ECS Mandate Charges

Electronic Clearing Services (ECS) is an electronic mode of fund transfer initiated by the RBI. It facilitates bulk funds transfer from one bank account to another. ECSs are repetitive and periodic transactions done by institutions to make payments towards interest, pension, salary, and distribution of dividends.

It is usually used by loan lenders to periodically debit EMIs from the borrower. ECS debits are handled by the NACH (National Automated Clearing House) under NPCI (National Payments Corporation of India).

Read on to learn more about the working of ECS mandates, the ease of applying for these mandates, ECS mandate registration charges and ECS mandate charges. Note that the ECS mandate charges are applied by different banks. The withdrawal procedure is also explained below.

When you want to avail ECS, you have to sign an ECS mandate. This mandate is proof that instructs your bank to undertake these tasks:

• This mandate informs your bank and authorises it to credit or debit a certain amount of money as monthly EMI for your loan or any purchases and credit in your lender account periodically.

• The mandate contains details of your bank account, branch, and other mandatory account details.

• While applying for this mandate, you should specify the purpose of debit, the maximum amount the bank should debit, and set a validity period.

• Every time the bank debits the amount, you will be notified about the completion of the transaction along with relevant details of your transaction.

There are two types of ECS mandates:

• ECS Credit 

ECS credit is when an institution credits funds into your account. It enables payment of salary, pension distribution, and dividend payments. With the ECS Credit, you do not have to deal with the loss of physical instruments or fraud encashments and receive funds on the due date.

• ECS Debit:

ECS debit is when you choose to make recurring payments like EMIs or SIP towards your investments. ECS Debit also lets you make timely payments towards credit card bills, loan instalments, and mutual funds.

Your ECS NACH charges depend on the NACH mandate. Transactions made by ECS mandate involve no charges as per RBI’s directive. As per the directive, ECS mandate charges cannot be levied by sponsor or beneficiary banks on the customers.

ECS mandate charges that might be applied are mentioned below:

• ECS mandate charges might be levied on participating banks

• Banks from where the amount is getting debited need to pay a charge of 25 paise to the clearing house and 50 paise to the destination bank per transaction.

• Bank branches usually do not apply ECS mandate charges for debiting funds from the customer's accounts. Banks do not levy ECS mandate charges while registering for it but can charge you for ECS sign verification charges.

• ECS sign verification charges are available on financial institutes’ websites under service charges.

Sponsor banks are required to disclose all the levied charges transparently for ECS mandate charges under ECS credit and debit.

ECS NACH mandate charges vary in different banks. Along with ECS sign verification charges, not having an adequate balance will be chargeable. Additional charges will be levied if your ECS transactions fail due to a low account balance. ECS mandate charges of some banks are mentioned below.

For more details on ECS mandate charges, contact your bank.

The transactions and ECS NACH mandate charges can be stopped. Your instructions under ECS mandate charges will be treated as equivalent to ‘stop payment’ similar to the cheque clearing system.

You can approach your bank or other institution to whom you have authorised the ECS mandate to withdraw the transaction process and, along with it, ECS mandate charges by the following procedure:

• ECS mandate charges and its process can be withdrawn by informing your bank and the beneficiary of the payment in a written application.

• You may provide prior notice of the mandate withdrawal to the user institution.

• You can also withdraw the mandate directly with your bank without the involvement of the user institution.

• Before withdrawing the mandate, you should monitor your payments