Quickremit from HDFC Bank (in partnership with Remit2India):
While remit2india.com provides a very good exchange rate, the quickremit from hdfcbank, in collaboration with remit2india provides an even better rate. You will need a separate account for quickremit. Everything about quickremit is the same as remit2india except that the rates are even better. The only thing to know is that there is no transaction fee only if you send an amount above 1 lac.
Signup for Quickremit @ www.timesofmoney.com OR select Quickremit and register at www.hdfcbank.com
Remit2India service from Times of India:
Remit2India, as you can see from above, is the preferred service to send money to India. While a few of the other services seem to take long time than their advertised 5 days. remit2india promptly does it in five days. There is a corporate class code to signup so that you can always get free money transfers to India. Currently, this feature is opened up and so it is for free for anyone but can be closed at any time. So, if you are working for any of the major IT companies like TCS, Cognizant, Infosys call them up and get your corporate class code.
Remit2India also came up with a very useful service where you specify the amount you wish to send in Rupees and they will deduct the required amount in Dollars from your account.
Signup for Remit2india @ www.remit2india.com
Money2India service from ICICI Bank:
Money2India, I think is the most widely used service along with the Citibank's money transfer service. And that's mostly because it is one of the first to provide such a service free of charge when compared to Western Union or Moneygram. It works the best if you/your beneficiary has an ICICI bank account in India.
ICICI also provides you the option of sending your money through WireTransfer/SWIFT (48 hrs delivery)or Power Transfer (a.k.a Web based Wire Transfer which has 48 to 96 hrs delivery time). You should use the default ACH or E-Transfer option which takes 5 'business' days for transferring money without a transaction fee. This does not incur any extra charges (except the default INR 25). And, you typically would need the other options when you need to send money within the five days.
The WireTransfer/SWIFT delivers money in 48 hrs and is NOT an online option. To use this option, you need to fill out a remittance booking form and submit it at your local bank where you have an account. They then transfer it to your remit2india account, which in turn gets deposited to your beneficiary's account.
Power Transfer is basically 'online wire transfer'. This is an option provided only by ICICI where a wire transfer instruction is printed and tracked online.
ExpressSend from Wells Fargo (Needs ICICI account in India):
The ExpressSend service from Wells Fargo needs a special mention here. This is because Wells Fargo offers to do the transfer within a day to India. It is NOT entirely FREE as they charge a nominal amount of $5 upto $3000. You DO NOT need to have a US account with ICICI Bank or Wells Fargo to do a money transfer but at the beneficiary end, the receiving person should hold an account with ICICI Bank.
This is the related info from Wells Fargo on this. ICICI Bank has joined hands with Wells Fargo to bring you unprecedented convenience in making remittances to India. All you have to do to send money is to walk into any Wells Fargo or ATM in the USA. Your money reaches in within a day and the charges are nominal.
For more information check: https://www.wellsfargo.com/per/intl_remittance
Benefits
Fast - your money will reach India in a day's time
Convenient - you get 24-hour access to Wells Fargo branches and ATMs across
the USA
Nominal charges - you need to pay a flat fee of only $5 to send up to $3,000
per day
Competitive exchange rates - you can get the latest rates by calling Wells
Fargo at 1-800-556-0605, selecting the language, and choosing option 3
No minimum balance or opening deposit
SendWise:
SendWise sends a demand draft (DD) to any nationalised bank in India, in 3 to 4 business days. It charges a transaction fee of $5 upto $1500 and $3.5 if above that.
Cash2India from Xoom:
Cash2India is another remit2india like service, provided by xoom.com and has the most reach across India. It operates in partnership with many nationalized banks in India and hence provides the option for the recipient to encash the transferred amount across many locations throughout India. A lot of Instant Cash pickup branches make this a very good way to transfer money to India.
The exchange rate is much lower though when compared to the above services.
Cash2India charges a service fee most of the times but currently there is no fee for a transfer between $700 and $2500. If you don't mind the lower rate and need someone in India to receive the money instantly at a local bank in India, this is the option to go for.
Immediate/Faster Money transfer services |
Moneygram
Moneygram is the service you look for when you need to transfer money within a business day. The procedure is that you go to your local Walmart or a location which offers Moneygram service (use the Agent Finder) and pay cash/use your debit card to send money to a person. They would give you a receipt with the transfer number. The transfer number has to be produced by the receiver at the local agent's location in India for receiving the money. The transaction fee is $12 upto $1999 and $19 above that. The receiver has to present valid photo id to receive the money sent.
Locate their local agent in India too using their Local Agent Finder. The direct link for exchange rate offered by Moneygram is MoneyGram Transfer Rate.
Western Union
Western Union is the most popular and ubiquitous money exchange service across the world. You can find it virtually everywhere. When people didn't have most of the online services listed above, Western Union was probably the only existing service used for currency exchange. So, if you don't mind paying their transaction fee and need to send money within a day or two, this is the option to choose. The service as such is very good and will get your money faster to the other end.
You can transfer money using Western Union even with just a phone call, if you reside in the US or Canada.