As many Indians study or work abroad, and their family members often remit money from India to help them settle in and cover their living costs, there is a huge need for international money transfers from India. Outward international transfers might also be necessary for travel, abroad medical treatment, or to invest in assets traded on foreign markets.
While it was almost impossible to transfer funds outside India in the past, the government now allows its citizens to remit money to abroad countries if they meet the appropriate laws and regulations.
But how do you send money from India, and what is the best service to use for international transfers?
To help you out, we created this comprehensive guide where we explore the essentials you should know before you make an international transfer from India.
Factors to Consider Before you Make International Money Transfers From India
To transfer money from India to abroad, you need a payments service that is fast, convenient to use, has cost-efficient fees and features a high level of security.
While you can choose to set up an international transfer through your bank, it’s essential to take a look at the caveats of traditional cross-border payments.
Due to the obsolete nature of traditional cross-border payment systems, your transaction has to go through multiple intermediary banks before reaching the recipient.
As a result, while you pay high fees for international bank transfers, it can take several days for your money to arrive on the recipient’s account.
Therefore, we recommend choosing an alternative payment service that uses an efficient network for local and cross-border transactions.
Below, you can find the most important factors to consider when you transfer funds internationally from India.
Regulations
As international transfers are heavily regulated in India, it’s crucial to follow the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) guidelines to comply with the appropriate laws.
In India, the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) covers the rules for both inward and outward remittances. If you plan to send money abroad as an Indian resident, you should refer to the Liberalized Remittance Scheme (LRS).
As per the LRS, you can transfer up to $250,000 from India. However, you can only send funds outside the Asian nation if you have a legitimate purpose (e.g., to support family members or pay for medical treatment abroad), and your money originates from approved sources (e.g., you can’t use gambling income for cross-border transfers).
Check out the following article to learn more about India’s international money transfer policy.
Popular Payment Methods Available in India
It’s important to check the payment methods you and your recipient can use to deposit and withdraw funds. The following payment methods are available in India.
- Bank transfers: While domestic bank transfers are either free or feature very low cost in India, international wire usually comes with high fees and could take several days to arrive on the recipient’s account.
- Credit and debit cards: Despite that card penetration is rather low in India, credit and debit cards are popular methods to deposit funds to an e-wallet or international money transfer services. While card transactions are credited almost instantly, service providers charge much higher fees than for domestic bank transfers.
- E-wallet services: Digital wallets are growing rapidly in Asian countries like India. And it’s no surprise.
As part of convenient and secure service, e-wallet solutions like STICPAY allow users to deposit and withdraw funds via various payment methods.
After funding their accounts, consumers can send both domestic and cross-border member-to-member transfers to other users at cost-efficient fees or spend their balance at supported merchants. - Cryptocurrencies: Cryptocurrencies utilize blockchain networks operating 24/7/365 to achieve fast and low-cost (domestic and international) transfers.
If you want to take advantage of this payment method, it’s essential to choose a service provider that supports it — you can trade Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tether, and Litecoin at STICPAY.
Fees
It’s essential to know the fees when you transfer money internationally. Usually, service providers charge their customers on a fixed or a percentage-based basis (or both).
Service providers will also charge you for deposits based on the payment method you use for transferring the funds.
Furthermore, when you convert your INR into another currency (or vice versa), some payment services impose a percentage-based foreign currency exchange fee on your transfer. Even if a solution doesn’t have a forex fee, it could make a profit from a spread on the exchange rate.
While it’s essential to know the current exchange rates on the market, a good option to avoid forex fees is to use a service like STICPAY that allows its customers to open multi-currency accounts in INR and other national currencies.
Transfer Speed
How quick your funds arrive at the recipient varies by the service you use.
For example, traditional cross-border payments can take 3–5 working days (or more) to get processed by the recipient’s bank.
On the other hand, member-to-member transfers on an e-wallet solution like STICPAY arrive instantly.
Also, the fees and the time it takes to fund your account are based on the payment method you use for the deposit.
Coverage
Due to infrastructural, regulatory, or other reasons, some service providers can only transfer funds internationally to a limited number of nations.
