Remit2India is a FRAUD

[Aah_GC]

Guys,

Apologies if I am not posting within the guidelines of this website, but was wondering if you have had experiences with Remit2India. If you ask me - they are indulging in massive fraudery and are fooling NRIs all across the world. The exchange rate advertized is seldom given and the transferred money is held for a longer period as they are in a better position to forecast rupee-dollar flucations.

http://remit2indiafraud.com/

I recently had a rotten experience with them, but would like to know if there is a judicial body that takes care of NRIs? How do I bring these guys to justice?

Thanks in advance.

[thakurrajiv]

Guys,

Apologies if I am not posting within the guidelines of this website, but was wondering if you have had experiences with Remit2India. If you ask me - they are indulging in massive fraudery and are fooling NRIs all across the world. The exchange rate advertized is seldom given and the transferred money is held for a longer period as they are in a better position to forecast rupee-dollar flucations.

http://remit2indiafraud.com/

I recently had a rotten experience with them, but would like to know if there is a judicial body that takes care of NRIs? How do I bring these guys to justice?

Thanks in advance.

Well I don't know abou that. I have been using remit2india for more than 6yrs for transfer to icici account. Once in a while I use timesofmoney. Both have similar timeframe and same problems but I always found remit2india more reliable and giving better rate than timesofmoney. You can call it better of 2 evils ....
I haven't tried anything else as I transfer at most 2k at a time and I don't think it is worth spending time to find a service which will offer 50 paise better rate. Just IMO

[jfredr]

Rate they say is not what they give at the end.

I had this experience last week.

[sac-r-ten]

Rate they say is not what they give at the end.

I had this experience last week.

Me and most of the people i know use ICICI. I guess all banks do the same. They keep the money for few days and transfer for the lowest exchange rate.

The money from US bank is gone next day but is been wired after 5 days to ICICI account in india. Plus since last 1 yr ICICI take $2 for amount less than $1000 for single transaction.

They all suck. They all want to make money.

[Aah_GC]

You guys are right. I always had the suspicion that they are fooling around - but this time caught them red handed. It's one thing to hold the money and transfer it at a lower rate and other to purposefully cheat by transferring at a reduced rate.

Sometimes I wonder why Indian businesses operate in such fradulent and miserly manner (look at our desi consulting and offshore companies).

[pointlesswait]

I have used SBI..i will trust SBI anyday over toilet paper of india's money service.

http://www.onlinesbi.com/glsus/

and no fee for transfer of funds above 100$..

The tranfer rates are clearly listed.... the day the transaction is initiated...they pay the rate that is on their website..
so its equal risk for both the bank and customer..

[Refugee_New]

Me and most of the people i know use ICICI. I guess all banks do the same. They keep the money for few days and transfer for the lowest exchange rate.

The money from US bank is gone next day but is been wired after 5 days to ICICI account in india. Plus since last 1 yr ICICI take $2 for amount less than $1000 for single transaction.

They all suck. They all want to make money.

In this gang, ICICI is the worst bank. They take your money as much as possible and only worst bank in applying lowest exchange rate. Also keeping your hard earned money in ICICI bank is not that safe.

I recently switched to SBI after hearing good things about this bank.

[pappu]

I have used SBI..i will trust SBI anyday over toilet paper of india's money service.

http://www.onlinesbi.com/glsus/

and no fee for transfer of funds above 100$..

The tranfer rates are clearly listed.... the day the transaction is initiated...they pay the rate that is on their website..
so its equal risk for both the bank and customer..

Isn't SBI also saying the same thing. Read the disclaimer on the exchange popup
"Normally your remittances get converted into INR after 4 - 5 days of the transaction request. The exchange
rate applied for the conversion will be the exchange rate on the date of conversion."

[Aah_GC]

Ok SBI seems to be the lesser evil (at least from what I have heard).

I would like to know -

1) Is there a fool proof way of transferring money at good rates?
2) Is there a way I could take Remit2India to courts?

[new2gc]

Ok SBI seems to be the lesser evil (at least from what I have heard).

I would like to know -

1) Is there a fool proof way of transferring money at good rates?
2) Is there a way I could take Remit2India to courts?

-- With some addtl charge, use Western Union or Moneygram. They are giving decent rates these days.

