Passive Invesment - Transfer $ from US to India

[tampa304]

A good family friend of ours is building about 15 apartments near Tirupathi, A.P and they want me to get involved as a passive partner.

Am looking to invest about $100K(~Rs 50 lakhs) and they want about Rs 10lakhs transferred into their account during several phases of construction.

What is the best way to transfer dollars(equivalent of Rs 10lakhs)?

I have the following on my mind:

1. Use online services like XOOM, Remit2India and others - time-line 2-3 days

2. Contact my U.S bank and wire money directly into their Indian bank account - time-line 2-3 days

3. Old fashioned way of writing up a personal check(drawn on the U.S bank) and mail it to them - time-line 20-45 days

4. Getting a cashier's check in USD in their name and mail it to them - time-line 15-30 days

Construction will take about a year so am presuming I may have to transfer money every 2-3 months or so..

Appreciate all suggestions.

[rajtocbe]

Use Rapid Remittance thru www.onlinsbi.com/glsus to their bank account. Next day deposit.

A good family friend of ours is building about 15 apartments near Tirupathi, A.P and they want me to get involved as a passive partner.

Am looking to invest about $100K(~Rs 50 lakhs) and they want about Rs 10lakhs transferred into their account during several phases of construction.

What is the best way to transfer dollars(equivalent of Rs 10lakhs)?

I have the following on my mind:

1. Use online services like XOOM, Remit2India and others - time-line 2-3 days

2. Contact my U.S bank and wire money directly into their Indian bank account - time-line 2-3 days

3. Old fashioned way of writing up a personal check(drawn on the U.S bank) and mail it to them - time-line 20-45 days

4. Getting a cashier's check in USD in their name and mail it to them - time-line 15-30 days

Construction will take about a year so am presuming I may have to transfer money every 2-3 months or so..

Appreciate all suggestions.

[Desi_Friend]

Option 1 is quickest I believe. It is better to transfer to your NRE account first thru online remittance services, if you want to keep the repatriation option open. If you do it thru SBI remittance services, money will be transferrred on the same day and the exch rate is guaranteed for a given day. You need to register first which takes 2-3 days. You can transfer to your NRE account first and then transfer to their accounts using RTGS/NEFT (electronic transfer) whiich takes few hours. You need to have PAN Number.

Check this post..

http://www.r2iclubforums.com/forums/showthread.php/20564-Indian-Banks-Are-there-any-good-ones-out-there?p=320503#post320503

[tampa304]

The SBI link has changed to : https://remit.onlinesbi.com/glsus/

[tampa304]

The registration link to SBI requires SSN.

Is it a common practice to ask for your SSN when you wire money from US to India?

[tampa304]

I was looking at the cost involved..

My credit union charges a flat fee of $30 for outgoing international transfers(not sure how competitive their exchange rate is)

How does this compare to remitance thro' the SBI link above?

[Sid]

It is very difficult to do a foolproof comparison as exchange rates offered are constantly changing, and there is no transparency in how the institution is setting the rate. One thing I would say is that there should be no flat fee charged for such a big transaction.
One thing you can do is to tell the amount you want to transfer, and arrange to talk to a senior manager in Remit2India, and also from an SBI branch in US. See if these guys are willing to offer a good deal to you. But even in this scenario, the exchange rate you get will depend upon the market prices on that particular day. So you will never be sure about if you are getting fleeced or not.

[arnabx]

As Sid said, try talking to the manager and you will surely get the best spot rate.
I do the same thing with UAEExchange.com I found them quite reliable. They operate as moneydart in US. http://www.moneydart.com/
Talk to them. The manager will waive off the $10 service charge as well.

What I do is, check the exchange rate on Google Finance http://www.google.com/finance?q=USDINR
Also call the UAEExchange and ask them to call me when the rate reaches X as the remittance amount is large. Lets say, Sept 1st, 1USD was Rs 47 and today it is Rs 45. So you will lose 2 Lakhs in this transaction, if you remit today. Let them call you when the rate is say Rs 46.50

[tampa304]

Thanks..I see two aspects to the SBI program.

They want customers to wire domestically to their account at Bank of America(this involves me paying for domestic wire transfer fee which is $20) plus they don't charge any fees to remit to India(which is good) but make money off the exchange rate..

Unless a bank offers free outgoing domestic wire transfer, you have to pay the initial $20 to move money to SBI account. Am I reading this correctly?

[oasis138]

Thanks..I see two aspects to the SBI program.

They want customers to wire domestically to their account at Bank of America(this involves me paying for domestic wire transfer fee which is $20) plus they don't charge any fees to remit to India(which is good) but make money off the exchange rate..

Unless a bank offers free outgoing domestic wire transfer, you have to pay the initial $20 to move money to SBI account. Am I reading this correctly?

tampa304

sorry to go off topic but when you are talking about 100k why are you so worried about 10-20$ of transfer fee?