Sending Money to India? Compare Rates on HDFC Quick Remit vs ICICI Money2India vs Remit2India vs SBI vs Axis bank

If you are sending money to India from any abroad location e.g. United States, Singapore, United Kingdom, or Australia, it's worth checking rates offered by different remitting services like DBS India Remit, CurrencyFair, HDFC Quick Remit,  ICICI money2India, Times money Remit2India, Axis bank remittance services and SBI bank itself. Given current volatility in exchange rates, you may end up losing a good sum of money up to 1000 to 5000 Rupees, given your choice of remitting services. Since all of the above provide good services and connectivity in terms of sending money to different cities in India or even sending money to a different branch of a different bank. 

For example, You can use CurrencyFair or ICICI Moeny2India to send money to your Mumbai HDFC account or Bangalore Kotak Mahindra account, in fact to any branch and any city. This means, there is no point in sticking with just one service or bank for transferring money to India.

It's time to look for alternatives, compare rates, and use the one which is offering the best rates for your hard-earned USD, SGD, AUD, or GBP. There are people who always stick with one service, but when they see their friends and colleagues exploring options and getting more on each transfer,  they rethink their strategy.

Comparison of exchange rates before sending money to your Indian account becomes, even more, important because of recent volatility in USD vs INR and SGD vs INR rates. Actually, the rupee fell significantly over all major currencies including EURO, GBP, and even JPY.

At any single point, you can see the significant difference between rates offered among ICICI money2India and HDFC Quick Remit and Times Remit2India service.

As per my experience, Remit2India provides the closest market rates, while SBI and ICICI are sluggish to update on market movements. HDFC quick remit offers the second-best rates at any given point, which is also pretty close to current market rates. 

The only hassle, while using all these services is that you need to register with them and manage your account. It's really a hassle given the number of online accounts you have to manage apart from your banks, credit cards, Facebook, YouTube, Gmail, and others.


The good thing is that there are some sites where you can compare live rates from all these services like sgd2Inr for Singapore NRI or for anyone who is transferring Singapore dollars to India. Though nothing is guaranteed, it offers a convenient view of exchange rates offered by Axis Bank, HDFC quick remit, ICICI money2India both fixed and market rates, Times money's Remit2India, and rates from SBI Singapore branch.



Sending Money to India  - Things to remember

If you are newly settled down abroad and sending money first time to India, then you may want to do some more research to become familiar with different services as mentioned above and certain things related to exchange rates and money transfer. Here are a couple of things worth noting for people sending money first time to India:

1. Current Market Rate [Google]

When you transfer money to India by using any of these services, what you see is current market rates, you are not guaranteed to get that. If the market moves once you initiated the transfer, you may get either higher or lower rates depending upon exchange rates appreciation. Bank provides rates from the time when actual money conversion takes place.


2. Transfer Fee and Charges

Many money transfer services including ICICI money2India charge you a few dollars depending upon how much money you are transferring e.g. ICICI money2India charges around 2 USD if you transfer below 500 USD. Different services might have different charges, it's best to check their individual sites for more information. 

Apart from charging money to dollars, you also need to pay some money, in the range of 100 to 200 for various charges like currency conversion charges, transfer charges, etc. Most of the services show these charges upfront and they also show the indicative amount that will be transferred to your account. By the way, CurrencyFair gives 3 free transactions for new customers, you can use this to send money to India or abroad for free. 

Sending Money to India? Compare Rates on HDFC Quick Remit vs ICICI Money2India vs Remit2India vs SBI vs Axis bank



3. Fixed Exchange Rate

Some remittance service websites like CurrencyFair and ICICI moeny2India also offer fixed exchange rates transfer, where you effectively lock your exchange rates at the time of transfer. This kind of transfer usually offers a little bit less than the current exchange rates, but if you want to lock exchange rates, this is the best option. 

So no need to worry about exchange rates falling down. This is best when the rupee is appreciating, not when it's falling every day like nowadays because you may get better rates than expected. Once again this is a personal choice.




