Money Transfer to India comparison

I am sure you might try lot of ways to find best exchange rates or best possible way to transfer money to India. Recently I had a situation where I had to send the money urgently to home and lost lot of money with bad exchange rate in hurry. I learnt a good lesson and I thought I would post some useful tips to transfer the money to India. Hope you will like it
Parameters we usually look for:

1. Exchange Rate
2. No of days for transfer
3. Service/Transaction Fee
4. Refunds
5. Security
6. Transaction Limit

Now a day’s 5th parameter is not a big problem as almost every transaction is secured over the Internet. 2nd parameter is crucial and depends on you How many days required for transaction and at what time transaction happened.Some of the service providers to transfer money to India: Western Union, ICICI, HDFC, Citibank & Remit2India. There might be many others but which I am not aware.

Current Exchange rates on Forex
1 US Dollar (USD) = 45.9448 Indian Rupee (INR)

Western Union:
1 US Dollar (USD) = 45.2902995 Indian Rupee (INR)
Western Union Fee $10.00 No. of days for transfer: 3 Business Days
Customer Support: Good

It is very quick and fast but the service charges very high and you loose lot of money for transaction charges. The main advantage is we can send money to a small town/village in India within hours of our transaction. Advertises widely and have tied up with Indian Postal Service. They have thousands of location in every corner of the world and the money can be picked up anywhere. The only disadvantage is that it is quite expensive i.e. $39 for upto $3000. Also there is a limit on the maximum amount transferable. Service from Indian and Nationalized Banks

Citibank:
1 US Dollar (USD) = 45.6189 Indian Rupee (INR)
Fees: Varied; No. of days for transfer: Same or 5 Business Days
Customer Support: Good
If you have Citibank account in UK and India and if someone has debit card with them in India, this is faster than WU but there would be a limit to withdraw money using Debit card. Usually Citibank offers Rs 1.30 less than market exchange rate as transfer is done instantly. I found that it offers better exchange rate than WU. The Citibank Rupee Checking Account allows you transfer your money from abroad to India. HSBC India presently offers FREE Remittances through FastCHEQUE and FastCLICK from USA. HSBC India also offers NRI accounts and other NRI services for NRI's around the world. Special features include
1. Checks - You can fund your account by Personal Check/Certified Check/Cashiers Check or Drafts.
2. Wire Transfers/Telegraphic Transfers - From any local bank in your city to your Citibank Rupee Checking Account
3. Online Transfers - Currently for US Customers only from any US Bank Account to your Citibank Rupee Checking Account
4. Citibank Global Transfers - From your local Citibank Account to your Citibank Rupee Checking Account for customers in select regions
5. Electronic Funds Transfer - Rupees from your local India bank to your Citibank Rupee Checking Account
6. Dial-to-Transfer - This unique facility helps you transfer funds electronically from your bank in the United States to your Citibank Rupee Checking Account in India.

ICICI:
1 US Dollar (USD) = 45.4905 Indian Rupee (INR)
Fees: Rs 25; No. of days for transfer: 3 Business Days
Customer Support: Average
Usually ICICI gives lot of offers and say they would give better exchange rate. It might be true but it would take lot of time to credit the money to our Indian account. They say that no service fee but they always charge it !

Remit2India:
1 US Dollar (USD) = 45.45 Indian Rupee (INR)
Fees: $ 3- $ 25; No. of days for transfer: 3 to 5 Business Days
Customer Support: Average
As per the ratings, this is one of the popular and most used service providers currently. This would give better exchange rate, if you were bit clever. Exchange rate is different if we transfer money through NRE and the more we transfer the better the exchange rate. They would inform that we would get Rs.1000 on offer but they won’t credit immediately. We need to mail them and pursue them to do it

HDFC:
1 US Dollar (USD) = 45.56 Indian Rupee (INR)
Fees: Rs 25; Non HDFC Rs 0.75/1000; No. of days for transfer: 1-2 Business Days
Customer Support: Good
This is actually affiliated with Remit2India but offers best service in terms of quick delivery and exchange rate. Might be same exchange rate as Remit2India but faster than them in delivery. The problem with Remit2India and HDFC are that exchange rates are indicative as at transfer date and may vary little bit after the actual transfer. Citibank tells us immediately what is the amount we will receive after the conversion.
Depends on your need, you can decide which service provider to use. Wish you all the best.

SBI:
1 US Dollar (USD) = 45.54 Indian Rupee (INR)
Fees: $15*- $ 30 or No Fees*; No. of days for transfer: 2 to4 Business Days
Customer Support: Good

Offers best service in terms of quick delivery and exchange rate. Might be greater exchange rate as Remit2India but faster than them in delivery.
All INR remittances are free irrespective of amount.
Conversion to foreign currency at a firm rate, displayed on the website.
Instant* Transfer to over 15,000 branches of State Bank Group
Electronic credit facility to accounts in all branches of SBI and associate banks and nearly 33000 branches of 100 other banks in India.
Instant pay by debit or credit card up to $1000 (own account with SBI: $2500).
Send money to account with any bank.
7. Give standing instructions for regular remittances.

