NEFT system now available 24×7 from today; Everything you need to know

Starting today, December 16, you’ll be able to make the National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) anytime. As per the Reserve Bank of India instructions, all national and private banks are now required to offer NEFT services on round-the-clock basis (24×7). The facility is used for electronically transferring funds from one account to another.

Earlier this month, the RBI in a notification to banks said that the NEFT system will work round-the-clock from December 16. The first settlement will take place after 00:30 hours on December 16, 2019 (night of December 15, 2019).

“The system will be available on all days of the year, including holidays,” RBI said in a notification. “NEFT transactions after usual banking hours of banks are expected to be automated transactions initiated using ‘Straight Through Processing (STP)’ modes by the banks.”

NEFT timings and details

What this means is, you’ll be able to do NEFT transaction 24 hours 7 days (24×7) from December 16, including National or Bank holidays. Up until now, the NEFT transactions were limited to different timing of the week, depending upon Bank working days and hours. These hours in weekdays were from 8:00 AM to 7:00 PM. Additionally, on Bank working days of first and third Saturdays of the month, the NEFT timings were different – from 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM.

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NEFT charges

In July, the RBI had waived off all charges on fund transfer through NEFT, but there are still some banks who take charges on such transfers. The good news is that the RBI has proposed to mandate banks to make all online NEFT transactions free for savings bank account customers from January 2020. At present, banks like State Bank of India (SBI), ICICI Bank and HDFC do not charge anything for online NEFT.