit range of Rs 2.5 lakh – 1 cr.

Also, the ICICI Prime Brokerage Plan offers special multilateral trading facility Interest rates per LPC starting from 0.04% – 0.024% per day.

ICICI Direct PREPAID BROKERAGE PLAN

ICICI Direct Prepaid Brokerage Plan comes with discounted brokerage rates and saves your transaction costs.

However, unlike Prime Brokerage Plan, the Direct Prepaid Plan doesn’t offer an eATM facility, but it offers 6 different plans starting from Rs 5,000 to Rs 1,50,000.

Moreover, it provides a flat rate of Rs 20 per order under the 6 sub-plans.

ICICI Direct I-Secure Plan

A prepaid plan is used by high-volume traders who are certain about their trading volumes –

The ICICI Direct I-Secure Plan offers customers a flat brokerage rate regardless of the turnover value. This plan is perfect for traders who trade in high volumes and are volume-specific.

There is a flat Rs 20 per order on both the currency futures and options trading and commodity futures trading.

ICICI Direct NRI PREPAID BROKERAGE Plan

With ICICI Direct NRI Prepaid Brokerage Plan, the NRIs get discounted brokerage rates and reduce their transaction costs. It comes with a lifetime validity of 15 years.

The eligible cash turnover starts from the range of Rs 10,000 to Rs 30,00,00 for eligibility from Turnover cash of Rs 1333333 to Rs 1.5E+08.

ICICI Direct NRI Brokerage

The ICICI Direct Brokerage Plan, the NRI Prepaid Brokerage Plan, provides flat brokerage rates starting from 0.50% to 1.25% for various ranges, as mentioned in the table.

In addition, the total eligibility turnover per month is set at a maximum of up to Rs 5 lacs, as mentioned in the table.

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• HDFC Securities
• Kotak Securities
• Axis Direct
• SBI Cap Securities
• Motilal Oswal

ICICI Direct Other Charges

The chart of content, as mentioned above, has been deliberately placed there to inform you of all sorts of charges levied by ICICI Direct on their respective traders and investors in the form of various taxes.

As you can observe from the table, the company levies a charge worth 0.0005 % concerning the total turnover value in terms of SEBI Turnover Charges, and 0.00280 % concerning the total turnover value in terms of Transaction Charges.

Apart from this, they charge 0.0126 % concerning the total turnover value in terms of Securities Transaction Tax, 18 % concerning the total turnover value in terms of GST, and a minimal charge in terms of Stamp Duty by the state laws and requirements.

A few more ICICI Direct Charges are below:

ICICI Direct Depository Service Charges

These are the minimum service charges applicable for residential customers where there are zero charges for Buy-Market and Off-Market and closing of the account.

In addition, the company charges an almost flat Rs 25 per 100 securities under re-materialization.

To know in detail, just click on this link ICICI Direct Brokerage & Other Charges.

Compare ICICI Direct with Other Brokers

ICICI Direct Demat Account Opening Charges

Being an open conciliator and a wealth trading subsidiary of the ICICI Group, ICICI Direct has always embraced every trader or investor interested in trading across a plethora of equity and derivative-based assets throughout the country.

If you want to join them as a trader or as an investor, you can register yourself for opening up a Demat or Trading Account with them at no cost at all.

Nevertheless, the company does require you to pay no charge concerning the annual maintenance charge for maintaining a Trading Account and a cost of Rs.700 per annum concerning the yearly maintenance charge for carrying a Demat Account.

They also need you to maintain a minimum balance of 75% Margin in your Demat or Trading Account in terms of minimum Margin Money.

To know in detail, just click on this link ICICI Direct Demat Account.

ICICI Direct Offers

ICICI Direct has gained massive attention for its interesting trading plans and offers.

We have again deliberately put the above chart of content in its place to enable you to gain proper knowledge about all the offers provided by one of the Best Full-Service brokers, ICICI Direct. The offers can either be of regular or occasional nature for their respective traders and investors across the nation.

