Best way to transfer money to a SBI NRE account (in India)

smariner · Post by **smariner** » Wed Dec 14, 2011 5:09 am

What's the best way to transfer money to a SBI account in India (from the perspective of good exchange rate, ability to lock exhcnage rate, time take to transfer, etc)?
After reading through the forums, seems like the following are commonly used choices...[LIST=1]

Direct wire transfer from a bank in the US to the SBI bank account.

SBI, New York branch

SBI Online Remit

[/LIST]Any experiences with these options? Any other options that people have used?

ravishende · Post by **ravishende** » Wed Dec 14, 2011 6:13 am

I have tried the following and these are my experiences

1. Direct wire transfer from a bank to SBI account
Transfered through Ally Bank to my SBI NRE account. They charged 25 dollars for the international wire transfer. I got the rate shown at
https://remit.onlinesbi.com/glsremit/exchangerate.htm
for that day.
SBI will set the exchange rate at 11 am IST. The money gets deposited the next business day at 12:00 PM IST (so you get the rate set at 11 am).

2. SBI Online Remit
You need to create an account here
https://remit.onlinesbi.com/
This has two options
1. Express remit Remittance: There is a 10K limit and when you make the transfer they will provide the estimated transfer date(this is the fifth working business day) You get the rate as shown in the above link. Again the amount gets deposited on 12:00 PM IST
2. Rapid remittance: This involves a wire transfer. You initiate the transaction and print the form, take it to ypur US bank and ask them to deposit the amount in the SBI account mentioned in the form. The amount gets deposited the next businbess day. Since this is a domestic transfer you need to pay the domestic wire transfer rates.
This has a limit of 100K per year (the year is based on your account opening date).

3. ICICI money to india
This is similar to SBI remit options above (althought there is no limit on the amount you can transfer through wire transfer). However I have seen that ICICI has been offering zero service charges and 5 paise more, in the last few months
Besides ICICI keeps adjusting the exchange rate throughout the day whereas SBI will do this only once at 11:00 am. So based on how the exchange rate moves through the day you can see differences in the exchange rate.

cmk786 · Post by **cmk786** » Sat Dec 17, 2011 2:59 am

What is the best way to transffer form US bank account to Citi bank NRO account. The transfer amount is more than $125k.

Old-Spice2 · Post by **Old-Spice2** » Sat Dec 17, 2011 3:09 am

cmk786;428340What is the best way to transffer form US bank account to Citi bank NRO account. The transfer amount is more than $125k.

Wire transfer.

gurusw · Post by **gurusw** » Sat Dec 17, 2011 11:17 am

cmk786;428340What is the best way to transffer form US bank account to Citi bank NRO account. The transfer amount is more than $125k.

Old-Spice2;428342Wire transfer.

Wire transfer with DCA.

lineker · Post by **lineker** » Sun Dec 18, 2011 11:06 am

cmk786;428340What is the best way to transffer form US bank account to Citi bank NRO account. The transfer amount is more than $125k.

Talk with your Citibank relationship manager and they will offer a wire transfer option. There might be a service charge but you will get a better exchange rate. But talk to them; with that amount size you want to transfer they will offer you a better exchange rate (most of the times better than what they advertise) than "middle-man" options like Remit2India. I had (still on-going) a bad experience with such middle-man methods for an identical amount and everyone I have talked to since told me that I should have dealt directly with the bank where you have the account in India.

/lineker

smariner · Post by **smariner** » Sun Dec 18, 2011 12:07 pm

lineker;428407I should have dealt directly with the bank where you have the account in India.

What does this exactly mean? Wire to the bank account in India, directly from a bank in the US?

lineker · Post by **lineker** » Sun Dec 18, 2011 6:23 pm

smariner;428410What does this exactly mean? Wire to the bank account in India, directly from a bank in the US?

Your bank in India has an account in a foreign (in my case US) bank whose details (Routing and Account numbers) they provide you along with a transaction/reference ID. You transfer the money from your US account into that account. Your bank then exchanges/deposits the equivalent INR into your account in India.

/lineker

smariner · Post by **smariner** » Sun Dec 18, 2011 10:11 pm

lineker;428415Your bank in India has an account in a foreign (in my case US) bank whose details (Routing and Account numbers) they provide you along with a transaction/reference ID. You transfer the money from your US account into that account. Your bank then exchanges/deposits the equivalent INR into your account in India.

/lineker

Thanks for your response. I use SBI -- do you know if they have a similar account in a US bank?

lineker · Post by **lineker** » Sun Dec 18, 2011 10:56 pm

smariner;428429Thanks for your response. I use SBI -- do you know if they have a similar account in a US bank?

Almost sure they do. They have been several posts on these forums by other members using SBI + wire transfer to receive funds in India.

/lineker