4. Money Transfer using Net Banking

Many banks like DBS, OCBC in Singapore offers direct linkage with these services as Bill Payment options, which means you can directly transfer money from your local bank account to ICICI Money2India or Remit2India or HDFC quick remit and they will be credited to your Indian bank account within 2 to 3 business days. In best cases, you can expect money in your account at the end of the second business day.


5. Overseas Remittance Facility by International Banks

Many banks also offer overseas remittance facilities, especially if they have branches there e.g. Citibank and recently  DBS started that in Singapore as well. You often get better rates by directly transferring using your local bank, but even in that case, it's worth doing a comparison of rates offered by all these services.


6. Online vs Offline Money Transfer Service

It's better to stick with online money transfer services than offline ones like sending money using the Western Union or by directly depositing it into SBI branches. You not only save a lot of time and hassle by going into the branch, standing in the queue but also pay less commission for currency conversion. It's also easy to keep track of your money transfers by using an online service than a manual one.

Last but not the least, everyone works hard to earn money and all people who send money to India are living abroad, away from their family, friends, society, and culture, which means you must get the best rates for your hard-earned dollars. 

Though not many people do enough research or compare rates before transferring money to India, even for the bigger amount, in which case you may lose up to 10 to 20K on India rupees, which is still not a small amount in India. Spend some time, do your research, and bookmark sites that can provide a comparison of exchange rates for different remittance services.

P. S. - CurrencyFair is offering 3 free transactions for new customers, you can use this to send money to India or abroad for free. 

25 comments:

  1. The US Institute of Supply Management (ISM) non-manufacturing index (NMI) rose to 58.6% in August 2.6 percent higher when compared to the 56 percent registered in July, as per the data released by ISM on Thursday.
    Currency Tips

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  2. Send money to any bank account in India. World Remit offers safe and easy online money transfer with very competitive exchange rates and low transfer fees.

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  3. For people in United States, this is a useful site inrrate.com

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  4. successfully added a beneficiary account but it does not have privilage to transfer fund. what i am doing wrong.
    i entered correct ifsc code from here, please suggest alternative to it.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I have personally used ICICI Money to India, HDFC QuickRemit and Kotak RemitToIndia, I must say that Kotak provides best rates, especially if you inform your relationship manager in advance for transfer of over 10K SGD, you will get best exchange rates for SGD. Money to India has good connectivity but it takes two days to get money in any other bank account. By the way DBS bank Singapore is also offering direct remittance to India now. So if you have a DBS Plus Saving account or POSB Saving account than you can try that as well.

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  6. Thanks for sharing the article on how to transfer money easily. This will help usremit 2 India exchange rates

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  7. try ukforex.com , worldremit.com etc which provides even better rates

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  8. I heard, DBS Singapore now allow direct transfer to any bank in any bank in India (and many more countries)

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    Replies
    1. That is true, and I think its best way for a Singapore based NRI to send money to India, as they are charging zero $ fees and fast transfer compared to ICICI money2India or HDFC remit2India. DBS provides same day transfer. Here are some of key features of DBS remit to India services :

      1. Fast transfer to any bank in India within the same day (for transactions submitted between 8am and 4:30pm on working days)
      2. Confirmed and competitive foreign exchange rates*
      3. S$0 service fee per transfer – For a limited period only!

      If you have a DBS net banking account (iBanking), you can easily do this transfer by yorusel by following 3 easy steps via iBanking

      Click on 'Funds Transfer (Overseas)'
      Send money via DBS India Remit
      Input recipient details and payment instructions before clicking ‘Submit’.

      I am not too sure but may be POSB account holder can also avail this facility as DBS and POSB are more or less same banks.