For example, most remittance solutions do not support North Korea due to international sanctions against the Asian country.
Money transfer services may also refuse to operate in nations like Iran that lack proper measures against money-laundering or terrorism-finance.
To avoid any issues, it’s crucial to know whether the payment service supports India and the recipient’s country before you deposit funds or initiate the transfer.
Security
Bank fraud in India cost 715 billion INR ($9.75 billion) for the Asian nation’s citizens in 2019.
Therefore, it’s essential to ensure that your funds are safe with the service provider you choose for transferring money from India to abroad.
You can do so by checking whether the company possesses the appropriate license to offer regulated services in your country. It’s also a good idea to check for user feedback and reviews on external sites (such as Trustpilot) to learn whether the business is trustworthy.
Be sure to also check the service’s website to find out what safety measures and policies the provider has in place to keep customer funds secure.
Convenience
Even when a payment service scores top for all the above factors, if it’s inconvenient to use, you will have a bad experience while trying to figure out how to initiate a transfer from India.
Before you open an account with any payment service provider, check whether the solution has a user-friendly platform or an app you can conveniently use on your smartphone.
Why Should you use STICPAY for Money Transfers in and From India?
Available in over 190 countries, STICPAY is an award-winning e-wallet service you can use to transfer funds from India to abroad.
With a convenient and secure service that features numerous payment methods as well as fast and cost-efficient transfers, STICPAY is an excellent choice for both national and international transfers.
With 29 different national currencies and 19 languages, in addition to a web-based platform, STICPAY features redesigned smartphone apps for both iOS and Android to add a level of convenience to its e-wallet solution.
STICPAY considers customer funds’ safety as a top priority and has advanced security measures in place for its digital wallet service.
In addition to storing customer funds in segregated accounts with uninterrupted user access, STICPAY implements advanced anti-fraud features and utilizes rigorous KYC and AML checks to protect its customers from malicious parties.
STICPAY users can benefit from the numerous payment methods the service offers for both deposits and withdrawals, including international and local bank wire, Visa, MasterCard, UnionPay China, and cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Tether). Furthermore, customers can use the built-in converter to exchange crypto to fiat currency and vice versa on the STICPAY platform.
Furthermore, in multiple Asian countries — including the Philippines, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, China, and South Korea -, STICPAY has partnered with local financial institutions to offer cost-efficient and fast local bank wire to its users.
Due to the increased demand for local bank transfers, STICPAY plans to expand its service to additional countries, including India, in the near future.
How to Send Money From India With STICPAY?
The first step to send money from India with STICPAY is to register an account with the service (it only takes three minutes to get started).
To do that, click the “Sign Up” button near the top right corner of the page and fill out the form with your details.
When your account is ready, the next step is to verify it. For that, you need to submit both Proof of Legal Existence (e.g., government ID, passport, driver’s license) and Proof of Address (e.g., utility bill, recent bank statement) documents to STICPAY.
To learn more about the verification process and the necessary documents, we recommend taking a look at this article.
After submitting the necessary documents, the STICPAY team will verify them.
When your account is verified, it’s time to deposit funds into your account. Below you can find STICPAY’s deposit methods and fees.
As mentioned in the previous section, STICPAY offers multiple payment methods for deposits and withdrawals at competitive rates, making it an affordable option for international money transfers from India.
Choose from one of the options to fund your account.
Upon your funds have arrived on your STICPAY account, you can initiate an internal transfer to your abroad recipient via your STICPAY dashboard.
While they arrive instantly, internal client-to-client transfers feature very cheap costs (1%).
Recipients will be able to withdraw the funds you just sent them instantly using the various payment methods STICPAY provides to its customers.
Transfer Money With STICPAY From India and Beyond
As part of its award-winning service, STICPAY provides a convenient way for users to transfer funds both locally and internationally in over 190 countries including India, Canada, and many more countries.
Register an account with STICPAY now!
With multiple payment methods, advanced security, as well as cost-efficient and fast transfers, it only takes three minutes to get started with STICPAY and benefit from the digital wallet service’s excellent features.
Ready to get started?
Originally published at https://www.sticpay.com on October 29, 2020.
