There are several ways to send money to India from Overseas, both online and offline. Some of the popular channel for remitting money includes the Western Union for the small amount of cash to online services like ICICI Money2India, Xoom, HDFC QuickRemit, Remit2India, Transferwise, CurrencyFair, and Axis bank Remittance allows you instantly transfer small to medium amount of money to India e.g. from 500 USD to 20,000 USD. Different websites and money transfer services have different limits and that too also varies depending on which country you are sending money to India.
For example, the maximum amount you can send using Western Union using online FX International Payments is around 10000 USD per transaction.
Similarly, if you remit money from Singapore to India using Money2India or DBS India remit, the maximum amount you can remit per day is SGD 200,000 per day, which is good enough for most purposes.
By the way, if you need a large amount of money in India for any big-ticket item like marriage, medical, or buying a property then you must consider the option which gives you the best rate apart from the safety and security of transaction because even a small fluctuation in the exchange rate can be a big amount of money given the size of the transfer.
That's why you need to do a bit of due diligence to check the exchange rates for websites. You can also opt-in for services like CurrencyFair and TransferWise which charge less than the bank but provide a similar level of services.
IMHO, time is secondary here, of course, if it's not a medical emergency and you may be able to wait for a few hours to a few days depending on your need and situation.
In this article, I'll share a couple of different ways to send a large amount of money to India from overseas like the USA, UK, Singapore, or Middle East countries like the UAE.
In most cases, you can use popular online remittance services like Money2India from ICICI bank, QuickRemit from HDFC, Transferwise, CurrencyFair, and Remit2India for a medium-large amount.
For example, Power transfer from ICICI Money2India, which is a wire-based service allows you to transfer up to INR 20,000,000 per day and up to INR 30,000,000 per week.
This maximum limit is sufficient for many purposes but if you need more than 30 lakhs then this service is not fit for you.
The Power transfer is ICICI Bank's online wire transfer channel–you can transfer money to India in as less as 48 hours.
Errors associated with a normal wire transfer are minimized with Power Transfer's unique tracking number that enables you to keep track of your remittance.
You need to choose the service which is offering the best rate and is both reliable and secure like CurrencyFair, which provides the first three transfer fees and charges less than other banks and other services.
By using CurrencyFair services, you can not only send money to India but to other major countries like Australia, Canada, Europe, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, and UAE United Kingdom, United States, etc.
It is also an extremely easy offline option but some bank allows you to do it online as well. In order to send money abroad using wire transfer, you have to issue the instruction to your local bank and they will remit money to any bank in India depending upon the swift code you provide.
For example, if you want to send more than 100K USD from the USA to India to your ICICI bank account, you can initiate a wire transfer from your local bank through their online/offline facility mentioning ICICI bank's correspondent bank details and mentioning Swift/BIC Code for ICICI Bank for retail remittances "ICICINBBNRI".
You also need to ensure that your local bank mentions your account number, name address, and purpose of remittance in the payment message to avoid any delay in processing your transaction.
Different banks have different correspondent banks and different SWIFT codes.
For example, HDFC swift code for retail remittances is different than ICICIs, so make sure you get the right SWIFT code from your bank.
Both the sending and receiving bank will do stringent checks while transferring money via WIRE transfer to make sure it's from a legitimate source and for a legitimate purpose.
They will also verify the Sender and Receives identity details. So, it can take some time.
In general, no matter where you are in the world, just issue Wire Transfer instructions to your local bank and any money can be credited to your Indian account within 1-2 working days
Many banks ask you to send foreign currency cheques while opening an NRE account from Overseas.
Most banks accept cheques, traveler's cheques, demand drafts, cashier orders, pay orders, bankers' cheques, etc.
You need to deposit your cheques along with a signed Indemnity Letter cum deposit slip to the branch itself, you cannot put them into dropbox like you do with local cheques e.g. at par cheques issued by Indian banks in India.
