HDFC Demat

Could someone tell me whether HDFC bank charge anything for maintaining a Demat account? Because they told me that I will be given a demat account if I open an s/b account with them. But they did not mention any maintenance costs.

Rs. 500 per annum as AMC. Refer
http://www.hdfcbank.com/personal/accounts/demat_account/depository_fees.htm

Thanks for the link. I have couple of questions.
1) What is Dematerialization charges?
2) [Equity transactions - Sell - 0.04 % of the value of the transaction] So if I use a trading platform such as Sharekhan, then I would have to pay their brokerage as well as HDFC's 0.04 %, is that correct?

1. if you had physical shares certificate (share ownership on paper certificate, a few years ago people would have shares in paper forms), and want to convert into electronic form of shares, as required by NSE/BSE for online and quick trading, then you would de-materialize it.

2. if you trade from sharekhan, you have to pay only sharekhan's brokerage and if you trade with hdfc, then only hdfc brokerage will be charged. it's like using phones from 2 different operators (airtel, vodafone). you'd pay airtel for airtel's service and vodafone for vodafone's service.

Just yesterday I posted a reply with some links about charges. So I dug up more details. It looks like HDFC's brokerage isn't as great as Sharekhan's. Why don't you try India Infoline. They seem to be the best if this site is to be believed

http://www.tracenotes.com/reports/brokers-india.html