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  9. Hello I am so happy with your blog site, it contains all the matter with regards to
    send money online to India Good luck to you and your well performed job. Thanks for keeping us updated with the latest information for send money online to India.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hey Guys, for everyone who wants to send money abroad I use TransferWise. It’s the most convenient and cheaper way that I found. It’s the only company that gives you the same xe rate with 0,5% fee( no hidden charges likes banks do) . I was using bank to bank before always less, not the rates they display. Transferwise is started by the founders of skype and paypal. It uses peer-to-peer system, innovative way of transferring money. Its far far better than abanks ot any other service. use the below link for your first transfer for free upto £3000: www.transferwise.com/chandra

    ReplyDelete
  11. fx compared - Yes, to save money rate comparisons is necessary.

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  12. Remitly is fast, secure and easy to use with great exchange rates. I sent money through them about 6 times since March 2015. They have a basic locked-in exchange rate that is about 30 paise (0.30 Rs) higher than Xoom consistently, although it takes 3 days (time wasn't a concern for me). There are NO charges for transactions above $1000 and one gets email notifications at every step of the transaction, from debit to credit. I didn't have to submit any documents on first sign up, and after that, transactions are basically just 1 click. Enter amount, review amount and send. Simple as that! You can sign up with this referral link to get $40 sign up bonus: http://remit.ly/@1a7cnk2

    Hope this helps

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  13. Rate Comparison is the best way to save money

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  14. Just compare different Remit service providers here

    http://www.inr2day.com/money-transfer-best-price-guarantee.html and save on transfer fee

    ReplyDelete
  15. to send money abroad I use TransferWise. It’s the most convenient and cheaper way that I found. It’s the only company that gives you the same xe rate with 0,5% fee( no hidden charges likes banks do) . I was using bank to bank before always less, not the rates they display. Transferwise is started by the founders of skype and paypal.It uses peer-to-peer system, innovative way of transferring money . use the below link for your first transfer for free upto $4500: www.transferwise.com/chandra

    ReplyDelete
  16. What is the best and cheapest way to transfer money to India from Singapore? I know DBS IndiaRemit is fast but their charges are quite high. They charge flat SGD 5 for any remittance upto 5000 SGD and 10$ for more than 500 SGD to less than 25000 SGD. I heard nowadays ICICI Money2India and HDFC QuickRemit are free of charge i.e. no transfer fee?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. DBS provides the Best way to transfer money from Singapore to India, it's fast i.e. can transfer money in same day, secure, and provides very competitive exchange rates. ICICI Money2India is also good but exchange rate is not best.

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    2. Has anyone heard about transferwise to send money to india?

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  17. Singapore dollar is getting really strong against INR, I think this is the best time to send money to India from Singapore. I just checked SGD to INR rates and Google is showing 49.14, Axis Remit is giving around 48.9, DBS SGD to INR rate is 48.80, ICICI Money2India is around 48.49, HDFC Quick Remit is around 48.53, Remit to India is around 48.65, RemitGuru is giving 48.82 and SBI Singapore 48.70.

    Which means Axis Remit is giving best SGD to INR rate, RemitGuru is the second best and DBS is 3rd best, but considering other things like immediate money transfer within 2 hours, DBS is the best option to send money to India from Singapore.

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  18. HDFC Quick Remit currently gives best rates for SGD to INR transfer. You can also get 10 paisa preferential rate if you transfer to your HDFC bank in India. This is by far the best offer in the market, but catch is you need to transfer more than 4500 SGD at a time.

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  19. I think the best way to save on money transfer is to compare remittance rates, I recently found this website --> http://exchangerateiq.com that helps you compare real time exchange rates from dozens of banks and money transfer service providers to help you get the best value for USD to INR currency conversion. You can filter results based on transfer times, best value etc. as well as see the difference in receive amount for different options.
    I mean, if we buy flights after comparison, why not also send money after comparing all available money transfer options? you can checkout for yourself and see the difference in most options.

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  20. Transfer2India is a very good site to compare the live exchange rates.

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  21. While surfing through various money transfer service websites, I came across some unique machine learning based exchange rates comparison website "RemitAnalyst" (https://remitanalyst.com/) where you can compare exchange rates and also get future predicted rates.

    ReplyDelete