Send Money to India

In the last 10 years, choices to send money to India have grown quite large. So, choosing among the options becomes quite a daunting task for someone who just moved overseas and need to transfer money to India. While selecting the right money transfer method there are a few critical factors you need to consider: Exchange Rate, Speed, and Online Interface. In this post, I will write my experiences regarding some of the online money transfer tools I have used in the past. I will also provide a recommendation at the end on my personal preference.

Send Money by Check

This is the old-fashioned way of sending money to India. This process can take more than a month. Plus, if you lose your check in the mail (which can happen in India), then you would need to resend the check and make sure it doesn't go to wrong hands. ICICI has now begun offering a service called Web Based Check Transfer, where instead of mailing a check to India, you can mail it to a local PO Box in your country. I'm not sure exactly where that check gets cleared, but ICICI may then simply courier it India and get it cleared faster because it probably goes to a facility that handles all these checks. So, it may turn out to be faster than sending it to relatives, who will then deposit to their local branch, who will in turn forward it to a branch that handles foreign exchange. This is why this process takes longer and should be avoided, if at all possible.

Send Money by Wire Transfer

I am personally not a big fan of this method because there are transactions costs associated with each transfer. If you transfer money frequently, these costs could add up quite fast. With this said, this method is the faster because the overseas bank transfers money directly to an Indian bank using the Swift code. To send money by wire transfer you will need account details of your bank in India, Swift code of your Indian bank. Most banks in the US or any developed country do this frequently for their customers. When you go to your foreign back, you just need to tell them to that you would like to do wire money transfer.

Send Money by ACH Transfer

This is probably the most popular way of sending money to India because it is free and you can do this banking transaction from the comfort of your home. ACH, which stands for Automated Clearing House, is an electronic network for financial transactions in the United States. ACH processes large volumes of credit and debit transactions in batches. All direct deposits, bill payments, automatic debits in the US are processed through this network. To send money via ACH transfer, you will need to sign up for an account with a bank of your choice in India. There, you will be asked to provide your information such as name, address, SSN, phone, etc. Then you will asked to enter beneficiary's information that include their account number in India, address, name, etc. You also need to enter your US or foreign bank's account details to link it to the money transfer service. Most Indian bank these days do a double verification of your US bank account by posting few cents transactions to it, which then you are asked to confirm on their website. This ensures that the linked account is genuine. The process is designed to make it secure and provide you a peace of the mind. Once this is done, you are ready to transfer money from their interface. Once the money transfer transaction is initiated, it is takes about 4-6 days for the money to show up in your beneficiary's bank account.

Comparison of Money to India Services

Factor	SBI	ICICI	Remit2India
Exchange Rate	SBI consistently offers highest exchange rate. I’ve not seen any major bank come closer to SBI. The only exception is Kotak Mahindra, which also offers same or sometimes better exchange rates.	ICICI’s exchange rates are generally lower by 20 paisa or more. I have heard lots of complaints from friends about ICICI’s delaying of transfer of funds so that it can get the benefits from exchange rate going down. I don’t know if this is a common practice, but I am certainly staying away from ICICI for this very reason.	Remit2India’s exchange rates are generally lower by 20 paisa or more. I have also heard lots of complaints about Remit2India. I used this service back in 2003-2004, but I am staying from them because they are not a bank and it may become harder to get hold of them if something goes wrong.
Speed	Money reaches with 4-5 day consistently.	I don’t know their latest speed as I stopped using this service long time ago for the factors mentioned above.	I don’t know their latest speed as I stopped using this service long time ago for the factors mentioned above.
Online Interface	SBI’s online interface is crummy and is daunting during the sign-up process. But, if you get over this hump, you can work with minor inconveniences to avail better exchange rates and speed on your transfer.	ICICI’s online interface is much more matured because they have been doing this for quite some time.	I personally don’t like Remit2India’s online interface because it tries to push you into other products and service they offer.

 

My Recommendation

Go with SBI Online Remit Service. You will never go wrong with them.