how to transfer money to India?

[guru]

Friends,

What is the best way to transfer money to India? So far I have come across these three banks/companies that transfer money:

ICICI's Money2India
Times Money's Remit2India
SBI's Express Remit Service

Any feedback or inputs on which one provides the best rates? Also any good/bad experiences with any of these?

[gshankar]

I use service from SBI frequently to transfer money. They do the wire transfer free if SBI to SBI. You have to open a account in any SBI in US. If you are in Bay area and San Jose branch is close to you, then u can do fast. You have to provide copy of passport/address proof etc to open account. I found SBI gave better conversion rate than others.

[RTFL]

You already have the SBI URL. Just create an online account and you can use your US bank accounts (upto 5) to transfer funds to India. If you are transferring to SBI in India, it is free and you will get a slightly better rate than transfer to other banks. A transfer initiated on Sun PM UST, I saw the credit to my SBI a/c in India by Fri AM UST of the same week.

From my past experience in the last 3-4 months, SBI exchange rates are very good compared (at least 20-25 paisa) with ICICI's money2india. And as always money2india transfers are never transparent. I did a same day transfer using both, to test the exchange price and the time for transfer - SBI online transfer stands way ahead of money2india in both areas - exchange price and transfer time.

PS - Above are my experiences only.

[yogi]

Remit2India usually gives the best rates, in my view (if you have a NRE account in India. Their rates are lower if you send a DD instead of transferring to an NRE account). But they are a little pesky, and will call you quite frequently with marketing calls. I have transferred money using their service many times, and the amount appears in my ICICI NRE account in about 5-8 business days.

Also since they are a smaller company (and not a large bank), they move quickly to adjust their exchange rates against their competitors (which are large banks like SBI and ICICI). At any given time look at these three pages for exchange rate comparison:

SBI
ICICI
Remit2India

What I have observed is that remit2india ppl always keep their rates few paisa better than the other two. I have transferred over 60K USD through them and have been satisfied with the final exchange rate I got.

If only they would stop making those annoying marketing cold calls...

[sreddy]

Originally Posted by yogi

Remit2India usually gives the best rates, in my view (if you have a NRE account in India.

Remit2India also gives the option of recurring transfers. I think recently they started a "name your price" scheme, in which you can give a price at which you would want to do the transfer, and when that exchange rate happens, they automatically process the transaction.

I think SBI is overall nice when it comes to customer service and tracking of money. I would personally use SBI

[sreddy]

If you have a Wells Fargo and ICICI accounts, then Wells Fargo will set you up for free to transfer your money to your ICICI account to India within 24 hours. You may have to pay them a one-time nominal fee to set this up. Their rates are also not that good.

[vikram]

Originally Posted by gshankar

I use service from SBI frequently to transfer money. They do the wire transfer free if SBI to SBI. You have to open a account in any SBI in US. If you are in Bay area and San Jose branch is close to you, then u can do fast. You have to provide copy of passport/address proof etc to open account. I found SBI gave better conversion rate than others.

I recently wire transferred money from SBI, San Jose to a SBI branch in India. I gave them a Wells Fargo banker's check and they wire transferred it. I didn't have to pay anything for the wire transfer and the money reached the branch in India in 24 hrs.

[venky]

Originally Posted by vikram

I recently wire transferred money from SBI, San Jose to a SBI branch in India. I gave them a Wells Fargo banker's check and they wire transferred it. I didn't have to pay anything for the wire transfer and the money reached the branch in India in 24 hrs.

I've used the SBI money transfer a couple of times and the process is very easy and takes less than 15 minutes. The money is deposited next business day into the beneficiary account in India. All you need is a Cashier's check from your bank for the amount you wish to transfer and the SBI account details incl. the branch address. The transfer rates are not bad and you can always call them @408-938-9240 and then compare their exchange rates with the ones listed in the remit2india website (has ICICI rates too). In fact, the excahnge rate is negotiable to some extent if the amount being transferred is a large one.

[sanjeevk]

Another player is Western Union Money Transfer.

Though they charge 10$ as transfer fee, and their exchange rates are also not that good (though may vary for amount size). But they are really quick, and would be best for urgent situations. Western union counters/branches are available all over the place. Plus it is a very reliable service which I have personally used before and people get their money in India a matter of minutes.

[konada]

I have done wire transfer quite a few times through San Jose, SBI. It is very convenient for me. I have transferred money to another SBI account in India. (This account need not be an NRE account there in India). Typically, if you do the wire before, say 3:00pm PST, the money gets wired and available in about 4-5 hours (approx). Your folks in India can avail it in the following day morning (IST). In my experiences, I have found the conversion rates better than ICICI and Remit2India. Also, they tell you the conversion rate immediately here in San Jose, when you do the transaction. Also, you can request further more, and they would slightly adjust it by few paisa and give you a better deal. (Based on my experiences with regard to conversion rate, there have always been surprises whenever I have wired using ICICI or Remit2India, but not with SBI.)

If you open a local Savings account with San Jose, SBI, and if you always maintain an average balance of $3000 on that account, then you can wire any amount to India for free, and any number of transactions. I have done wire transfers and the money was availed at the other end in about 4-6 hours (approx.). It is convenient for me.

[prashant]

The best option for sending larger amounts to India is [Deleted by Admin] . Their currency desk is in Europe so you may need to call in the morning but their rates beat the banks, remit2india, money2india etc

[yogi]

Originally Posted by prashant

The best option for sending larger amounts to India is [Deleted by Admin]. Their currency desk is in Europe so you may need to call in the morning but their rates beat the banks, remit2india, money2india etc

Have you used their services personally? How long did it take? What are the fees involved?

This site has a very poor ranking on Alexa. I would be wary of using such sites. Unless credibility is established in some form, please do not use any random sites for money transfer.