[lost_in_migration]

I use statebank.com. The rates are absolutely reliable.
Problem is these ppl are still stuck in paper work.
So u may have to send a remit form along with check.
If u want to make sure that u get the rate on a particular
day send a cashier's check to any of their offices located at
NY, Chicago, LA and DC. If it reaches b4 2pm they remit it on
same day and u will get the rate given in link below.

http://www.statebank.com/RemittanceServiceIndMaster.asp

FYI statebank.com is different than onlinesbi.com

Pros:
1) Rates are reliable
2) If cashier check is sent amount is remitted in your account in India in 5 days.
3) Remittance free above $2500

Cons
1) Paper Work (Register sending paper form... Remit sending paper form.. maybe u can fax it)
2) Cashier check costs $$. BoA customers with $10K+ balance can change the status of a/c to get free Cashier check
3) Unfriendly Customer Service
4) OOS checks sent to SBI takes 5 days extra.

[suavesandeep]

Actually i had a good experience with SBI http://www.onlinesbi.com/glsus/,They actually gave me a better rate then what was published When i intitiated the transfer . For e.g when i inititiated the transfer the rate was 48.5 something , And money got transferred 5 days later , On the day of transfer the rate was 49.5..So they gave me 49.5. So i guess it works both ways, If the rate fell down when they do the actual transfer, you may be screwed... But the other way around you may get lucky too.. So in short i feel they are atleast being FAIR. I tried them after many of my friends recommended them , And i have been happy so far :)

[lost_in_migration]

In forex market Rates fluctuate date by date so you can wait and remit when u think the rates are most favorable to you. Hence the crux of matter is to make sure that you can get your remittance done on the date you actually want to.

Actually i had a good experience with SBI http://www.onlinesbi.com/glsus/,They actually gave me a better rate then what was published When i intitiated the transfer . For e.g when i inititiated the transfer the rate was 48.5 something , And money got transferred 5 days later , On the day of transfer the rate was 49.5..So they gave me 49.5. So i guess it works both ways, If the rate fell down when they do the actual transfer, you may be screwed... But the other way around you may get lucky too.. So in short i feel they are atleast being FAIR. I tried them after many of my friends recommended them , And i have been happy so far :)

[vikki76]

Both remit2india.com and ICICI's are equally bad in terms of exchange rate and holding period. But money2india.com has higher upper limits to xfer money.
One alternate way is to go to State Bank of India San Jose branch personally with cashier's check. Then, they will wire money/ ACH transfer within 2 days

I once called ICICI customer service center-They have default message-"based on current call volume- your wait time is 4-5 minutes" . They don't have any queuing model implemented. Then, even if you navigate phone menu-call is not transferred to that and any arbitrary group picks up the phone and then depending on availability, transfers call or not.
And get this- they are not allowed to speak in any other language except English. And , of course, call center is located in India.

[new_horizon]

I recently used remit2india to transfer 11K to a bank in a small town. It took me almost 15 days to get the money deposited into my bank in india. they told me that since it's my first time, they have to verify the bank in india. I was quite frustrated with the long delay. I called quite a few times, and they kept saying the same thing. However they finally transferred the money, and also I got a very good rate. hope the next time I use remit2india they'll do it faster 'coz they have my bank verified. they did not charge me any transfer fees, but took some commission on the transfer rate. and also I think they earn interest when holding our money during the transfer.

all business exists for making money...however next time I won't transfer such huge amounts in a single transaction.

[LostInGCProcess]

I have used SBI..i will trust SBI anyday over toilet paper of india's money service.

http://www.onlinesbi.com/glsus/

and no fee for transfer of funds above 100$..

The tranfer rates are clearly listed.... the day the transaction is initiated...they pay the rate that is on their website..
so its equal risk for both the bank and customer..

I was using ICICI for a long time but recently switched to SBI. They are very transparent, and generally give better rate then ICICI.

These days ICICI is charging $2.00 for some reason, I dont know....but anyways, ICICI is crap compared to SBI.

Another good thing about SBI is, you can transfer to any account in India. Usually any bank that is nationalized.

[suavesandeep]

In forex market Rates fluctuate date by date so you can wait and remit when u think the rates are most favorable to you. Hence the crux of matter is to make sure that you can get your remittance done on the date you actually want to.

Yes i 100% agree with you, this is how things should be.. But i have been hearing horror stories where these remittance options actually take the lowest price applicable from the day you initiate the transfer to the day it gets actually transferred. I think this is totally unfair. So i wanted to highlight that at least SBI does not take this totally unfair stand from my experience.

