Electronic Clearance Service (ECS) and National Automated Clearing House (NACH) are two methods available in India for recurring payments. If you want to know more about it and its benefits, then this article will help you out. Read on!

What is the ECS mandate?

Before the introduction e-Mandate, the Reserve Bank of India had come up with ECS or the Electronic Clearance System. The system involved the submission of a physical form such as the ECS mandate to a bank or a company. 

It was done to deduct an amount from your bank accounts for periodic payments such as loan EMIs and more. However, this system was not that efficient as it took so much time from mandate enrolling to settlement to grievance redressed and more. 

Hence, a new web-based and faster method of sending and receiving bulk payments were introduced. The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) started with the National Automated Clearing House (NACH) for faster and smoother recurring payments. 

What is NACH e-Mandate?

The NACH e-Mandate was introduced by NPCI to decrease the processing time and facilitate recurring payments on time. It led to a more streamlined process that was efficient and super fast. With the help of NACH e-Mandate, you could be in a position to authorize recurring payments by employing your Debit card or Net banking details.    

What are the overall advantages of NACH e-Mandate over ECS Mandate?

• NACH e-Mandate is easy to operate as it gets activated in a single day. On the other hand, the ECS Mandate took about 25-30 days for activation. 
• You don’t need to submit a new mandate application for having another SIP in a specific fund house. All that you will need is a One-Time Mandate (OTM). 
• The authentication process of NACH e-Mandate needs only your credentials of Net banking. 
• If you are carrying insufficient funds in your bank account, then the transaction will not be possible. Hence, you will not face the issue of levying extra charges. 
• Lower regulatory concerns. 

What are the benefits of NACH e-Mandate for customers?

• Get to enjoy uninterrupted services 

Once you sign up for the NACH e-Mandate facility, you can go ahead and verify your subscription once and continue to enjoy undisturbed service at any time. The other good thing about this system is that you won’t be troubled with constant payment reminders. Hence, you won’t miss paying any of your accounts and save time and efforts in remembering all due dates. 

• Make the most of the flexible options 

The NACH e-Mandate subscriptions let a user purchasing a plan that is well suited considering their preferences and more. With so many options available from easy termination to inclusions, it provides for most favourable user experience.  

• Simplicity to suit all kinds of users  

The authentication or the verification process available with NACH e-Mandate follows a dead easy procedure. The only thing that you will need to get started is your Net banking details, and you are ready to take the plunge. 

• Quick grievance addressing 

Compared to the grievance addressing system in the ECS Mandate, which was between banks and facilitating partners, the NACH e-Mandate comes with an improved system. Unlike the manual procedures to address disputes raised by customers in ECS Mandate, the NACH e-Mandate comes with an online claim settlement system and you can also set your ECS limit. It means that you can get quick responses to your problem, and the issue gets resolved quickly. 

You are now aware of the key differences between ECS Mandate and NACH e-Mandate and the advantages of the latter. 

You can opt for NACH e-Mandate while setting instructions for recurring payments like a credit card, loan EMIs and other payments.