Remittance Options to Send Money To India
As mentioned earlier, India is the no 1 country in the world when it comes to remittance receipts. Thanks to its Global citizens, in the year 2018 alone, India had received a hopping USD 80 billion, retaining its top position for years. Take a look at India’s remittance receipts for last few years ( In USD billion) :
| 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 |
| 68.82 | 69.97 | 70.97 | 72.2 | 62.7 | 69 | 80 |
Though there are several methods of sending money to India. Let us have look at the most popular and used methods of sending money to India :
Let’s have a closer look into these popular remittance methods :
Telegraphic transfer /Wire Transfer / Bank Transfer/ SWIFT transfer :
Telegraphic transfer (also popularly known as SWIFT transfer or Bank transfer) is an online payment system performed through SWIFT ( Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) platform. It basically exchanges financial messages between the member banks which then internally settles the payments with the help of correspondence banks. No real money is exchanged. It’s just internal settlements of correspondent accounts held by the financial institutions with each other or with some intermediary banks.
Bottom-line ; You get your money transferred to your destination account in almost any of the countries in the world, of course against a fee.
Let’s understand the flow of money (actually SWIFT message) from the hand of SENDER to the hand of RECEIVER…..
Exchange Houses:
Exchange houses are another very popular player in the space of international money transfer, especially in the GCC countries. There are lots of them. They come in different size, different vintage in business, different core value proposition. But few things are quite similar among these players which also makes them the preferred money transfer partner over the banks among the expat community.
Take the example of UAE, the GCC country with large Global Indian population, 2nd highest to be exact after the US. Global Indians accounts for almost 28-30% of the total population and also accounts for about 40% of the total remittances sent out of the country. Here are the top three countries in 2018 that contributed to India’s no 1 position in the world in remittance receipts:
Rank |
Source country |
Amount (US$) |
| 1 | UAE | 13.823 billion |
| 2 | United States | 11.715 billion |
| 3 | Saudi Arabia | 11.239 billion |
The point here is, in the country which sends home the largest amount of money, the market share of banks in the remittance business was decreased by Almost 6% in the year 2017 & so surprise that the exchange houses gained the same 6% kind of market share. This has been a clear indication of the trend that the expats are preferring the exchange houses more, over the banks, when it comes to sending money home. Let us take a quick look at the main reason behind this trend:
Exchange Rates :
The most prominent differentiating factor is undoubtedly, the exchange rate. Banks generally keeps a higher markup which makes their exchange rate lees lucrative in comparison with the exchange houses. Any given day you will find at least 10-15 paisa difference between the rates of the banks and exchange houses. However, banks are trying to counter the trend by offering an easy to operate mobile banking link to transfer your money directly to your Indian account WITHOUT ANY TRANSACTION CHARGES. But it still stands shorter.
Bottom-line…?
IF you are transferring smaller amount, it ok to send it through the banks for mere operational ease. But, if you are planning to send a large sum of money, check with the exchange houses.
Online Payment Portals :
** The 4th step of pushing the transaction can be avoided in few of the portals.
Why to use online money transfer portals?
- Faster remittance
- Competitive exchange rates
- Low transaction cost
- Ease of operation
FCY Cheques/ Travellers’ cheque ( Or even Foreign currency cash) :
Probably the oldest ways of moving your funds from one country to another. Visit your country of origin, go to your bank, stand in the que and deposit your FCY cheque/TC/ FCY cash in person to your non resident account.
(If it is a smaller town branch with no specific person or an NRI desk, you are in big trouble…..LOL..!!!)
This method is outdated, costly and almost obsolete now a days, used mostly for gifting and some rare situations. No point spending much time on this.
So….All your queries about sending money to India is resolved….?