The foreign currency cheques can be in US Dollar (USD), Great Britain Pound (GBP), Australian Dollar (AUD), Canadian Dollar (CAD), Euro (EUR), Singapore Dollar (SGD), Swiss Franc (CHF), Kuwaiti Dinar (KWD), Omani Rial (OMR), New Zealand Dollar (NZD) and Japanese Yen (JPY).
Depending upon the foreign currency there is a minimum amount limit in a cheque to be deposited e.g USD 10 to 100 dollars.
The biggest drawback with sending money via foreign currency cheques and by post via DHL, DTDC, or FedEx is time.
First, it will take a couple of days for a cheque to reach India and then the beneficiary has to deposit the cheque into the bank, and from their Money will be credited to your account ranging from immediately to 21 international working days depending on the country and bank the cheque is drawn.
Generally, in ICICI bank credit can be done in 8 international working days of lodging of your cheque with their correspondent bank but this is generally not the case with a large amount of money.
For example, the State bank of India has the commonwealth Bank of Australia, Sydney as a correspondent Bank and NRIs living in Australia can use this correspondent bank for sending money to India in AUD.
ICICI bank provides the following options with their correspondent banks
ICICI Bank Transfer – Get direct credit into the beneficiary ICICI Bank account instantly or within 24 hours (subject to conditions).
Non-ICICI Bank Electronic Fund Transfer – – Avail of electronic credits to the beneficiary maintains an account with over 100 banks in India, within the same day, excluding weekends, banking, and public holidays.
Demand draft: Purchase a Rupee Demand Draft across the counter, from any of the specific partner bank locations. The remitter can physically carry the DD to India or courier it to the beneficiary.
The ICICI Bank has collaborated with Wells Fargo to bring you a convenient money transfer option.
All you need to do is enroll in the Wells Fargo ExpressSend Service to India to be able to transfer money from your eligible Wells Fargo checking or savings account to your beneficiary's ICICI bank account.
Of course, this is only valid if you have Wells Fargo account in the USA and an ICICI bank account in India, but it's quite convenient.
Quick
Amount transferred to the beneficiary account within 24 working hours of ICICI receiving funds in its account held with the correspondent bank.
Multiple currencies
Inward remittance is accepted in 17 currencies namely:
UAE Dirham (AED), Australian Dollar( AUD), Canadian Dollar (CAD), Swiss Francs (CHF), Singapore Dollar (SGD), Japanese Yen (JPY), United States Dollar (USD), Norwegian Krone (NOK), New Zealand Dollar (NZD), Qatari Riyal (QAR), Danish Krone (DKK), Euro (EUR), Great Britain Pound (GBP), Hong Kong Dollar (HKD), South African Rand (ZAR), Saudi Riyal (SAR), Swedish Kroner (SEK)
That's all about some of the best ways to transfer a large amount of money to India from Overseas. As I said, you should do due diligence in terms of what exchange rate you are getting if your maximum amount is less than 20 lakh. Even a small fluctuation in the exchange rate can turn out to be a big profit or loss.
Most of the time, for transferring a large amount of money, you need to use the WIRE transfer because that's the one that allows you to send a really large amount of money for purchasing property or other big-ticket items.
Make sure you have the right SWIFT/BIC code which varies from bank to bank and even the same bank has a different SWIFT code for different correspondent banks.
For example, if you are sending AUD from Australia to the State Bank of India then if you are depositing money in CommonWealth bank then the SWIFT code for SBI is CTBAAU2S and for National Australia Bank Ltd. it's NATAAU33. You must obtain the correct SWIFT/BIC code for your bank from their websites.
P. S. - 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
For example, the maximum amount you can send using Western Union using online FX International Payments is around 10000 USD per transaction.
Similarly, if you remit money from Singapore to India using Money2India or DBS India remit, the maximum amount you can remit per day is SGD 200,000 per day, which is good enough for most purposes.