[desi485]

Both remit2india.com and ICICI's are equally bad in terms of exchange rate and holding period. But money2india.com has higher upper limits to xfer money.
One alternate way is to go to State Bank of India San Jose branch personally with cashier's check. Then, they will wire money/ ACH transfer within 2 days

I once called ICICI customer service center-They have default message-"based on current call volume- your wait time is 4-5 minutes" . They don't have any queuing model implemented. Then, even if you navigate phone menu-call is not transferred to that and any arbitrary group picks up the phone and then depending on availability, transfers call or not.
And get this- they are not allowed to speak in any other language except English. And , of course, call center is located in India.

remit2india is omnipresent, when you say ICICI, HDFC or most other indian banks, they also use remit2india in the background. Most banks just get commission for co-branding. It is like having VISA card, co-branded with so many banks or stores but it is essentially visa. Same is true to remit to india. I also suspect that they may be playing around to wait for few days and give you the LOWEST POSSIBLE EXCHANGE RATE in those few days. Who knows?

http://express-press-release.net/54/Remit2india%20-%20Times%20of%20Money,%20Indian%20Bank%20tie%20up% 20for%20%20remittance%20solution.php

The alliance marks another landmark in the remittance market for Remit2india
(TimesofMoney). The company has tied up with numerous banks in the Asia Pacific
region to offer a complete remittance solution for customers. It has emerged as the
leader in offering web-based remittance solutions across the globe.
Remit2India has always believed in providing innovative solutions to customers, be
it completely online overnight transfers, superior exchange rates or even our unique
Money Insurance program. With this promotion, we’re only putting our money where our
mouth is, commented the official spokesperson, Remit2India.com

Web Site: http://www.remit2india.wordpress.com

....read more on above URL.

[Ramba]

First nothing is free. Every financial insitution wants to make money, including SBI. Though SBI is littlebit reasonable, they are not that great. I was using ICICI for long time and switched to SBI as ICICI charges addtional money for transfer apart from holding the money for 10 days and pay lowest rate. SBI is also not exceptional. I checked it by sending $150 through SBI. I made online transfer when rate was 49. The day they took the money the rate was 50 as per RBI. I was happy that I will be getting 50. However, it was under hold for 5 days and they deposited at the end of 5th day; at that date the rate become again 48. So I got only 48. Bottomline is everyone wants to make money. May be SBI has little more integrity and secured by government.

There is extensive research on this forum.

http://www.r2iclubforums.com/forums/f32/mt-forex-money-transfer-india-services-exchange-rates-3325/

[FinalGC]

Guys i have been using remit2india for sometime, but I too was disappointed with the service and the rates. I have started using www.moneygram.com You can get the rate of transfer as you stand at the counter and give the cash or debit card. You can go to your nearest Walmart to get the money gram counter and this money is available immediately in India. There is no hanky panky about this deal. The only drawback is you can only send upto Rs 1lak at one time, so if you are sending more, do it in couple of instalments.

[DSLStart]

SBI is very particular about exchange rate. I did mine couple of weeks back. The rate on the day which the transaction was initiated was 48.10 and but the rate on day of actual deposit into beneficiary account it went up to 49 and they deposited at 49.
Rate they say is not what they give at the end.

I had this experience last week.

[DSLStart]

Fees are too high, SBI charges no fees over $100 remittance.
Guys i have been using remit2india for sometime, but I too was disappointed with the service and the rates. I have started using www.moneygram.com You can get the rate of transfer as you stand at the counter and give the cash or debit card. You can go to your nearest Walmart to get the money gram counter and this money is available immediately in India. There is no hanky panky about this deal. The only drawback is you can only send upto Rs 1lak at one time, so if you are sending more, do it in couple of instalments.

[buvane]

I used both SBI and ICICI and my experience ICICI is better than SBI rate.

[ItIsNotFunny]

My personal experience with ICICI is not good. How do you send through SBI?

[ajay]

SBI is a good bet. Register using https://www.onlinesbi.com/glsus/registration.htm
and add your bank to this when you get registered. Sbi will test your bank afer depositing some money and once it is verified you are ready to go. You will see all options once you login.

[tammman]

I'm afraid I'm one more victiom of ICICI's scam with rates...
I have xfered so much money with them I feel sick going back and thinking of how much they wud have made from just me :(
Well...time to move on and I hope ICICI pays one day with some class action law suit.

[pointlesswait]

here is how it works: (as told by a chase rep)

Say you transfer money from chase to BOA...
When the transaction is initiated...from chase..chase withdraws the money from ur account..say at the end of business day...each transaction has a digital ID...it first goes to a centralized location at the end of each day...
in the mean while chase figures out how the funds must be released to BOA so that BOA can deposit that am in the account ...
so when BOA picks up that transaction from the centralized pool..is when BOA will actually has possession of the fund and will..release to u the next day..

so now in the global context.. this has to meet so many Forex rules..of both india and US..so for a period of 4-5 days the money may be just sitting in the air.;-)..until SBI picks the transcation ..so if during that period curreny flutuates beyond x% they will vary the amt they give u...


