As a beginner, when you are new to the stock market, it is important to choose your Demat account wisely. While there are many good Demat accounts in India, you need to choose them after a thorough scrutiny of all the charges, facilities, and services provided by the DP.
This article will cover how you can select the best Demat account if you are a newbie in the market.
What is a Demat account? Why is it Important for Traders/ Investors?
A Demat account is an online account provided by the depositories of the country – NSDL and CDSL and facilitated by the Depository Participants (brokerage houses). These are used to hold securities in the dematerialised or electronic format. Since the whole trading and investment process in the stock market is digitalised, the shares when bought and held, go into the Demat account in the digital format. In the Demat account, you can hold the shares until you decide to sell them in the market again.
So, when you purchase stocks from the share market or any security for that matter, it gets credited in the Demat account like your salary gets credited to your bank account. When you sell the securities, it gets debited from the Demat account like your money gets debited when you pay the bill for your online purchase.
Without a Demat account, whether you are a beginner or a professional trader or investor, you cannot trade or invest in the market. For investing and trading in the stock market, you need both a Demat account and a trading account. However, if you only invest in an IPO, you can only open a Demat account, and that will serve the purpose.
Since opening a Demat account is mandatory, as a beginner, you need to open one that is best for your investment goals and purpose.
What Features Should be There in a Demat Account for Beginners to Choose Them?
While the Demat account comes with multiple facilities and services as offered by the brokerage houses, for choosing the best Demat account for beginners, you need to evaluate certain basic factors. Here are those factors which you need to check and compare –
– Online Account opening
The first thing you need to look for is whether you can open the account online or not. Demat accounts are made for online share investment, and if you cannot open the account online, what’s the point, isn’t it? So, make sure the DP is offering an online Demat account opening facility. It helps in quick account opening and saves a lot of your time and cost.
– Low brokerage charges
The second factor while choosing a Demat account as a beginner you need to check is the brokerage charges of the DP. You need to check how much brokerage charges for each of the segments the DP charges. As a beginner opting for a Demat account where the brokerage is high can adversely affect your investments/ trading plan.
– Reasonable DP charges
Then comes the DP charges, there are many other charges, like transaction charges of the Depositories and others which also need to be evaluated by the beginner trader.
– Multiple assets to trade/ invest
As a beginner, you need to trade/ invest across different assets to find out which suits you the best, but to do that your DP with whom you are opening the Demat account needs to offer all the asset classes to trade and invest. Thus, check which all segments are there with the DP before opening the Demat account.
– Easy tracking
Then comes the tracking of the portfolio. With the Demat account, you can easily track all the investments but you need to check which all mobile applications and trading platforms are offered by the DP. As a beginner, it is very important to have trading platforms that are not complicated to use.
– Affordable pricing for dematerialisation and Rematerialisation
Another factor to consider while choosing the best Demat account for beginners is the charges of dematerialisation and rematerialisation of securities.
How can Beginners Compare and Find the Best Demat Account for Beginners?
Now you know which factors to evaluate for choosing the best Demat account for beginners. So, let’s find out how to go about it or the process of finding the best Demat account –
- Firstly, you need to shortlist the top DPs who provide the Demat account and services.
- Then you need to check their brokerage charges, facilities, and services offered.
- Compare the brokerage charges against the services and facilities rendered.
- Then you need to compare the brokerage charges to find out which broker (DP) is providing the same services at a cheaper price.
- Once you find that out, you can then check the reviews of the traders/ investors of the DP to check the quality of their services.
- If everything falls into place, you can then apply for opening the Demat account with the broker.
Conclusion
As Demat accounts are necessary for trading and investment, for a beginner it becomes difficult to choose one which will be suitable for him without guidance. This article hopefully has given ideas about how to choose the best Demat account for beginners. You can follow the steps mentioned above and without any hassle choose the best Demat account.
Also read: 5 Tips for The Stock Market Beginners