By the way, if you need a large amount of money in India for any big-ticket item like marriage, medical, or buying a property then you must consider the option which gives you the best rate apart from the safety and security of transaction because even a small fluctuation in the exchange rate can be a big amount of money given the size of the transfer.
That's why you need to do a bit of due diligence to check the exchange rates for websites. You can also opt-in for services like CurrencyFair and TransferWise which charge less than the bank but provide a similar level of services.
IMHO, time is secondary here, of course, if it's not a medical emergency and you may be able to wait for a few hours to a few days depending on your need and situation.
In this article, I'll share a couple of different ways to send a large amount of money to India from overseas like the USA, UK, Singapore, or Middle East countries like the UAE.
Best Online Remittance Services
In most cases, you can use popular online remittance services like Money2India from ICICI bank, QuickRemit from HDFC, Transferwise, CurrencyFair, and Remit2India for a medium-large amount.For example, Power transfer from ICICI Money2India, which is a wire-based service allows you to transfer up to INR 20,000,000 per day and up to INR 30,000,000 per week.
This maximum limit is sufficient for many purposes but if you need more than 30 lakhs then this service is not fit for you.
The Power transfer is ICICI Bank's online wire transfer channel–you can transfer money to India in as less as 48 hours.
Errors associated with a normal wire transfer are minimized with Power Transfer's unique tracking number that enables you to keep track of your remittance.
You need to choose the service which is offering the best rate and is both reliable and secure like CurrencyFair, which provides the first three transfer fees and charges less than other banks and other services.
By using CurrencyFair services, you can not only send money to India but to other major countries like Australia, Canada, Europe, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, and UAE United Kingdom, United States, etc.
Wire Transfer (SWIFT)
If you need to send a really large amount of money to India from the USA, UK, or Singapore then the best way is Wire transfer or SWIFT transfer. The Wire transfer is the safest and most secure way to transfer money internationally.It is also an extremely easy offline option but some bank allows you to do it online as well. In order to send money abroad using wire transfer, you have to issue the instruction to your local bank and they will remit money to any bank in India depending upon the swift code you provide.
For example, if you want to send more than 100K USD from the USA to India to your ICICI bank account, you can initiate a wire transfer from your local bank through their online/offline facility mentioning ICICI bank's correspondent bank details and mentioning Swift/BIC Code for ICICI Bank for retail remittances "ICICINBBNRI".
You also need to ensure that your local bank mentions your account number, name address, and purpose of remittance in the payment message to avoid any delay in processing your transaction.
Different banks have different correspondent banks and different SWIFT codes.
For example, HDFC swift code for retail remittances is different than ICICIs, so make sure you get the right SWIFT code from your bank.
Both the sending and receiving bank will do stringent checks while transferring money via WIRE transfer to make sure it's from a legitimate source and for a legitimate purpose.
They will also verify the Sender and Receives identity details. So, it can take some time.
In general, no matter where you are in the world, just issue Wire Transfer instructions to your local bank and any money can be credited to your Indian account within 1-2 working days
Foreign Currency Cheques
This is an easy and most convenient way to credit cheques drawn in foreign currency into your India Bank account e.g. ICICI, HDFC, SBI, or any other. You can approach any bank branch to deposit your cheque.Many banks ask you to send foreign currency cheques while opening an NRE account from Overseas.
Most banks accept cheques, traveler's cheques, demand drafts, cashier orders, pay orders, bankers' cheques, etc.
You need to deposit your cheques along with a signed Indemnity Letter cum deposit slip to the branch itself, you cannot put them into dropbox like you do with local cheques e.g. at par cheques issued by Indian banks in India.
The foreign currency cheques can be in US Dollar (USD), Great Britain Pound (GBP), Australian Dollar (AUD), Canadian Dollar (CAD), Euro (EUR), Singapore Dollar (SGD), Swiss Franc (CHF), Kuwaiti Dinar (KWD), Omani Rial (OMR), New Zealand Dollar (NZD) and Japanese Yen (JPY).
