Is NEFT transfer the only mode of payment your business uses? You might want to rethink it. While it may feel like the most reliable source to accept/transfer money online, there are several disadvantages that makes using NEFT no less than a horror story.
What is NEFT
NEFT or National Electronic Funds Transfer is an online money transfer service where any person can send/receive money given both parties have an account number and the bank is enrolled in the NEFT program.
You’ll need the bank’s IFSC code to transfer the money.
Any individual or corporate can transfer money via NEFT. The amount is settled in batches of 12 on weekdays (Mon – Fri) between 8 am to 7 pm and six batched on Saturday between 8 am and 1 pm.
NEFT does not operate on alternate Saturdays, Sundays and other bank holidays.
Charges
There is no limit on the money you can transfer via NEFT. A nominal fee (anything between Rs.2 and Rs.25) is charged for each transaction though.
The Problem with NEFT
While all that sounds straight-forward, there are various drawbacks that make NEFT a problematic mode of payment when it comes to your small business.
Here are a few reasons:
1. Who Paid You What
When you receive money via NEFT, details of where the payment came from are scarcely available. You will be able to see the amount transferred but you may not be able to see other details depending on what the bank chooses to show in the remittance description.
This can put you in a tight spot when you receive multiple payments via NEFT in a day. It could mess up your accounts (reconciliation) as well. Sometimes, a payment could be debited from your customer’s bank account but might not reflect in your bank account due to technical reasons on the bank’s end or on your customer’s end.
In such cases, the customer’s funds could take upto 7-14 days to reach your bank account. During this period, the follow-up and running around is a headache, not just for you but also for the customer.
If you are an NGO, this can get tricky when filing Income Tax exemption. NGOs are required to issue a receipt to the person paying them. If you received a payment via NEFT, who/where would you send the receipt to?
2. Sorry! Bank Holiday
If your customers want to purchase from you on a Sunday or a bank holiday, they probably won’t be able to pay you. This could cost your business.
3. Adding a Beneficiary
If a customer wants to send you money, they would have to ideally wait for 30 minutes to 24 hours (depending on the bank) to link your account and transfer the money. That’s a lot of effort not just for the customer but a whole lot of anxiety for you too.
4. Sharing Account Number
How do you feel about sharing your account number with a person you’ve never seen or met? Would you want to make your account number public and put it up on your website?
5. Oops! Wrong Account Number
There have been several instances where money has been transferred to a wrong account because the payer entered a single wrong digit. The process to retrieve the money is long, tedious and expensive. In some cases, the money is irrecoverable, specially if the payee has withdrawn the money from the account.
Looking for a safer and easier alternative to NEFT? Try Instamojo.
Why Instamojo?
Instamojo essentially solves each of the above problems.
Customers can pay you any time and don’t have to wait to add your account. You don’t have to share your account number either.
Just create a customized payment link (complete with the purpose of payment and amount they owe you) and let them pay you via Debit/Credit card, wallets, net banking or even UPI.
Once the payment is done, a receipt/notification is sent to both your customer and you. Your notification has the name, phone number and email of the payer. You can also track these in your
Instamojo dashboard and filter them by date, amount etc.
With Instamojo, your payments are safe. There is no chance your money can go amiss. For every transaction, you are charged a uniform nominal fee for all amounts. Also, if you have issues with a transaction, you can always reach out to support and see disputed transactions on your dashboard in the resolution center.
We also help reconcile and capture failed payments to make sure your customer doesn’t worry about failed payments and you get paid out in due time.
Try a safer way to collect payments online today! Sign up with Instamojo.