As you can observe, they have pretty exciting offers about Trading Happy Hours, Free Demat Accounts, Zero Brokerage for any and every loss-making Trade, Flexible Brokerage Plans, and Referral Offers.

Nevertheless, you must also not neglect the part that concludes that the company does not come up with any offer whatsoever in terms of one month’s worth of time for brokerage-free trading, Holiday Offers, or Discount on Brokerage Charges.

ICICI Direct Neo Plan is a discounted brokerage plan in which you pay nothing for future trades. The broker follows a zero brokerage policy for future trades.

However, Rs. 20 per order for equity and options trading may be charged from investors. Similarly, Rs. 20 per order may be charged from currency and commodity trading.

Investors may go with lifetime plans of Rs. 3999 and Rs.4999 in the prime membership of ICICI Direct which allows you to trade while getting a 50% cut in the brokerage. Higher plans get you more trading benefits to enjoy.

How to Open Demat Account with ICICI Direct?

For Online Stock Trading through ICICI Direct, you need to open 3 accounts: ICICI Bank Account, ICICI Direct Trading Account & ICICI Demat Account (DP Account).

ICICI Direct undoubtedly is amongst one of the finest and the most reputed full-service brokerage houses in the entire nation that have been thriving for well over two decades in a row.

Considering this fact also tells us that you may join them as a trader or perhaps as an investor. If that is the case, then this is all you will ever need to do:-

• Click on the green button underneath this section that explicitly states ‘Open Demat Account.’
• This will pop up a new form on your computer screen.
• As soon as the form pops up, go through it carefully, reading each line and paragraph.
• Once you have completed going through the entire form, fill it with every required information correctly.
• After you have completed filling up the form, you will be needed to upload a few documents to conclude the KYC verification procedure.
• This particular step will require you to have an Aadhar Card, PAN Card, and a photograph to verify your age, identity, and address.
• After you conclude all the above steps, authorized personnel will contact you on behalf of ICICI Direct, who will take care of the last few verification procedures.
• You can expect to gain complete and hassle-free access to your new account with the company in a matter of a few hours as soon as you have correctly completed all the steps mentioned above and leave the login details in your email address.

Open Demat Account with ICICI Direct – Fill up the Form Now!

Why open ICICI Direct Trading Account?

In accordance with India’s government and several laws that govern the overall wealth trading industry of the nation, trading within Indian Territory across any segments of equity or derivative-based assets requires a person to have at least a Demat or a Trading Account.

However, there are far more compelling reasons for you to consider that may help you make up your mind to register yourself with ICICI Direct as a trader or as an investor.

Here are the benefits of opening up an ICICI Direct trading account with the stock broking house:

• It has a 3-in-1 account that integrates your banking, broking, and Demat accounts.
• Many other online trading companies in India require transferring money towards deposits or broker’s pools. But at ICICI Direct, you can manage your own demat and bank accounts through the same portal, ICICI Direct.com.
• Online investments in IPOs, GOI Bonds, Mutual Funds, and Postal Savings Schemes all from one website.
• General Insurance is available from ICICI Lombard.
• Trading is available in both BSE and NSE.
• A low bandwidth website is available for slow internet connection or trading from mobile devices.
• You can buy or sell limit orders in equity scripts through myGTC options.

ICICI Direct Products & Services

The various products & services offered by the broking house are –

ICICI Direct Product Offerings

The chart mentioned above has been deliberately positioned there to give you accurate information about all the products ICICI Direct, full-service trading, and brokerage firm, has to offer.

As you can see, they have exclusive products like Insurance, Equity Trading, Forex, Banking, Futures Trading, Systematic Investment Plans, Options Trading, Mutual Funds, and Currency Trading.

However, they do not extend any support, service, or deal in any product based upon Commodities Trading.

Services offered by ICICIDirect

Statistically speaking, ICICI Direct, as a full-service providing trading and brokerage house, provides multiple services related to financial trading in India.

After looking at the chart above of content, you can conclude that they typically provide services across Portfolio Management Services, Initial Public Offerings Services, Demat Services, Trading Services, Intraday Services, 3 in 1 Account Services, Stock Recommendations Robo Advisory and Trading Institutions.

