My friend, Rohan, an Indian living in the United States for quite some time now, received a disturbing call from his mother regarding his father needing urgent heart surgery. Being in line to receive his green card, Rohan was distressed that he couldn’t leave America to be with his parents during this difficult time. What he decided to do was the next best thing – send some much-needed money to his parents living in India. The problem was that he found that there are numerous options to transfer money, with some offering better delivery speeds and others offering lower transfer costs.
Seeing his confusion, I am sure many others wanting to send money home to India might experience the same. So, here’s a list of the top 10 money transfer options for people wanting to send money from the US to India.
10 Easy Ways to Transfer Money to India
ACH Transfer: Also known as Automated Clearing House transfer, offered by banks like Axis, this is the most cost effective and time saving way of sending money for US-based businesses. In this method, money from the bank account is sent to the recipient using an ACH transfer, with no added fees to the bank. One can also take advantage of the facility of online transfer by the banks to send money to India.
Also read: Best remittance services to India.
Western Union: At more than 50 years old, wire transfer is the traditional method of payment, where you need to contact the bank or other agencies to send money. If you are looking for the fastest and most popular wire transfer provider, it would be Western Union, without a doubt. However, stay prepared, it will take a few days for the recipient to get the money.
XOOM: Regarded as one of the best money transfer services worldwide, XOOM allows you to transfer money to India in the cheapest and quickest way. It is an online-to-offline money transfer, which allows the recipient to withdraw the money from a specified location, once the online transaction is completed. The online transaction takes about 4 hours, when the transfer is done within banking hours.
Also read: Best way to send money to India.
PayPal: In today’s time, who hasn’t heard of PayPal? It is the largest online payment processor, allowing you to transfer money from one account to the other through your mobile device, without directly using a bank account or credit card, and without the need to pay any transaction fees.
Remitly: A fast, stable and secure money transfer service in the US, Remitly offers money transferring services not only to India but to many other countries too. The transfer fee is very low for transfers of up to $1,000 and no fee is charged if you have to send more than $1,000. However, there is a fee for instant transfers, supported by many major Indian banks.
TransferWise: A financial company with Sir Richard Branson as one of its investors, TransferWise allows you to transfer money internationally at a very low cost. It has received the highest score of 9.6/10 from customers in the domain of money transfer services. The reason they are able to offer such low rates is that their system is based on local bank account transfers, making international transfers cheaper. It makes two local transfers, instead of making one international transfer.
Also read: Best money transfer services to India.
Payoneer: Another good way to send money to India, Payoneer gives you the option of making direct transfers on the receiver’s debit card and withdraw from an ATM. This only adds to the convenience of the receiver, while saving a lot of time for them.
There are three more options that also work well:
- MoneyGram: Offers same-day transfers at an added cost.
- Ria Money Transfer: A cheap money transfer service for people located in the USA who want to send money to any bank in India.
All the best! If you have any questions, please let me know in comments.
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