ICICI Direct is one of the top 5 online brokers in India, according to its userbase. Companies such as Zerodha, Groww, and Upstox have made ICICI introduce cheaper brokerage plans for their customers. While discount brokers have launched a single plan, I-DIR offers a plethora of subscription packs. Thus, the fees ICICI Direct charges depend on the scheme you’ve chosen. By default, each account is mapped to the i-secure scheme wherein you’ll be charged more than 19 Rs for each trade. So let’s first have a look at ICICI Direct I-Secure pricing.
The company charges 0.55% brokerage by default for the cash segment under the i-secure scheme. For Future, Future Plus, and Future Plus Stop Loss orders, you’ll have to pay Rs 50 fees. The firm has priced Currency/Commodity Futures at Rs 20.
Prime: The broker has introduced six Prime subscription plans that cost 299, 999, 1999, 2999, 3999, and 4999 Rs respectively. When the 299 Rs pack is active, you’ll have to pay a fee of Rs 40 for every buy and sell order (per lot) i.e. if you purchase 40 lots of Nifty, you’ll have to pay Rs 40 x 40 = 1600. The fees of the other plans go down by 5 Rs i.e, 35, 25, 20, 15, 10.
Neo: ICICI Direct recommends users to subscribe both the Prime and Neo plans. Frankly speaking, charges won’t come down. If you’re looking for funding, then it is wise to purchase Rs 4999 prime package as the MTF interest rate per annum is just 8.99 compared to 18% to 12.99% of the Rs 299, 1999, 999, 2999, and 3999 packages.
Prepaid: ICICI Direct offers six prepaid brokerage plans. The price of the same is Rs 2500, 5000, 12500, 25000, 50000, and 100000. In the cash segment, you’ll be charged 0.25, 0.22, 0.18, 0.15, 0.12, and 0.07 percent of the order value. For the futures segment, the pricing is 0.025, 0.022, 0.018, 0.015, 0.012, and 0.007% of OV and the charges for equity option trades are 35, 30, 25, 20, 15, and 7 per lot. The pricing for currency/commodity options is Rs 20 flat.
Features that justify ICICI Direct pricing:
eATM: I-Dir is one of the few brokers that transfers money instantly to your account when you sell a share. To receive funds instantly, you must select the eATM function while placing a sell order. Other companies will deposit money after t+1 day. The costliest plans of ICICI Direct have an eATM limit of up to 1 crore.
Option Plus: If you’re an options trader looking for funding, ICICI Direct is for you. The company offers massive leverage for people using the option plus feature. Let’s take an example of the same.
NIFTY FEB 23 18000 PE costs Rs 5767. But if you place the same order using the Option Plus module, you’ll have to pay just 680 Rs.
OP is a great feature as you can buy a costly option worth 2500 to 4000 Rs even if you have 1000 Rs in your trading account. The required margin will be visible only when you enter the stop loss points in the form.
Flash trade: ICICI Direct user interface isn’t the best one out there but they have launched a new module called Flash Trade that allows users to buy options, see the profit/loss, options chart, and current position from one interface.
ICICI Direct alternatives
5paisa: This firm has launched two add-on packs – Power Investor and Ultra Trader that will bring down the brokerage to 10 Rs per order from 20 Rs. The plans cost 499 and 999 Rs per month.
Kotak Securities: The 8.99% MTF pack of Kotak Securities is 2k Rs cheaper than that of ICICI Direct. It is part of the Trade Free Max plan. KS doesn’t charge brokerage for intraday trades if you’ve opted for its Trade Free pack while opening a demat account with them.
