10 Ways to Send Money to NRE account in India

One of the frequently asked questions from NRIs, who has just opened an NRE (Non Resident External) account is how to fund their NRE accounts? Since you cannot transfer Indian rupees from your normal savings account in India to your NRE account, this question is common to arise. The simplest way to deposit money in your NRE account is remittance like sending money from your overseas bank account, but that's not the only way to transfer money to your NRE account.

In this article, I am going to show you 10 ways to transfer funds to your NRE accounts. You can use any of these methods to deposit money in your NRE account based on applicability and convenience.  Each of the methods has its own advantage and disadvantage but in terms of convenience, online money transfer to India is the best. You don't need to go anywhere, just send money from the comfort of your office and home.

Btw, If you are looking to send money abroad consider TransferWise. It’s a great tool for sending and receiving money internationally with low fees — much cheaper than using your local bank. You can also get your own local bank account details in Europe, the UK, the US, Australia, and New Zealand with the TransferWise Borderless account

And, If you are looking for alternatives, you can also check out CurrencyFair, which also have a promotion for all new customers that can be used that has 3 free transfer.

10 Ways to fund your NRE account in India

For the purpose of funding, augmenting, or replenishing your existing NRE account or depositing money on your new NRE account, you may choose any one or more of the following modes of remittances at your convenience



1. Foreign currency Cash or Travellers Cheques

You can deposit money into your NRE account during your personal visit to India. At that time, you can tender foreign currency cash and/or Traveller's cheques. As per Reserve Bank rules, you are permitted to carry to India without Customs declaration amounts in Cash component up to USD 5000/-(or equivalent in other foreign currencies) along with traveler's cheques with the sum total of the two aggregating USD 10,000/-. 

These limits are for each NRI visiting India. On the other hand, you may bring in any amount after declaring the same at the customs counter and obtaining a Currency Declaration Form (CDF) signed by Customs Official.


2. Swift Remittance

This is the modern mode of transferring money instantaneously across the world. For detailed information please be in touch with your banker or nearest branch of your bank for enabling SWIFT remittance. Please log on to our Bank’s website to view the SWIFT codes of our various foreign Exchange branches all over India.



3. Money Transfer Service - Money2India

You can also use many money transfer services both online like CurrencyFair,  TransferWise,  Money2India, HDFC QuickRemit, DBS India Remit, Times money Remit2India, Axis bank, etc or offline money transfer services such as Western union which is facilitated through more than 2 lakh agent locations well spread in over 200 countries. However, credit to NRE account is not permitted if you use the Western Union




4. Foreign Currency Demand Draft

The fourth way to deposit money to your Non Resident External account is via a demand draft drawn in foreign currency say, US Dollars, Singapore Dollars or Great Britain Pound (GBP) or Euro, preferably drawn in New York, London, Brussels, or Singapore.


5. Foreign Currency Cheques

One of the easier ways to credit funds in your NRE account is by depositing your personal cheque in foreign currency drawn on your overseas account. This is also the preferred mode to transfer seed amount or initial fund when you open an NRE account online with Indian banks like HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, YESBANK, and others. If you are not sure, which is the best bank to open an NRE account, check out the suggestions and discussion given here?



6. Direct deposit on foreign branches of Indian bank

You can also replenish your existing NRE account by depositing demand drafts, Mail / Electronic Transfers from any of our foreign branches drawn on our Indian branches either in Rupees or foreign currency


7. Indian currency Draft from RBI authorized Exchange houses

One of the rare ways to fund your NRE account is by depositing drafts drawn abroad in Indian Rupees by Reserve Bank of India authorized Exchange Houses. This is most popular in Middle East countries like Oman, Kuwait, UAE, etc.


8. Foreign Currency Money orders

You can also remit funds to your NRE account by sending International Money Orders in foreign currency. I know that Money orders are things of gone days but you know it still exists. However, I have hardly heard anyone using it in my circle. It's the online money transfer to India which rules nowadays.



9. Transfer from existing FCNR or NRE accounts with any bank

It's perfectly legal to transfer money from your existing FCNR  or Non-Resident External Rupee Accounts with any bank to your new NRE account. Since the source of money is always overseas funds, this is allowed and the most convenient way if you happen to have an NRE account of your own or with your wife or friends. See here for more details.


10. Rapid funds2 India

An easy and hassle-free money transfer service to India from Bank of Baroda’s 6 branches in the UAE and 3 branches in Oman

Here is a nice slide of all 10 ways to transfer money to your NRE account from overseas or deposit amount into your NRI account:

10 ways to transfer money to NRE account NRI



That's all about 10 ways to transfer money to your NRE account in India. You can use any of these ways to transfer money to your NRE account from abroad. Each of them has its own advantage and disadvantages, but if you ask me the best way, well I would always nothing beats online money transfer services like Money2India, HDFC QuickRemit, Remit2India, and others. You can transfer money from the convenience of your office or home at any time.


15 comments:

  1. What is the best way to transfer money to India from USA?

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  2. Can I transfer money to my nre account using remitly

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    Replies
    1. why not, I think yes because it's like any other remittance service. NRE account just need the source of fund is outside India, which is fine because you are remitting money.

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    2. So the target currency would be INR or dollars?

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    3. A problem I found was if you use these services, the address for the recipient should be an Indian address. But for the NRE accounts, the address is an US/foreign address. What address should we use?

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  3. Which is the best way to transfer Euro to NRE account as Euro'? It is for FCNR deposit.

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    Replies
    1. when you do FCNR, there is always a currency conversion if I am not wrong, you can directly remit the money into your FCNR deposit account, may be your relationship manager can guide you better, depending upon which bank account you hold.

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  4. how do i deposit Canadian dollars in cash into my icici nre account in Canada?

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    Replies
    1. you need to use a remittance service like TransferWise, ICCIC Money2India, HDFC Quick2Remit or Xoom etc

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  5. can i transfer from chase account to my sbi nre account using the "sbi NY routing number" and my "account number"?

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    Replies
    1. Yes, possible, similar to wire transfer but if you have doubt check with SBI guys.

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  6. Can we use service like ria or remitly or western union which will convert USD to INR to fund our nre account in INR?

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    Replies
    1. Yes, if you are transferring money from overseas then you can use remitly, xoom or transferwise to fund your NRE account.

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  7. does NRE account accept money in INR if they are already converted using USD from a US bank

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    Replies
    1. No, you cannot deposit INR on NRE account, you can only deposit foreign currency.

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