3 Best websites and banks to transfer money from Singapore to India

There are many options to send money from Singapore to India, but an online money transfer is the best. You can transfer money at your convenience without the hassle of visiting a bank or remittance center, but given there are a lot of banks and websites providing online money transfers from Singapore to India, which one is the best? Which will give you the best exchange rates and charge the lowest transfer fees? Do you need to create another account or you can use your existing DBS, OCBC, or UOB account to wire money from Singapore to India? Which bank is quickest in sending money to India.

We'll try to find answers to these questions in this article. Given so many online money transfer options you have, you must fir compare exchange rates while converting your Singapore dollar (SGD) to Indian Rupee (INR).

If you have been using one of the channels e.g. ICICI bank's Money2India for a long time, maybe it's time to check if your channel is providing the best exchange rates or not. Since there is so much competition between money transfer sites, some of them are either not charging any fees or providing more competitive rates, which is another factor in selecting the best bank to transfer money online from Singapore to India.

5 Best Way for Sending Money to India from Singapore - AxisRemit vs IndiaRemit vs Money2India vs QuickRemit 

Let's compare four of the best online services and banks to transfer money to India from Singapore i.e. AxisBank's AxiRemit, DBS bank's IndiaRemit, ICICI Bank's Money2India, and HDFC Bank's QuickRemit.

1. Axis Bank AxisRemit

Axis Bank offers an online money transfer service called AxisRemit.  Like all other services, you also need to register for it. Given Axis bank is one of the best private banks in India and has a good number of branches, you will find it easy to transfer money to your small town or city Axis bank branch. 

The exchange rate is variable so you need to compare for the day you want to transfer, you can check the exchange rate either on a bank site or a comparison site like sgd2inr to get the full picture. 

Transfer fees are lower compared to others e.g. for transferring 0 to 100 Singapore dollars to India, no fee, for 100 - 12,000 just 2 SGD, and again for 12K and above no transfer fee will be charged. If you are maintaining a local DBS or OCBC bank account then you need to pay the remitted money from there so no further registration is required, but this can usually take 2 to 3 days. 

Their remittance service is also known as smart wire as shown below:

2. DBS Bank IndiaRemit

DBS bank is one of the late entrances in online money transfer to India, but it is also the fastest one. DBS bank has an overseas fund transfer service called IndiaRemit, which allows you to transfer money right from your online DBS iBanking account. The good thing is you don't need to register for any other service e.g. Money2India, AxisRemit, etc. 

Transfer charges are a little bit higher than other websites though e.g. you need to pay SGD 5 for transferring money up to 5000 SGD and 10$ for transferring up to 25,000 SGD and 35$ for all other amounts, the key advantage is you can use DBS IndiaRemit for same-day money transfer. 

It is also good to send large amounts as it offers the best exchange rate for SGD to INR. So pros are speed, exchange rate, and convenience and the cons is higher transfer fees.

3. HDFC QuickRemit

HDFC Bank, the leading private sector bank from India also offers an online money transfer service for sending money to India, known as HDFC QuickRemit.  It's completely free of charge and offers you the best exchange rates in Singapore without compromising on the security and agility of the service, but you must check and compare the exchange rate before transferring money. 

This service also requires registration and you can only transfer up to 5000 in one transaction, but a maximum of 10 transactions are allowed per day. 

Similar to Money2India and other services you can use your DBS or OCBC local account to make a Bill payment corresponding to HDFC quickremit transaction. This service also takes 2 to 3 days for sending money to India. It doesn't charge on SGD transfer, but you need to pay service tax on India as below, which is not different from AxisRemit or ICICI Money2India.

•     If you transfer SGD up to Rs.100,000 then tax will be 0.14% of the amount, or min Rs.35/-
•     If the amount of currency exchanged is above Rs.100,000 up to Rs.1,000,000 then tax will be Rs.140 + 0.07% of incremental amount above Rs.100,000
•     Additionally, in case, there is a Demand Draft drawn on the Non-HDFC Bank location, the extra fee of Rs. 0.75 per thousand (minimum amount of fee - Rs. 20) will be deducted.

Don't forget to check the bank website for the latest fee structure as they change it without notice

4. ICICI Money2India (Fixed and Indicative)

This is one of the oldest online money transfer services for sending money from Singapore to India. It's ICICI bank the biggest Indian private bank's remittance service. It gives you several options to convert your SGD to INR e.g. Fixed rupee transfer where the exchange rate is fixed or NetExpress where at the time of transfer the indicative exchange rate is shown and the actual rate on which your Singapore dollar will be converted could be more or less. 

You need to register for this service but you can transfer money to any bank in India, you just need to register each of your payee accounts on the service. For interbank transfer in India, these services use NEFT or RTGS. 

It used to take around 2 to 3 days to credit the Indian rupees in your account and also charges you both in SGD as transfer fees and INR as the service charge, but as per the latest on your site, the service is free with zero service charge and claims to transfer money within 24 hours. 

So that's the good development, no doubt competition has helped here. Regarding the remittance process, you need to initiate a transfer from the Money2India site and then pay the money from your DBS or OCBC bank as a Bill Payment service.

These are some of the most popular banks and websites for online money transfer from Singapore to India but they are not the only ones, there are more e.g. Remit Guru, Kotak Mahindra banks' Remit2India, and SBI Singapore. Depending upon your convenience you can also check out their features but they are less like what HDFC QuickRemit and ICICI Money2India offer. 

There is no clear winner on scoring high on all three key parameters e.g exchange rate, transfer charges, and speed, but DBS bank is best for exchange rates and speed. Though, you must compare rates from all these banks and online services by using sites like sgd2inr before you decide which one to use.

I also suggest sticking with the one you are using if the difference is not more than 500 as it's easy to keep track when you are using tried and tested services, also no more hassle with a new bank, new account, etc.

On a closing note, if you have NRE saving accounts with Kotak, HDFC, or YES Bank, just talk to your relationship manager if he can provide you better rates if it does then go ahead and use their services because when you transfer big amount e.g. 20,000 SGD then the small difference can make big difference in India rupees.