IKobo: The safest, fastest and most convenient way to send money online. Provides money transfer services all over the world.

Cash2India: Claims to be "The Oldest and Most Trusted Online Money Transfer Service"
Travelers Express/ MoneyGram International: Offers money order, international money transfer, official check, bill payment, share draft and gift certificate programs.

SendMoneytoIndia.com - Send money to India online - Cheapest way to Transfer money to Indian Cities and Villages online and Sending Money Abroad.

Xoom.com -
Fees: $ 3- $ 15 or No Fees; No. of days for transfer: 1 to 5 Business Days
Customer Support: Poor

Xoom is a San Francisco, USA based company that provides secure and easy money transfer facility to India. The sender should have a bank account or credit/debit card and internet access. The recipient need not have either of these facilities. When the money is sent to India through Xoom, it is made available for recipient to pick up or deposited in a bank account This service is entirely web based service

Tags: Cash2India, Citibank, compare, Exchange Rate, HDFC, ICICI, Ikobo, India, Money Transfer, NRI, Remit2India, SBI, Western Union, Xoom, WellsFargo

How to rebuild an investment portfolio after recession

Don't swing for the fences. To get even after a 28% loss, you have to gain 37%. But that doesn't mean you should load up on risky funds to make up for lost time. You'll just increase the odds that you'll lose more money.

Two important statistical measures will help you get a handle on risk. The first, beta, tells you the fund's relationship to an index, such as the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index. A fund with a beta of 1 rises and falls in lockstep with the index. A fund with a beta of 1.1 will rise 10% more and fall 10% more than the index. Conversely, a fund with a beta of 0.9 will rise 10% less and fall 10% less than the index.

Another useful measure is standard deviation, which tells how much you can expect a fund to vary from its average. The higher the standard deviation, the more volatile the fund. The standard deviation of the S&P 500 the past three years is 19.6. AIM China fund has a standard deviation of 37.6, so you can expect that its performance will be roughly twice as volatile as the S&P 500. You can find a fund's beta and its standard deviation by putting the fund name or ticker into any Get a Quote box at money.USATODAY.com. Scroll down to Risk Measures.

•Don't go to cash After taking a mauling from a bear market, many investors want to give up on stocks and bonds and move to money market mutual funds or bank CDs. But savings rates are so low that you'll earn close to nothing: The average money fund yields 0.05%, or $5 on a $10,000 deposit. Factor in inflation and taxes, and you'll earn less than nothing.

True, a 0.05% return is better than a big loss. But you have your best chance of getting back to even in stocks. Recovery time for a bear market depends on the severity of the downturn, says Jeff Hirsch, editor of the Stock Trader's Almanac. Hirsch thinks the market won't make new highs until 2011.

•Don't give up. Unless your retirement plan is to keel over at your desk, you need to lick your wounds and keep going. Even if you have a pension and Social Security, you'll need savings to maintain your standard of living.

How do you recover from the market's drubbing?

•Save more. The only sure-fire way to make up losses is to increase your savings. For example, suppose you earn $50,000 and contribute 5% of your salary to a 401(k) plan. You get 3% raises every year. If you earn 6% a year, you'll have $260,500 after 30 years. Bump up your contribution to 7%, and you'll have $364,000.

If you're investing in a 401(k) plan, bumping up your savings by a percentage point or more could be surprisingly painless, because your contributions are before taxes. For example, suppose your gross salary is $50,000. You pay 25% in federal taxes and 5% in state taxes, and you contribute 5% of your salary, or $48 a week, to your 401(k). Increasing your contribution 2 percentage points, to 7%, will decrease your take-home pay by just $13 a week.

•Make a plan. If you want a reasonable shot at retirement, you'll need to know how much money you'll need when you retire. Fortunately, you can find plenty of help estimating your retirement needs. Fidelity (www.fidelity.com), (www.troweprice.com) and Vanguard (www.vanguard.com) all have excellent online programs for figuring out how much you'll need to save for retirement.

If you feel you need a financial planner, consider a fee-only planner — preferably one that charges you by the hour, not by commission. You can find fee-only planners at www.napfa.org. You can also buy financial planning by the hour at the Garrett Planning Network at www.garrettplanningnetwork.com.

•Don't ignore dividends. Although red-hot growth stocks make the headlines, it's the stodgy dividend payers that do the heavy lifting over the long term. The S&P 500 has gained 867% the past 30 years without dividends. With dividends reinvested, the index has soared 2,200%.

•Keep expenses low. If your plan offers two similar funds, choose the one with the lowest annual expenses.

•Find an asset allocation plan. Once you've figured out how much you need to save, figure out how much of your money should be split between stocks, bonds and money market securities. The more time you'll have before you need to spend your money, the more you should have in stocks. If you have 20 to 30 years before retirement, for example, you should have 70% or more of your investments in stocks.

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