Depending upon the foreign currency there is a minimum amount limit in a cheque to be deposited e.g USD 10 to 100 dollars.
The biggest drawback with sending money via foreign currency cheques and by post via DHL, DTDC, or FedEx is time.
First, it will take a couple of days for a cheque to reach India and then the beneficiary has to deposit the cheque into the bank, and from their Money will be credited to your account ranging from immediately to 21 international working days depending on the country and bank the cheque is drawn.
Generally, in ICICI bank credit can be done in 8 international working days of lodging of your cheque with their correspondent bank but this is generally not the case with a large amount of money.
Correspondent Banks
To make it easy for NRIs anywhere in the world to send money to their loved ones in India, Indian Banks like ICICI, HDFC, SBI has partnered with several foreign banks to provide a variety of offline money transfer products.For example, the State bank of India has the commonwealth Bank of Australia, Sydney as a correspondent Bank and NRIs living in Australia can use this correspondent bank for sending money to India in AUD.
ICICI bank provides the following options with their correspondent banks
ICICI Bank Transfer – Get direct credit into the beneficiary ICICI Bank account instantly or within 24 hours (subject to conditions).
Non-ICICI Bank Electronic Fund Transfer – – Avail of electronic credits to the beneficiary maintains an account with over 100 banks in India, within the same day, excluding weekends, banking, and public holidays.
Demand draft: Purchase a Rupee Demand Draft across the counter, from any of the specific partner bank locations. The remitter can physically carry the DD to India or courier it to the beneficiary.
Special Options
Sometimes, you also have a special option depending on which country you are living in. For example, if you are sending money from the USA to India to your ICICI bank account, you can also transfer via Wells Fargo.The ICICI Bank has collaborated with Wells Fargo to bring you a convenient money transfer option.
All you need to do is enroll in the Wells Fargo ExpressSend Service to India to be able to transfer money from your eligible Wells Fargo checking or savings account to your beneficiary's ICICI bank account.
Of course, this is only valid if you have Wells Fargo account in the USA and an ICICI bank account in India, but it's quite convenient.
Some of the salient features of these options are:
Super convenient offline mode – all you need to do is issue International Wire Transfer instructions to your local bank.Quick
Amount transferred to the beneficiary account within 24 working hours of ICICI receiving funds in its account held with the correspondent bank.
Multiple currencies
Inward remittance is accepted in 17 currencies namely:
UAE Dirham (AED), Australian Dollar( AUD), Canadian Dollar (CAD), Swiss Francs (CHF), Singapore Dollar (SGD), Japanese Yen (JPY), United States Dollar (USD), Norwegian Krone (NOK), New Zealand Dollar (NZD), Qatari Riyal (QAR), Danish Krone (DKK), Euro (EUR), Great Britain Pound (GBP), Hong Kong Dollar (HKD), South African Rand (ZAR), Saudi Riyal (SAR), Swedish Kroner (SEK)
That's all about some of the best ways to transfer a large amount of money to India from Overseas. As I said, you should do due diligence in terms of what exchange rate you are getting if your maximum amount is less than 20 lakh. Even a small fluctuation in the exchange rate can turn out to be a big profit or loss.
Most of the time, for transferring a large amount of money, you need to use the WIRE transfer because that's the one that allows you to send a really large amount of money for purchasing property or other big-ticket items.
Make sure you have the right SWIFT/BIC code which varies from bank to bank and even the same bank has a different SWIFT code for different correspondent banks.
For example, if you are sending AUD from Australia to the State Bank of India then if you are depositing money in CommonWealth bank then the SWIFT code for SBI is CTBAAU2S and for National Australia Bank Ltd. it's NATAAU33. You must obtain the correct SWIFT/BIC code for your bank from their websites.
P. S. - 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
P. P. S - 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.
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