KotakSecurities - Review & Feedback

#1
Dear friend:

If anyone is reading this to find out what KotakSecurities is all about - you are doing a sensible diligence. I did not do any research on KotakSecurities before I went with them. I opened an account with them in May 2006, thinking that Kotak being a reputed house would offer the the best of services in the best price.

I’ve had a very frustrating experience in the last one year. I’ll list them here for your understanding:

[1] Their brokerage is one of the most outrageous in the industry. They charge a whopping 0.59% as brokerage plus your monthly DP charges will have 0.04% of the delivery you do per month - this makes your brokerage 0.65% that you’ll pay through your nose; they will siphon your hard earned money when you least expect it. BUT BEWARE, the SALES FOLKS WON’T TELL YOU THIS WHEN THEY SELL THEIR PRODUCT TO YOU. I’VE ALWAYS THOUGHT THAT ICICI IS THE ONLY ENTITY THAT WILL INVOLVE ITSELF IN OUTRAGEOUS ACTS, but NOW THEY HAVE COMPANY - KOTAK.

[2] They don’t have any concept of CUSTOMER SERVICE. Their customer service number "30305757" is a BIG JOKE. I’ll give anyone Rs.1000 if you can call this number and get anybody to pick up the phone. THESE GUYS ARE REAL JOKERS - THEY’LL PROMPTLY CALL YOU ONLY IF YOU OWE THEM ANY MONEY; OTHERWISE, THEY DON’T KNOW YOU AT ALL.

[3] These guys claim that they have the BEST BROKER AWARDS - how can the esteemed panelists give away these awards to such a lousy Broking House? May be the panelists are paid a large amount of money under the table by the Kotak folks or the Kotak folks have managed to cheat the panelists also. If any one of the panelists were a subscriber to Kotak Securities, these guys would have still won the award - "THE WORST BROKER AWARD".

[4] Their local customer service executives (in Chennai) are extremely dumb; I think they do special interviews to pick the dumbest of the dumb from the potential candidates. They cannot even answer basic questions realting to my account and have zero empowerment; first of all, they are dumb and you’ll have to bang your head to make them understand what you want and if you are successful in making them understand what you want, they’ll say "we’ll have to talk to our Bombay office and get back" without exception. AND THEY WILL NEVER GET BACK. YOU SHOULD CONSIDER YOURSELF EXTREMELY FORTUNATE if they get back to you.

[5] I’ve tried talking all their customer service executies up the hierarchy (including Lakshmi Sundaram, Head of Customer Care) and everyone without exception is indiffernet to customer’s concerns. They’ll make BIG promises that they can never keep up - they just are SHAMELESS in making promises and not living upto it.

Good thing about them:

[1] Their website for trading is quite good and I liked it a lot. Their MutualFund platform is good too. These were the only reasons I was sticking with them for this long. But now I have reached my limit - I just cannot tolerate these guys any longer. I am moving out and closing everything I have to do with them.

Good luck investing and Beware!! Do your research before choosing a broking house they can suck the life out of you and drain all your profits without you even knowing about it.

The best broking houses in the industry (as far as I can tell with the data I have now) are HDFCSecurities and Angel Broking.

best regards
- Anand
 
Last edited:
#2
re: KotakSecurities - Review & Feedback

Anand,
I have been using Kotak Securities since last 2 years, And My experience with them is somewhat mixed.
CONs :
--> Customer Service does not understand our queries or complains properly
--> Their brokerage charges are outragious.
--> Money transfer to and from bank is not efficient, As I have faced 3-4 times difficulties.
--> For Option contracts they are charging 20Rs per 1000Rs of traded value, which is highest in industry.
--> I asked them to come down to Reliance Money brokerage, but they are unwilling to give this brokerage and they are still sticking to the high brokerage structure.
PROs :
--> As you said, their website is good
--> Trading tools are good, specifically fastlane
--> Local PM service is good, atleast in ahmedabad.