(this is as lame as i can explain.;-)

i still feel SBI is lot safer and better..in the long run!


First nothing is free. Every financial insitution wants to make money, including SBI. Though SBI is littlebit reasonable, they are not that great. I was using ICICI for long time and switched to SBI as ICICI charges addtional money for transfer apart from holding the money for 10 days and pay lowest rate. SBI is also not exceptional. I checked it by sending $150 through SBI. I made online transfer when rate was 49. The day they took the money the rate was 50 as per RBI. I was happy that I will be getting 50. However, it was under hold for 5 days and they deposited at the end of 5th day; at that date the rate become again 48. So I got only 48. Bottomline is everyone wants to make money. May be SBI has little more integrity and secured by government.

There is extensive research on this forum.

http://www.r2iclubforums.com/forums/f32/mt-forex-money-transfer-india-services-exchange-rates-3325/

[unbreakable]

With SBI, is it possible to deposit money in a NRE account (non SBI NRE account)?

Currently with remit2india, I could deposit money in my citibank NRE account. Would that be possible with SBI money transfer?

[Ramba]

With SBI, is it possible to deposit money in a NRE account (non SBI NRE account)?

Currently with remit2india, I could deposit money in my citibank NRE account. Would that be possible with SBI money transfer?

yes.

[kevinkris]

It will take only 1-2 working days. It's 5$/ transfer and 3000$/ day limit.
I think this is much better than wire transfer.

Let me know your views.


Express
e-Transfer


Online Money
Transfers in USA
USD 1-2 working Days USD 5 for transfers into ICICI Bank accounts.

Foreign Currency Conversion charges (including service tax) will be deducted from beneficiary amount# USD 3000 per day
USD 10000 per week

[rbms]

Remit2India had been calling me for long time to do business with me. I did once for $7,000. Money was not time. But rates are not good. But I had been receiving calls from them. I told them ICICI provides better rates.

But if you calculate the exchange rates online for the same day remit2india is better - for any given day.

I just wanted to test this out. I initiated 2 transactions once from ICICI and one through remit2india for $1000 each. Money from ICICI was deposited sooner, probably day earlier. And the exchange rate was better by atleast 10 paise. (I cannot remember exact amount)

Next time, I got call from remit2india, I told them exactly what happened. They gave some BS explanation. I told them not to call me anymore.

Anyways, my experience with ICICI is better so far. It is just convenient for me. I can do everything online.

[ItIsNotFunny]

Thanks Ajay.

SBI is a good bet. Register using https://www.onlinesbi.com/glsus/registration.htm
and add your bank to this when you get registered. Sbi will test your bank afer depositing some money and once it is verified you are ready to go. You will see all options once you login.

[snathan]

ICIC Bank is one of the worst fradulant bank. They are ripping off the customers specially if you are NRI...keeep away from it.

SBI is far better than ICICI and I am switching over.

[Omm]

ICICI is expensive, I use SBI express remit, They dont charge much for a transfer less than <100 $ .when transfer you money to India above 100 its free. Its so called privatized bank which follows every rule set by the Reserve bank of india.
Example:
ICICI charges >10$ fees when you with draw money in rupees in India(through ATM ) from your acccount in USA,while SBI takes only 5$ surcharge.
may be this gives you an idea

[niklshah]

I am using ICICI since last 6 years and i never had any problem i have a set recurring every month.. guys i dont know why people are making a big issue about 20 paise or 30 paise and about transfer charges, we pay so much money for so many hidden charges in banks here too ....and ICICI is also financial institution they have to make some money too.

[copsmart]

I have a totally different opinion on SBI.

I have tried all banks including ICICI in the past and finally ended up using SBI M2I service.
I have been using SBI for several years and I was a happy customer, but lately their service is not so satisfactory.

Given the fact that more people started using SBI M2I service, there is been a lot of delay in the money transfer process.

For instance, one of my recent transactions took at least 10 days to complete. At present, I have 3 money transfer requests to complete. The first 2 transactions were submitted on 6th November 2008 and the third one was submitted on 10th . None of these transactions were completed till date. My $10,000 is in SBI’s invisible air space for more than a week. The other big problem is dealing with the local branch officials in India, nothing can be done easily in their world of business.

