Best ways to send transfer large amount of money back to India

Hi Readers,

I want to share some ideas how to send money back to India and to get the best forex rate. I would like my readers to add more to that in the comment sections for the benefit of everyone.

If you are living and working in UK and want to send money back to India, here are some of the options you can use.

You can use various online remitting services provided by various bank and other institution. You will get the money within 48 hours in your bank account in India. Some providers also provide quick transfer facility which will get money into your Indian bank account on the same day. Some of the institutions which are providing this facilities are ICICI Bank (www.icicibank.com), Remit2India (www.Remit2India.com). I will advise the readers to do some investigation around the market rate and the rate these institutions are providing before actually transferring money through their services. Normally their rate vary from 1-2 percent.

You can also use the wire transfer facility provided by your local bank to send money back to your Indian account. Although these wire transfer are fast but the rate which bank provide are generally low. Normally the bank charges around 2-3 % and you may also need to pay extra wire transfer charges. Although mostly all the bank provide this facility, I have used Barclays and they send your money on the same day if you transfer before 2PM.

If you want to send large amount of money at one go, then having an NRI account is the best option. Not only you get very good rate but you also get saving account in India and can be used as normal account. I recently used Citibank NRI services and I got a very good rate. Bank only changed me 0.5% for the transaction.

You can also use western union and other street vendors like UAE exchnage to send money and get the money transferred to you India bank account or get a demand draft posted to your address to your India home address or some one can collect this from the western union office or affiliated post office. The rate they charge vary from 1.5% to 3 % and you may also have to foot transaction charges.

I will leave it to readers to add other options if available in comment sections. Also before you transfer your money using any of these facilities, please do some research your self about the service and rate in your areas.