In this world of Globalization, sometimes it requires to do some transaction or remittance within or outside the India. Suppose your friend has gone to USA and you want to send him some money, How will you send him in American Dollar ? Will you send him cash via courier ?
There are many option now available for remitting cash to abroad, thanks to IT in Banking system. There are many online or offline ways to remit money with some restriction provided by RBI. There are certain restriction on sending money outside India , check out what ?
1. As per guidelines one can remit up to $1 lakh a year for child’s education
2. According to Liberalised Remittance Scheme, one can transfer up to $2 lakh a year abroad for purposes, like for investment, education and medical treatment.
Ways to send money Abroad
1. PayPal Account
2. SWIFT Transfer
3. Demand Draft in Foreign Currency
4. Send Money Abroad by Cash Transfer
SWIFT : This is the one of the most common way to send money abroad. SWIFT stands for Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication wire transfer. This is a facility provided by almost all the leading banks in India.
For payment you need to visit the bank and fill the form with details of beneficiary’s such as bank account number, postal address of the bank and its SWIFT code. After confirmation your account with the bank in India get debited and credited to the foreign bank account within 72 hours.
There are charges for transferring money through this ways, which may varies according to bank. This is good if one need to send good amount.
Paypal Account : This is good if you have bought something from foreign store or for online payment in foreign currencies. This is an online payment gateway to send money from one paypal account to another paypal account or from paypal account to Bank in same country.
This is not profitable for sending large amount because the commission charged are higher for exchange rate.
Foreign Exchange Demand Draft : This is also issued by the banks. Process is simple as like the regular draft or payorder. Just fill the form for foreign currency draft and it will be made in the foreign currency and the equivalent amount of money in rupees will be debited from your account.
There are fixed charges varies banks to banks which is usually Rs 300-600 . Please do remember that only Foreign exchange branch or counter of bank will made it for you, not all the branches.
This option and not useful because it is send via post and it will take 10-15 days in encasement, if it get lost in transit, will be a big problem.
Cash Transfer : There are many cash counter of Western Union or Moneygram are there which receive money in foreign currency. This is the quickest way to send money . Under this process beneficiary has to physically collect the money from the counter. For that you need to open an account.
There are charges for this cash transfer also. Western Union has tied up with State Bank of India (SBI), Now you can receive money directly in your SBI account through Western Union.
There are another option also i.e. e-Cheque transfer through ICICI (money2india.com), SBI (remit.onlinesbi.com), or TimesofMoney (remit2india.com). For remittance you need to register their respective website and you need to provide all the details.
Under this process the money will be transferred within five working days.
Choose what ever the option you like as per your ease, but in my view I always prefer Paypal for Online transaction and SWIFT for sending money through banks. It’s safe and good.
