How To Manage Investments Using Mobile Banking App

Posted by Arjit Chalmela on November 19th, 2019

With the increase in usage of smartphones, banking has transitioned from branch based banking to netbanking and to online mobile banking. Most banks have their own smartphone applications available on Google Play or the App Store for their customers to download and transact from.

One of the biggest changes in mobile banking apps is the integration of other services such as bill payments, credit and debit cards, fund transfers and most importantly investments. The linkage of these services has made it very convenient for customers to transact with these and build up an investment portfolio.

When it comes to making investments, there are two types of investments that can primarily be made through online mobile banking. The online mobile banking system works accordingly depending on whether you make the investment in the bank or outside the bank.

Making investments within the bank:

The two types of investments you can make within the bank using mobile banking are opening a fixed deposit and a recurring deposit. Both can very easily be opened up using banking apps. Once you select the amount of deposit, the tenure and the maturity instruction, the netbanking proceeds to show you the rate of interest on your deposit. It is always better to have the bank’s website open on another computer or mobile phone showing the rate of interest at hand so that you can customize the investment as required. For example, if keeping the money for 7 days gives you a rate of 3.5% but keeping it for 14 days gives you an interest of 4.25%, then you can consider making a fixed deposit for 14 days and earning more interest income.

 However, for recurring deposit, you need to decide the instalment amount and the tenure of the deposit. You can check your account balance through online mobile banking before making the decision.

Another important thing to decide is the maturity instructions. You can either opt to not renew the investment in which case it will be credited to your account. You can renew either the principal and interest or only the principal amount. If you have opted for a fixed deposit longer than 6 months, you can choose whether to reinvest the interest amount or to get the interest income in your bank account at fixed intervals. However, when it comes to a recurring deposit, the interest will only come to your account on maturity of the deposit.

Once you fix these details and enter them into your mobile banking apps, the FD or RD will get booked. You will get an email advice for the transaction and the debit will be confirmed through SMS.

Making investments outside the bank:

Netbanking also offers investments outside the bank in the form of insurance, mutual funds and equity trading. Generally, equity trading and mutual fund investments are done through group companies that handle that aspect of investments. However, you can put details about an SIP in your mobile banking by entering details of the mutual fund as a biller in bill payment. When the mutual fund will present the fund requirement to the bank, the investment will go through. You can pay insurance bills through netbanking as well.

When it comes to making equity trades, you will need to open a demat account and trading account to proceed. The netbanking system will only act as an aide but the primary systems will be of the other company who is registered with SEBI to provide those services.