Recently opened a Demat account with Kotak Neo, mainly because of the lower brokerage charges.
And honestly… what a mistake.
The moment I opened the account, the spam calls started. Calls asking me to activate the account, start trading, etc. Basically, trying to push me into trading so they can make money from me.
Compare that with Zerodha, where I’ve had an account for years. Not once have I had someone even calling me and pushing me to trade and nor any spam notifications on the app pushing me to trade.
This is exactly the difference between earning a customer’s trust and chasing a customer’s wallet.
I moved to Kotak Neo for lower brokerage, but if the business model is going to be “save on brokerage, then make up for it by aggressively spamming customers into trading,” that’s a huge turn-off.
Zerodha — take a bow
Years of having my account, no unnecessary calls, no pressure to trade. Just let the product speak for itself.
Sometimes, a little less chasing and a little more respect for the customer goes a long way.
I think it happens with all Banking Brokerage Demat Accounts. I asked them to mark my Trading & Demat account as no calls or advice, the calls stopped completely thereafter.
Yeah, that’s the only reason I opened an account there. Let’s see how it goes. The calls have stopped, though, after I posted about it on social media.
The sad truth is that aggressive sales tactics work, especially in India. (take infamous Bajaj Finance for example)
People who are new to the stock market or desperate to make money easily fall for fake “recommendations,” thinking, “What’s the harm in trying?”
But it’s not just beginners making these mistakes; even highly educated professionals, like doctors, get tricked.
Despite the best efforts, widespread investor education is still a distant reality.
On the other hand, a case can be made for brokers getting desperate for survival given the excessive regulations from SEBI and drastic fall in the F&O volumes.
I have multiple accounts of kotak… Both active with daily trades, and no spam right now. I used to get illegitimate trading service calls, but cant relate that to any one broker, just after few blocks and airtel’s own spam identification methods, its stopped almost all.
Maybe you are right, but I have a slightly different perspective on this. Once the investment portfolio crosses a certain significant threshold, I would probably prefer to work with an independent wealth manager or financial advisor rather than being dependent on a bank or broker.
My concern is that banks and brokers, at some point, may naturally try to pitch their own products or cross-sell services. There could also be an inherent bias toward their own offerings, whereas an independent advisor would ideally have the flexibility to evaluate opportunities across the industry and recommend what is genuinely in my best interest.
