Top 7 Ways to Send Money to India through Banking Channels

Indians are everywhere on the planet. You can see an Indian in every major company in the world. There is a saying that you will see an Indian even on the Moon.

When you have that much non-resident citizens sending money home, you need to have proper money transfer methods to efficiently execute such transfers. Fortunately, India has several major banks allowing NRIs to send money home. Here are the top 7 banking methods in which NRI send money to India.

Method#7 - Bank Money Orders

Money orders are not only a postal method. Many banks allow you to send money orders to your loved ones back home. For example, SBI allows you to buy money orders from abroad and send them to India. Even though, the services are provided by bank, these services use the postal services of destination country and beneficiary country to make this possible.

Currently, State Bank of India allows you two money order methods, one the online version and other being an international physical version. SBI also allow you to use the money order service for business transactions.

You can read more about this service here: http://www.sbical.com/cashing-money-order.asp

The money order method is only recommended if you have no other options. It is the delay in getting the cash that makes this the 7th method among NRI remittances.

Method#6 - Foreign Currency Cheques

A cheque written in foreign currency is called foreign currency cheques. Just write a cheque in your foreign currency and send them back home. Your beneficiary can deposit the cheque at his/her bank account for cashing the cheque. However, this is another slow method and requires more time than many other modern methods.

You will be able to improve the time by using courier services. The advantage of this method is in its simplicity. You just have to write the cheque and send them home. The beneficiary’s bank will process it and will be sent back to your foreign bank for clearing. Normally, a foreign currency cheque will be cleared in about 20-25 days.

Because of the delays involved, this method is only preferred than money orders.

Method#5 - Foreign Currency Drafts

A foreign currency draft is similar to foreign currency cheque. The major difference is that foreign currency demand drafts are already paid in advance. However, it can still be delayed by postal delays and other delay during processing.

Foreign currency drafts are recommended if you have to make payment to an unknown person or for business purposes, where you have little knowledge about the beneficiary. Also, it may be required if your beneficiary demands using this method instead of cheques for some reason.

Normally, a foreign currency draft will be cashed in 21 days. Foreign currency drafts are mostly used for business purposes.

Method#4 - Remittance Cards

Remittance cards are reloadable debit cards that can be used for money transfer from abroad. Indian banks such as ICICI, SBI & Axis banks provide the remittance card services.

You can buy remittance card under your beneficiary’s name though remittance service websites of these banks. For example, you can buy remittance card for ICICI bank at MoneytoIndia.com website. SBI card and Axis Bank card can be obtained from SBIcard.com and Remit2India.com website respectively.

Once you have registered at the websites and performed a remittance, these websites will send your beneficiary the respective remittance cards.

Your beneficiary can use the remittance card at ATMs and for purchasing goods at point of sale stores.

The greatest advantage of remittance cards is that they are reloadable. Once the card is in hands of beneficiary, you can simply logon at the remittance websites and start sending money whenever you need.

As the remittance cards are easy to acquire and it cost very less for regular usage, we give them a 4th most preferred position among the methods.

Method#3 - Direct Deposit / ACH Transfer

ACH / Direct Debit is a another transfer method where you authorize another bank (preferably Indian bank) to withdraw funds from your foreign bank account as per your instructions.

ICICI Bank’s Money2India.com website allows you to do this. After your have verified your foreign bank account, you can schedule the transfer any time your wish. Money2India website executes the transfer to your beneficiary’s bank account on the specified date.

The ACH methods are useful if you sending money back home regularly. It is more suited for paying your family’s bills.

For example, if you are using a bank account at home for paying bills, you can set up an automatic debit facility to this account using money2India website. You can then schedule the transfer to occur on a specific date of every month. On that particular date, the fund transfer will occur and your family can use it for paying bills.

Method#2 - Wire Transfer

A wire transfer is an electronic money transfer method in which money is transferred from one bank account to another using electronic means. It is the most popular method in this list.

Wire transfer requires banking codes and routing codes for efficient transfer of funds. The codes used for wire transfer are: SWIFT & IBAN. The SWIFT BIC codes are also needed to identify the correct branch of a bank in India.

Wire transfer normally takes only 48hrs for completion. Majority of Indian banks abroad allows you to do wire transfer. You can also send wire transfer from non-Indian banks. Just fill the form at the bank with all required details and your beneficiary will get the money in about 1-2 business days.

Because of the simplicity of execution and efficiency, SendmoneyIndia.org gives wire transfer the second rank.

Method#1 - NRI Accounts

According to our research NRI bank accounts are the most preferred method for transferring funds back home.

A NRI account is an Indian bank account opened in India for a NRI. It is bank account designed for NRIs to keep their hard earned money in Indian Rupees. You can deposit to this account in foreign currency at foreign branches of same bank. This way, you do not have to wait for transferring money from abroad to India. Your money will be available anywhere in the world.

NRI accounts are also repatriable, this means whenever you feel that you need to take back the money to your foreign country, you are free to do so. Indian government allows this and there are no restrictions in doing the transfers out of India.

The majority of NRI’s have an NRI account because of the ease of operation. Using NRI accounts, these NRIs are able to invest in Indian stock and property market.