:) So Do what I DID ;)
Open an account in RELIANCE Money, which is the cheapest brokerage house with big name associated. Open Kotak fastlane and see live quotes, whenever you want to trade, just use Reliance money. Kotak Securities Demat is now free, so you can also afford kotak account in parallel.

For the new Users, who does not have Kotak account, "Please Dont use Reliance money account alone, You will not get enough information to be a successful trader from your Reliancemoney account"
regards,
Neo
 
#3
re: KotakSecurities - Review & Feedback

Anand,
I have been using Kotak Securities since last 2 years, And My experience with them is somewhat mixed.
CONs :
--> Customer Service does not understand our queries or complains properly
--> Their brokerage charges are outragious.
--> Money transfer to and from bank is not efficient, As I have faced 3-4 times difficulties.
--> For Option contracts they are charging 20Rs per 1000Rs of traded value, which is highest in industry.
--> I asked them to come down to Reliance Money brokerage, but they are unwilling to give this brokerage and they are still sticking to the high brokerage structure.
PROs :
--> As you said, their website is good
--> Trading tools are good, specifically fastlane
--> Local PM service is good, atleast in ahmedabad.

:) So Do what I DID ;)
Open an account in RELIANCE Money, which is the cheapest brokerage house with big name associated. Open Kotak fastlane and see live quotes, whenever you want to trade, just use Reliance money. Kotak Securities Demat is now free, so you can also afford kotak account in parallel.

For the new Users, who does not have Kotak account, "Please Dont use Reliance money account alone, You will not get enough information to be a successful trader from your Reliancemoney account"
regards,
Neo

Neo:

I am chalking out a a similar strategy now. But I'm going with Angel Broking (who also have an excellent online trading software, much better than Kotak's). As you said, Kotak's brokerage charges are the highest in the industry and they also inject hidden charges to suck out our profits.

I've also had problem with money transfer with them. And finally I had to threaten them with a Legal notice (fortunately my wife is an advocate) before they resolved it in my favor.

They don't have any customer service at all and they are mere clowns.

- Anand
 

bangerabs

Active Member
#5
re: KotakSecurities - Review & Feedback

I PREFER TO CALL KOTAK AS 'KOTA' 'TAKKA' (TAKKA IN KANNADA = CHEAT). CUSTOMER SERVICE?. THEY DO NOT KNOW THE CONCEPT. YES, IT IS REPUTED BUSINESS HOUSE. UNFORTUNATELY NOT THEIR EMPLOYEES. I DO HV EXPERIENCE WITH HSG. FINANCE OF KOTA. THEREAFTER, I AVOIDED THEIR BANKING AND SECURITIES AS WELL. THEY HAD OPENLY CHEATED ME IN HOUSING LOAN. APART FROM THIS, AS I SAID ABOVE, THERE IS NO CUSTOMER SERVICE AS SUCH. IF I GET e-mail of Udaya Kotak, I shall write to him the fact which apparently he is not aware. Friends, pl. avoid / boycott all cheaters.
 
#6
re: KotakSecurities - Review & Feedback

Kotak sec service is very junk. Three months back I had changed my bank account from HDFC to citibank. Closed my bank a/c with HDFC.
Kotak guys updated in thier records and I too hold mutual fund units and they didn't update MF registrars about new bank a/c and I did redemption 15 days back and till now money not credited. Reason is registrar trying to put moeny into old closed account.

Kotak customer care is not responding to my queries. God knows when will i get my MF money.
 
#7
re: KotakSecurities - Review & Feedback

Anand
You are absolutly right. I was customer of Kotak. They are the worst broker atleast in india.
 