Furthermore, they provide all of the services above with up to 5 times the average trading exposure provided by other firms.

ICICI Direct Research & Advisory

By looking at the table of content provided above, one can easily conclude that ICICI Direct takes Research and Advisory very seriously for their respective traders and investors.

They support every possible Support concerning Research Reports, Annual Reports, Fundamental Reports, Company Reports, Relationship managers, Weekly reports, Offline Advisory, Monthly Reports, Daily Market Reviews, Company Stock Reviews, and Initial Public Offerings Reports.

However, they do not provide anything related to Free Stock Tips or Top Picks.

ICICI Direct Exposure / Leverage / Margin / Limit

The table mentioned above of content has been provided to acquire information about every sort of leverage you can expect out of ICICI Direct when trading with them as a trader or as an investor.

As you can observe from the table of the content above, they offer huge leverage of up to 1x on Delivery Trading & up to 5x on Intraday Trading.

They also offer up to eight times the average exposure on Currency Futures Trading, up to 1 time the moderate exposure on Equity options Trading, and up to 1 time the average exposure on Currency Options Trading.

This should be enough for you to get an overall understanding of what kind of exposure to expect from the well-recognized brokerage firm.

However, suppose you still want any more accurate information on the leverage you may expect over a particular set of shares you are looking forward to trading.

In that case, you must refer to the company’s dedicated margin calculator tool, which goes by the name of ICICI Direct Margin Calculator.

ICICI Direct Margin Calculator will help you to calculate how much margin you will get if you invest or trade with ICICI Direct.

ICICI Direct Trading Platforms

ICICI Direct relies on technology to deliver the optimum services to their respective traders and investors throughout the nation.

They have deliberately evolved as a full-service trading and brokerage firm over the past twenty-five years.

Here is a glimpse of the kind of platform they have to offer to their respective traders and investors to enable them to trade remotely:-

ICICI Direct Web Trading Platform – Browser-based Platform

The very website of ICICI Direct that is ICICI Direct.com acts as the web-based version for their dedicated and home (custom) built remote trading platform.

The web app is an HTML-based development that uses a browser to function as a remote-based trading platform across several devices like computers (Windows & Mac) and mobile phones.

This software has been developed with precision and provides the following feature to the respective users:-

• The web app enables respective users to access the world of trading through live-streaming quotes from across several exchanges and indices throughout the nation in real time.
• It enables the respective users to use the Cash Trading feature that allows the users to take delivery of shares or money.
• The web application enables the respective users to use the Trend Scanner feature, a tool that can track Intraday price movements across several exchanges and indices to locate the trending scrips by using several predefined technical parameters.

Other Features

• This platform enables the users to use the Live Scanner feature, an integrated tool that can track new highs and new lows for stocks with real-time price movement across various exchanges and indices.
• The ICIC Direct web app enables the respective users to use the Snap View feature that allows the users to get a complete image of any particular scrip with exact and appropriate information on Chart, Gross Delivery Data, Market Depth, Peer Group, etc.
• The browser-based platform enables the respective users to use another integrated tool called Market @ Finger Tip’’. This flexible tool can fetch the scrips concerning a set of predefined searches, including bargain buys, highest-yielding stocks in Sensex, top profitable companies, top revenue companies, momentum stocks, & more.
• It comes equipped with analytical tools like the Advance-Decline Ratio and a market breadth indicator that compares the total number of stocks trading positively with the total number of stocks trading negatively with respect to their previous day’s closing prices.
• This web platform has a feature called the Heat Map, which is a tabular representation of stocks across a group or an index according to their price-based movement regarding the previous day’s closing price.
• It comes loaded with a default setting that enables the respective users to access the most frequently used widgets using their icons within the toolbar section on the top of the screen.
• This application allows the respective users to customize multiple widgets according to their convenience. The users can also opt to auto-hide these widgets anywhere within the web app.

