In late 2007 It was confirmed by the world bank that India were the largest recipients of money transfers via money transfer services. Indeed India received $23.4 billion via the main money transfer service WUnion. In fact they recently opened their 300,000 agent location world wide in India bringing the total number of agents there to 36,000. This course is mainly due to working migrants transferring money back to family and friends.
However with the money transfer industry growing all the time, currently at over 10% per year there are many ways to transfer money to India and many companies to choose from. Here is a quick comparison of some of the main ways to transfer money to India, the fee shown relates to a money transfer being sent from New York, America over to India:
MoneyGram: $10, the only downside to this company is that you can only use their online service if you are based in America, it is therefore not available for anyone living elsewhere.
WUnion: The biggest money transfer service provider of sending money to India: $10, their money in minutes service is undoubtedly fast and efficient. The money is certainly available very rapidly providing the collector gives appropriate identification.
Xoom Money Transfer: $9.99 is their usual fee but you can significantly reduce this figure if you request a delayed transaction, this simply means instead of sending the money immediately they take a few days to do so. This service is only $2.00 so it certainly pays to plan ahead with your finances. A further added bonus to users of Xoom are that if the amount you send is in excess of $700 they will not charge you a fee at all! Additionally they can have it deposited direct into a bank account for you or even arrange a home delivery for you if required. Whilst not having as many agents as WUnion 4,350 is still a good start.
Ikobo: $5 will see your money transferred to India, however the procedure is not completely straight forward as there is an application process to go through and you have to first send an ATM card to the recipient who can then use the card at over 1,000,000 ATM's worldwide.
Paypal: well it is virtually free save for a few cents here and there. Money can be transferred to any email address instantly but don't let that fool you, the money has to be first uploaded to your paypal account and then downloaded to the bank account recipients (both accounts are verified, which can take a week to do) in total this can be a couple of weeks. ( cross border payment )
ICICI bank: They offer zero charge providing the recipient has an NRE/NRI account. They also give you an excellent exchange rate. The service is known as Money2India. They can have money for you to any branch nationwide across India. CitiNRI and Citibank also offer excellent services and run very competitive promotions from time to time.
The above are just a few options outlined, of course there are many other methods. The main point is to shop around, consider how frequently you send money, the exchange rate and how urgently you need to send the money. Always check exactly what exchange rate you are getting and you should be able to find a safe and efficient money transfer service without too much difficulty.
