NEFT or National Electronic Fund Transfer is a payment system that facilitates one-to-one fund transfers. The payment mode enables companies, firms, corporates, and individuals to transfer funds electronically to any bank account they wish to within the country. To be able to take part in an NEFT transaction, a bank has to be a part of the NEFT network. So, this becomes vital to know about the NEFT transfer timings before making any NEFT transactions.
NEFT Transfer Timings
NEFT service is available round the clock 24×7 and 365 days on all days of the year. It is conducted in batches every 30 minutes throughout the day.
In case you request for a transaction at 09:02 am, your transaction will probably be processed by 09:30 am. Similarly, if you place a transaction at 09:28 am, your transaction shall normally be processed by 09:30 am.
How does NEFT Work?
Let us discuss in detail the process of NEFT and how it works:
- To initiate an NEFT transaction, you need to fill out the form with all details of the beneficiary.
- Details such as the name of the beneficiary, account number, type of account, IFCS code of the branch in which they have their account, and the amount you want to transfer.
- Once you send all these details to your bank, they will debit the mentioned amount from your bank account and pass on the same to the beneficiary account.
- Internally, once you place a request for the transfer, your bank will send a message to the pooling centre or also known as the NEFT service centre.
- The message is then transferred from the pooling centre to the NEFT clearing centre (The Reserve Bank of India’s National Clearing Cell is in charge of the NEFT clearing centre)
- The orders are then organized based on the destination bank. It then also accounts for the sending bank and receiving bank.
- The messages are then forwarded to the destination bank using the NEFT service centre or the pooling centre.
- Once the destination bank receives the message, the fund is then transferred to the beneficiary’s account.
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Who Can use NEFT
People, firms, and corporates keeping up with accounts with any bank, taking part in the NEFT framework, can electronically move funds to any individual, firm, or corporate having a record with some other bank in the country taking part in the NEFT framework.
What Happens if the Amount from the Beneficiary’s Account isn’t Credited
If the beneficiary’s account is not credited, the receiving bank is required to return the fund of the transaction to the originating branch within two hours of the processing of the transaction.
Is NEFT Transfer Secure
NEFT transfer is known to be a safe method of transferring funds. One has to add a new beneficiary before transferring funds. It takes some time to add a beneficiary. If a new beneficiary is added without your knowledge, you can flag it with the bank authorities and remove the beneficiary.
To prevent from transferring excess funds, one can set the maximum transfer limit for each beneficiary as well. In case a wrong account number is provided, the transaction is not processed and funds are reverted to the original account within a couple of hours. However, it may take some time to process funds via NEFT.
Essential Details Required for Remitting Funds Through NEFT System
Following are the essential elements of beneficiary’s identification:
- Name of the beneficiary
- Account No. of the beneficiary
- Account type of the beneficiary
- Bank’s name of the beneficiary
- Branch name of the beneficiary’s account
- Branch’s IFSC of the beneficiary
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FAQs
Q1. What are NEFT clearing times?
Ans. The settlement of the first batch commences after 00:30 hours and the last batch ends at 00:00 hours.
Q2.Are there NEFT Holidays on Sundays?
Ans. No, there are no NEFT holidays on Sundays. NEFT service is available 24×7 and 365 days a year. However, if you wish to process the transaction by visiting the bank, you won’t be able to do NEFT on a Sunday.
Q3. Are NEFT done on national holidays?
Ans. Yes, NEFT can be done online on national holidays. However, NEFT cannot be done by visiting the bank on Sundays. You can check the bank holidays list 2022 before visiting the bank.
Q4. Does NEFT work 24 hours?
Ans. Yes, NEFT is available 24×7.
Q5. Can NEFT take more than 2 days?
Ans. NEFT transactions are quite swift and do not take a lot of time. However, at times it can take as long as two hours to process the transaction.
Q6. How do I know if my NEFT is credited to the beneficiary?
Ans. You will receive the confirmation by SMS or e-mail.