More about ICICI Direct Web Application

• The web app enables the respective users to bring into use the Snap View feature that allows the users to get a complete image of any particular scrip with exact and appropriate information on Chart, Gross Delivery Data, Market Depth, Peer Group etc.
• The browser-based platform enables the respective users to bring into use another integrated tool that goes by the name of ‘Market @ Finger Tips’. This is a flexible tool that can fetch the scrips with respect to a set of pre-defined searches including bargain buys, highest-yielding stocks in Sensex, top profitable companies, top revenue companies, momentum stocks & more.
• It comes equipped with a number of analytical tools like the Advanced Decline Ratio which is a market breadth indicator meant to compare the total number of stocks that are trading positively with the total number of stocks that are trading negatively with respect to their previous day’s closing prices.
• This web platform has a feature called the Heat Map which is basically a tabular representation of stocks across a group or an index in accordance with their price-based movement with respect to the previous day’s closing price.
• The web app enables the respective users to access Moving Averages which are supposed to be the most common variables to be used for the sake of technical analyses. These basically average the price of a particular stock across a specified time frame.
• It comes loaded with a default setting that enables the respective users to access the most frequently used widgets using their respective icons that are present within the toolbar section on the top of the screen.
• This application allows the respective users to customize multiple widgets in accordance with their own conveniences. The users can also opt to auto-hide these widgets anywhere within the web app.

ICICI Direct Trade Racer – ICICI Direct Trading Terminal

ICICI Direct has developed its version of a terminal-based remote trading platform that can be accessed through either a Windows-based computer or a Mac-based computer.

This software has been developed with precision and provides the following feature to the respective users:-

• The software enables respective users to access the world of trading through live-streaming quotes from across several exchanges and indices throughout the nation in real time.
• Trade Racer enables the respective users to use the Cash Trading feature that allows the users to take delivery of shares or money.
• Trading Terminal enables the respective users to use the Snap View feature that allows the users to get a complete image of any particular scrip with exact and appropriate information on Chart, Gross Delivery Data, Market Depth, Peer Group, etc.
• It comes equipped with several analytical tools like the Advance-Decline Ratio, a market breadth indicator meant to compare the total number of stocks trading positively with the total number of stocks trading negatively with respect to their previous day’s closing prices.
• The software enables the respective users to access Moving Averages, which are the most common variables to be used for technical analyses.
• It comes loaded with a default setting that enables the respective users to access the most frequently used widgets using their icons within the toolbar section on the top of the screen.
• Trade Racer allows the respective users to customize multiple widgets according to their convenience. The users can also opt to auto-hide these widgets anywhere within the software.

ICICI Direct Mobile Trading App

The Broker also provide their respective traders and investors with the Android-based mobile trading platform known as ICICI Direct Mobile comes loaded with the following features:-

• ICICI Direct App enables traders to commence Equity-based trading across several exchanges and indices.
• It enables the traders to commence Futures and Options based trading across several exchanges and indices.
• This AppApp enables traders to keep track of their respective portfolios in real-time.
• The Trading App enables traders to keep track of the stock market in real-time through quotes across several exchanges and indices and many more.

You can access the Android App within Google’s Play Store or Apple App Store with over 1 lakh downloads and over fifteen thousand ratings with an average of 3.4 stars.

However, considering the users’ ratings and reviews, this AppApp needs some updates. Mobile App integrated features with a Website trading platform elevate your trading experience at ICICI Direct.

You can actively monitor market moves, track your portfolio and place BUY/SELL from both website and mobile platforms.

ICICI Direct Customer Care

You can easily conclude customer care services by looking at the table mentioned above ICICI Direct has 226 branches located throughout the country that provide Support regarding Dedicated Dealers, Online Trading, and Email.

Nevertheless, they do not provide any support concerning Chat, Offline Trading, or 24*7 Support and do not have any toll-free number for their respective clients to access.

ICICI Direct Complaints (Current Year)

Last year, ICICI Direct received two hundred and twenty-five complaints against them in the BSE and one hundred and ninety-six complaints against them within the NSE.

