Transferring money to India

not legal advice.

Sending money from a familiar canadian bank, to another, trusted global bank isn't as bad as it seems. You will get your bank in india to provide you with your account and bank information for an international transfer. It will be through the swift system. When u have the complete information, goto your canadian bank and provide them the information to send the money. Ask them to explain the process to you, and if they see any missing info or red flags... Its not as easy as clicking a button... and actually double check what the information they enter in (it will likely be manual). If the person isn't used to doing this, really check over things, and ask them over every ambiguity, don't be too nice to ask, or shy about it.

TLDR: get the info, make sure the info is in correctly. swift will do the rest... and take a $15-80 cut depending on how money is routed.

Remitly or RemitBee ... both of them are good and safe.. I have been using them for last 3 years.... best rates and fastest transfers..

pavankumar wrote: ↑ I am planning to send some amount to India ($50,000). what is the best and safe way to send? The source of funds are from sale of a house in Canada and sending it to my own account to India.
What are the legalities in future and what is the best way to send it?

Any help is highly appreciated.

If the source of funds is legal and accounted for taxes..then there will be no issues
Keep the paper work and trial of the money

Don't use regular /retail money transfer services ,cos they are designed for convenience for small transfers
The exchange rate is not good and they may ask for documents if large transactions

Wire transfers through banks is safest,but the exchange rate is pathetic

Try getting quotes/rates for local FX dealers like Knightsbridge FX etc

I advice you to transfer small amounts (like $10k) spread over multiple transactions on different days

It also wouldn't hurt to visit a ICICI Canada branch. It's been a few years since I last transferred funds through them (back when they had a Bay st branch) but you could negotiate a decent rate for big transfers.

Have you tried State Bank of India? I believe they have locations in Toronto and their fees are relatively low.

VSU2508 wrote: ↑ Remitly or RemitBee ... both of them are good and safe.. I have been using them for last 3 years.... best rates and fastest transfers..

OP, keep in mind that your highest cost would be the forex rate used to convert CAD to INR, not the official commission quoted.

So even when the "commission" is zero, if the forex rate is 2% above mid-market, you'll pay a hidden fee of $1,000 compared to outfits like Remitly (which I have not used) or Transferwise (which I have happily used).

I use CIBC Global Money Transfer to send small amounts ($100 - $200 range) to Yes Bank in India once or twice a year. CIBC exchange rates are probably not the best compared to other money transfer companies but their service is good, fast and reliable.

pavankumar wrote: ↑ I am planning to send some amount to India ($50,000). what is the best and safe way to send? The source of funds are from sale of a house in Canada and sending it to my own account to India.
What are the legalities in future and what is the best way to send it?

Any help is highly appreciated.

As others have mentioned, don't go with the mainstream banks...or any bank for that matter. You'll get killed in fees.

I primarily use a service called Transferwise myself, fees are fairly minimal.

Remitly is another good option and rates are competitive.

With Transferwise, the transfer takes about 10 seconds before it shows up in the account in india if done during india business hours.

Doubt Remitly can be used for a transfer of this size. They have a lot of limits for the first few months after registering. I have only used Transferwise for sub $1000 transfers so not sure if it's the same with them. (For small transfers though, Transferwise is really the best option. As deal_with_singh says, I have had transfers be completed instantaneously, which is almost unheard of with other options).

I know Transferwise and these other competitive services might not have the convenience and may have extra work for verification, etc. but definitely worth considering.

I would recommend you call up your local branch and ask them an estimate of costs and get the final amount that will reach the bank in India after charges.
Then go to these transfer websites and draft in the resulting amount, most offer it like:

Transferwise https://transferwise.com/ca
Estimated amount received in India: INR 2,801,058

One other system to consider is XE Transfer https://www.xe.com/mt/ca-money-transfer
Estimated amount received in India: INR 2,785,990.00

CIBC GMT https://www.payments.cibc.com/fxc/fx/#/ir
Estimated amount received in India : INR 2,802,219 (but you will have to do it in installments since their limit is $30k CAD/transaction)

I got these figures based on the what they offer me when I checked them at the time of the post. Generally these online systems come to around 1.5% in fees vs spot rate (maybe rate better for your amount) over the bank rate which is closer to 3%. (estimated savings are $750)

This way, you will have an estimate of your cost of transaction via each system and can make an informed decision on which approach to take. Hope that helps.

try XendPay or Skrill good rates and no fees

I've used Money2India in the past (this is ICICI's service). They're reliable.

pavankumar wrote: ↑ I am planning to send some amount to India ($50,000). what is the best and safe way to send? The source of funds are from sale of a house in Canada and sending it to my own account to India.
What are the legalities in future and what is the best way to send it?

Any help is highly appreciated.

deal_with_singh wrote: ↑ As others have mentioned, don't go with the mainstream banks...or any bank for that matter. You'll get killed in fees.

I primarily use a service called Transferwise myself, fees are fairly minimal.

Remitly is another good option and rates are competitive.

With Transferwise, the transfer takes about 10 seconds before it shows up in the account in india if done during india business hours.

Hi there, Not sure if this thread still active, but I opened an account with remitly and I have a $1K limit on sending money. Is there any facility that will allow me to send under $5k immediately to an account in India. Thanks.

itemsale2003 wrote: ↑ Hi there, Not sure if this thread still active, but I opened an account with remitly and I have a $1K limit on sending money. Is there any facility that will allow me to send under $5k immediately to an account in India. Thanks.

With Wise (formerly Transferwise), you shouldn't have any problems sending 5k. It usually takes less than a day for the transfer to be completed.

A big amount like that should be sent with safe method like any bank....I've found CIBC/Simplii to give good rates lately even compared to some money sender services....

If something goes wrong, are you able to get in touch with remitly, transferwise etc? At least you can walk into bank and demand info compared to these online places......

Good luck

Open ICICI bank account in Canada, tell them your intention. You can access your funds in India and transfer to another bank.

waveparticle1729 wrote: ↑ With Wise (formerly Transferwise), you shouldn't have any problems sending 5k. It usually takes less than a day for the transfer to be completed.

ptlr036615 wrote: ↑ Open ICICI bank account in Canada, tell them your intention. You can access your funds in India and transfer to another bank.

Hi there, So I have tried both remitly and CIBC to send money to a hospital in India. Both have rejected saying that you can use their service only to send money to a personal account. Anyone faced this situation. How would I transfer money to an organization (not person) as both Remitly and CIBC are not allowing. The organization has all the paperwork, account number, etc.,

Transfer money to someone reliable, like family etc so they can fwd it to hospital...surely family or friends can do favor?

Or do a cable transfer via bank?

apnayloags wrote: ↑ Transfer money to someone reliable, like family etc so they can fwd it to hospital...surely family or friends can do favor?

Or do a cable transfer via bank?

Problem is I believe if I transfer to a person they will have to report it in their taxes as only the first Rs 50K is exempt from gift taxes in India.

What do you mean cable transfer. Isn't that what CIBC would do when you transfer online