Remit2India - Experiences and Opinions
Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2011 1:02 pm
Hi,
I have used the services of Remit2India to transfer USD-to-INR for about 5 years now and always found their exchange rates competitive and their service efficient. Prior to that I used ICICI Bank to send money home and their service was below par and the transaction always seemed "murky". At times we would get rates about Rs.2 off the RBI rate and sometimes as much as Rs.3 off. Since it was my aged parents at the receiving end, they tried to get clarity into the rate offering and each time was given the run around. I decided to use someone else and went with Remit2India. In all fairness to Remit2India, I never found their rates more than Rs.1 off the RBI rate.
A few weeks back, post-R2I, I was making my final money transfer from the US after the sale of my home, which was a six-figure USD amount and I got a bad deal with Remit2India and trying to get any clarity into the rate offered from the Remit2India customer service has met with stone-walling- "send us an email", delayed responses where an email takes about a week to reply, etc. My bone of contention in this transaction, is that the Remit2India website showed a specific transfer rate at 12noon (which is when the international exchanges are done- as per Remit2India customer service), and I got about Rs.0.35 lower, which considering the size of the transfer is a significant amount (for me). During the entire window (exchange window is 12noon to 4.30pm as per Remit2India), the rates never went down since I kept an eye on them throughout the window. In the past, the normal deviation from their published rates I have seen is about Rs.0.05 to Rs.0.10. The only difference in this transaction was that it was a wire transfer of funds and not an ACH transfer (I read about the 2 methods, and did not see anything that would impact the exchange rate).
Can someone who is knowledgeable in these matters, please help me understand-[LIST=1]
How do these exchanges work? Are there middle-men/institutions?
I asked Remit2India to give me the exchange rates between 12noon and 4.30pm on that day and they say that they don't have that data. I find that hard to believe in today's digital age. Is my request valid?
Is there a regulatory body for these transactions?
Talking to a neighbor, who runs an out-sourcing biz, his opinion was that I went about this whole thing the wrong way. According to him, I should have talked to the Foreign Exchange dept. of my bank and negotiated the rate with them (true/false?). I did not know this was even an option; are there other options to transfer money (too late for me, but might be useful to other R2Iers)
[/LIST]Thanks,
/lineker
I have used the services of Remit2India to transfer USD-to-INR for about 5 years now and always found their exchange rates competitive and their service efficient. Prior to that I used ICICI Bank to send money home and their service was below par and the transaction always seemed "murky". At times we would get rates about Rs.2 off the RBI rate and sometimes as much as Rs.3 off. Since it was my aged parents at the receiving end, they tried to get clarity into the rate offering and each time was given the run around. I decided to use someone else and went with Remit2India. In all fairness to Remit2India, I never found their rates more than Rs.1 off the RBI rate.
A few weeks back, post-R2I, I was making my final money transfer from the US after the sale of my home, which was a six-figure USD amount and I got a bad deal with Remit2India and trying to get any clarity into the rate offered from the Remit2India customer service has met with stone-walling- "send us an email", delayed responses where an email takes about a week to reply, etc. My bone of contention in this transaction, is that the Remit2India website showed a specific transfer rate at 12noon (which is when the international exchanges are done- as per Remit2India customer service), and I got about Rs.0.35 lower, which considering the size of the transfer is a significant amount (for me). During the entire window (exchange window is 12noon to 4.30pm as per Remit2India), the rates never went down since I kept an eye on them throughout the window. In the past, the normal deviation from their published rates I have seen is about Rs.0.05 to Rs.0.10. The only difference in this transaction was that it was a wire transfer of funds and not an ACH transfer (I read about the 2 methods, and did not see anything that would impact the exchange rate).
Can someone who is knowledgeable in these matters, please help me understand-[LIST=1]
How do these exchanges work? Are there middle-men/institutions?
I asked Remit2India to give me the exchange rates between 12noon and 4.30pm on that day and they say that they don't have that data. I find that hard to believe in today's digital age. Is my request valid?
Is there a regulatory body for these transactions?
Talking to a neighbor, who runs an out-sourcing biz, his opinion was that I went about this whole thing the wrong way. According to him, I should have talked to the Foreign Exchange dept. of my bank and negotiated the rate with them (true/false?). I did not know this was even an option; are there other options to transfer money (too late for me, but might be useful to other R2Iers)
[/LIST]Thanks,
/lineker