Whenever I contacted their Customer Service, they gave all lame excuses… Bank Holiday, Bank Strike, Weekend, & etc.
Emails sent to AGM, DGM and whoever is responsible for this operation has no response.

I moved all of my bank operations including my NRE SB account from ICICI to SBI few years ago, but now I am so disappointed.
I even recommended SBI to so many people, but I regret for doing that.

I am sure you will see SBI in the same position as ICICI in the near future.

[uma78]

I found MoneyGram International is reliable, fast and 50 paise difference approx. to the internet exchange rates posted. So far I have not had any problems with them and they seem to be the way to send money to India. I have used other companies like Thomas cook, Western union but of these two used I would suggest to go with MoneyGram. This is opinion based on my experience.

Uma

[FinalGC]

I attest money gram...the money is transferreed instantaneosly....Additionally, the rate of transfer is never known at ICICI or other banks until the money is deposited into your account. In this case, you will know the rates immediately. I have seen ICICI and others to play with the conversion rate and make more money in the transaction, than what they say otherwise....I have stopped all ICICI and use moneygram for all transactions, unless it is an amount greater than $10K

[PHANI_TAVVALA]

I believe the days when remit2india was the best and only solution for money transfer are behind us. There are better and more reliable options available in the form of Citibank (with its worldwide network) and online services like Moneybookers, Xoom and Ikobo. Even HDFC and ICICI have increased the options available for its money transfer customers.

We have a comparison page that gives the real picture behind transfer charges.

http://www.tracenotes.com/reports/remittance-india.html

cheers!

Remit2India is not a bank and it uses Citibank to transfer money. I use remit2india even though I have a Citibank NRE account as Citibank doesnot tell you what is the current exchange rate and always gives the lowest rate in 7 day timeperiod. Remit2India sucks too but atleast I have a close enough idea about what they are paying. You can also use guaranteed exchange rate for $5 extra. In a way I use Remit2India to deposit money in Citibank NRE account with help of Citibank :D

[champu]

Remit2India is not a bank and it uses Citibank to transfer money. I use remit2india even though I have a Citibank NRE account as Citibank doesnot tell you what is the current exchange rate and always gives the lowest rate in 7 day timeperiod. Remit2India sucks too but atleast I have a close enough idea about what they are paying. You can also use guaranteed exchange rate for $5 extra. In a way I use Remit2India to deposit money in Citibank NRE account with help of Citibank :D

Citi is worst of all...
Use State bank if you are in California
sbical.com

[tns]

Remit2India is not a bank and it uses Citibank to transfer money. I use remit2india even though I have a Citibank NRE account as Citibank doesnot tell you what is the current exchange rate and always gives the lowest rate in 7 day timeperiod. Remit2India sucks too but atleast I have a close enough idea about what they are paying. You can also use guaranteed exchange rate for $5 extra. In a way I use Remit2India to deposit money in Citibank NRE account with help of Citibank :D

I guess, one could continue to argue for and against these providers. However, remember that each individual has distinct remittance needs. Speed may matter to some, exchange rate to most, delivery options to others etc. These providers offer services that appeal to at least a few of us, else they'd have been long out of business. Our report shows these features at a glance.

Does anyone have any experience using the online providers like Moneybookers, Xoom and Ikobo?

Just a bit of unrelated trivia. Did you know, Remit2India (Times of Money) was ordered to surrender the domain name (remit2home.com) to a Philippino money transfer company called RemitHome in February last year.

Cheers

[piyu7444]

Citi is worst of all...
Use State bank if you are in California
sbical.com

I have used ICICI and other services too...........

I started using WAMU's Free checking account which allows to WIRE money Internationally for FREE. Money reaches India next day if you get to the branch before the day's cut off time. The hassle is that you cant do this online. Also I have a/c @ AXIS Bank India. I work closely with the NRI relationship manager and she helps to get a good rate. At times she holds USD for me for a day or two so that I can get a good conversion rate. This works BEST (at least for me) and others can try.

[ganguteli]

I have used ICICI and other services too...........

I started using WAMU's Free checking account which allows to WIRE money Internationally for FREE. Money reaches India next day if you get to the branch before the day's cut off time. The hassle is that you cant do this online. Also I have a/c @ AXIS Bank India. I work closely with the NRI relationship manager and she helps to get a good rate. At times she holds USD for me for a day or two so that I can get a good conversion rate. This works BEST (at least for me) and others can try.

WAMU charges money
see their disclaimer on checking account--
4. For wire transfers, non-refundable foreign currency exchange charges and other banks’ fees may apply.