#8
re: KotakSecurities - Review & Feedback

Hi,

I have taken a kotak offline account and experience is horrible. They are greedy of their brokerage. Initially I was new to trading and I have thought I will get decent help from them in trading. They never allowed me to book a profit more than 1000 rupees for each transaction and they tried to increase my number of transactions so that they can get more brokerage.
My suggestion for all new traders is to check out other options rather going to Kotak.

kalyan
 
#9
re: KotakSecurities - Review & Feedback

Dear friend:

If anyone is reading this to find out what KotakSecurities is all about - you are doing a sensible diligence. I did not do any research on KotakSecurities before I went with them. I opened an account with them in May 2006, thinking that Kotak being a reputed house would offer the the best of services in the best price.

Ive had a very frustrating experience in the last one year. Ill list them here for your understanding:

[1] Their brokerage is one of the most outrageous in the industry. They charge a whopping 0.59% as brokerage plus your monthly DP charges will have 0.04% of the delivery you do per month - this makes your brokerage 0.65% that youll pay through your nose; they will siphon your hard earned money when you least expect it. BUT BEWARE, the SALES FOLKS WONT TELL YOU THIS WHEN THEY SELL THEIR PRODUCT TO YOU. IVE ALWAYS THOUGHT THAT ICICI IS THE ONLY ENTITY THAT WILL INVOLVE ITSELF IN OUTRAGEOUS ACTS, but NOW THEY HAVE COMPANY - KOTAK.

[2] They dont have any concept of CUSTOMER SERVICE. Their customer service number "30305757" is a BIG JOKE. Ill give anyone Rs.1000 if you can call this number and get anybody to pick up the phone. THESE GUYS ARE REAL JOKERS - THEYLL PROMPTLY CALL YOU ONLY IF YOU OWE THEM ANY MONEY; OTHERWISE, THEY DONT KNOW YOU AT ALL.

[3] These guys claim that they have the BEST BROKER AWARDS - how can the esteemed panelists give away these awards to such a lousy Broking House? May be the panelists are paid a large amount of money under the table by the Kotak folks or the Kotak folks have managed to cheat the panelists also. If any one of the panelists were a subscriber to Kotak Securities, these guys would have still won the award - "THE WORST BROKER AWARD".

[4] Their local customer service executives (in Chennai) are extremely dumb; I think they do special interviews to pick the dumbest of the dumb from the potential candidates. They cannot even answer basic questions realting to my account and have zero empowerment; first of all, they are dumb and youll have to bang your head to make them understand what you want and if you are successful in making them understand what you want, theyll say "well have to talk to our Bombay office and get back" without exception. AND THEY WILL NEVER GET BACK. YOU SHOULD CONSIDER YOURSELF EXTREMELY FORTUNATE if they get back to you.

[5] Ive tried talking all their customer service executies up the hierarchy (including Lakshmi Sundaram, Head of Customer Care) and everyone without exception is indiffernet to customers concerns. Theyll make BIG promises that they can never keep up - they just are SHAMELESS in making promises and not living upto it.

Good thing about them:

[1] Their website for trading is quite good and I liked it a lot. Their MutualFund platform is good too. These were the only reasons I was sticking with them for this long. But now I have reached my limit - I just cannot tolerate these guys any longer. I am moving out and closing everything I have to do with them.

Good luck investing and Beware!! Do your research before choosing a broking house they can suck the life out of you and drain all your profits without you even knowing about it.

The best broking houses in the industry (as far as I can tell with the data I have now) are HDFCSecurities and Angel Broking.

best regards
- Anand
SUB:KNOW KOTAK HOUSING LOAN: KNOW KOTAK'S SERVICE CULTURE. AVOID KOTAK

Sir,

Service First or Service Last?. My experience proves it is Service Last.

This is 2nd Reiminder to my mails dated 25th July 07 and 13th Aug 07.

Please note that you should have on your own given me the copies of the Receipts collected by you from the builder after respective payments. In the past too I had to face continuous problems in securing the copies of receipts in addition to other poor services including disconnecting the phones both at Borivili and Kalina Office and arrogant behavious of the staff. Appropriate action will be taken at proper time.



With regards


(B.S.BANGERA)
 

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