However, approximately two hundred and fifteen and one hundred and eighty-two complaints against them have already been resolved within the BSE and the NSE, respectively.

ICICI Direct Disadvantages

Although considered one of the most significant and reputed stock brokerage houses in the nation, ICICI Direct still has a few problems that happen to be troublesome for most of their respective traders and investors.

Even you should be aware of these before deciding to join them:-

• The brokerage is higher and non-negotiable.
• It doesn’t offer commodity trading, so you cannot trade at MCX or NCDEX.
• The Demat Account and the Bank Account have to be opened with ICICI Bank only.
• ICICI’s minimum brokerage charge is Rs 20 per trade.
• ICICI charges Rs 75 per month for using Trade Racer if the customer pays brokerage less than Rs 750/per month.
• It isn’t easy to trade in penny stocks because ICICI charges flat Rs 0.05 per share brokerage on stocks quoting up to Rs 10.
• ICICI Direct also charges Rs 25 per call for call & trade after the first 20 free calls in a month.

ICICI Direct Conclusion

The banking brokers have worked their way to achieve the fame they boast of today, and they most definitely are one of the best trading institutions throughout the country.

Nevertheless, ICICI Direct still needs to take care of a few shortcomings.

ICICI Direct Review FAQs

Here is the list of FAQs related to the ICICI Direct review:

Is ICICI Direct safe for trading?

The brand is highly recognized in the banking sector, making it one of the most reliable stock brokers.

Brand trust and goodwill are notable factors to consider, as it also shows the stockbroker’s stability and excellence level. This makes the Broker ICICI Direct highly trustworthy.

What is the brokerage of ICICI Direct?

Delivery trading has the highest designated brokerage, i.e., 0.55%. On the other hand, intraday, Futures, and Currency Futures commonly have a brokerage of Rs 20 per order.

However, commodity trading is not yet available with this broker, whereas brokerage for Options is Rs 20 per order, and for currency options, it is Rs 20 per order.

Also, there are other plans you can choose from and cut off the brokerage you pay on an overall basis.

How to open ICICI Direct Demat online?

Opening an ICICI Direct Demat account online is straightforward. We have simplified the process for you, and you can begin the same right from this page.

First, click on the green button you see at the bottom of the screen, and then provide all the details asked for. The broking house will follow up accordingly.

Can I invest in an IPO via ICICI Direct?

Yes, investment in an IPO can be made via ICICI Direct either online or through the offline process. You have to fill up an IPO application form for the same.

Also, you must check out the conditions stated by the broker for IPO Investment.

What Leverage does ICICI Direct provide?

The exposure depends on many factors, including the concerned stock and the trader. Weighing all the factors, the stockbroker decides to provide leverage.

However, you can expect up to 1x with interest for delivery,1x for equity futures, 5x for intraday, and 1x for equity options.

Does ICICI Direct have a trading App?

Yes, mobile-based trading facilitation is provided to traders.

The AppApp is stuffed with rich features for ease in the transaction, with access to all tools and features. In addition, you can trade via the mobile AppApp provided by the stockbroker.

How to contact ICICI Direct customer care?

The brand has 226 branches, and hence, they have a broad offline reach, which is a great way to connect with them. Now, the other medium of connection is email assistance.

However, they have a fixed working time, and you must follow up with them during the provided time.

Does ICICI Direct provide Research?

Research service is a significant part of the stockbroker, and you can rely upon them in terms of tips and stock market assistance.

They are a full-service broker, and its operational structure includes Research and advisory assistance.

Is ICICI Direct Good for Beginners?

Yes, this stockbroker assists in Fundamental research, company, annual, and company stock reports. It also provides various reports which lend a hand to beginners.

However, they are quite expensive in brokerage charges and may not be suitable for traders who wish to start small.

Who Founded ICICI Direct?

ICICI Direct is a subsidiary of ICICI Bank Ltd. It was set up in 1995 and provides four lines of services – broking, distribution of financial products, wealth management, and investment banking.

Vijay Chandok is the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of ICICI Securities.

Open Demat Account with ICICI Direct – Fill up the Form Now!