It's been almost 2 months for me in the UK and have been researching on getting best exchange rates while transferring money from UK to India. There are multiple methods available to transfer money from UK to India and some of the most commonly used methods have been using remit2india, money2india, Citibank International Transfer by my friend circle. The method involves initiating the money transfer request from UK to India in these services and later on transferring money from your local UK Bank Account to their UK Bank Account.
The only issue is you get the exchange rate of the day when the money is received in the Bank Account of the local service providers. For example, the remit2india service have an Account opened with Deutsche Bank, London. So you get the exchange rate for the date when Deutsche Bank receives the money from any other Account. Though money transfer within the same Bank is instantaneous in UK, it is surprising to find that in UK you don't have an option to transfer money across different Banks within the same day which is a FREE service (it is possible only in very limited Banks). In India the NEFT and RTGS systems have been in place for many years and from past 2-3 years the transfer happens within the same day if you initiate the transfer request before 10:30 am.
Anyways, can't change the system, so the best method is to find an alternative cost effective method. In UK I hold an Account with Citibank and they can transfer money to a non-Citibank account on the same day using CHAPS transfer. But, but, but this is not free. It comes for a fee of £20, which really sounds absurd to me. So the trick is book your transfer request in remit2india and do a CHAPS transfer to transfer money across different Banks. The benefit is you get the exact rate offered by remit2india and also is cheaper than Citibank International transfer which gives exchange rates which are almost INR 2 less than the prevailing RBI exchange rate. Just remember the CHAPS transfer in Citibank UK can only be done via phone, which is also quite funny.
Do try my method and get best exchange rates while transferring money to your near and dear one's in India.
The only issue is you get the exchange rate of the day when the money is received in the Bank Account of the local service providers. For example, the remit2india service have an Account opened with Deutsche Bank, London. So you get the exchange rate for the date when Deutsche Bank receives the money from any other Account. Though money transfer within the same Bank is instantaneous in UK, it is surprising to find that in UK you don't have an option to transfer money across different Banks within the same day which is a FREE service (it is possible only in very limited Banks). In India the NEFT and RTGS systems have been in place for many years and from past 2-3 years the transfer happens within the same day if you initiate the transfer request before 10:30 am.
Anyways, can't change the system, so the best method is to find an alternative cost effective method. In UK I hold an Account with Citibank and they can transfer money to a non-Citibank account on the same day using CHAPS transfer. But, but, but this is not free. It comes for a fee of £20, which really sounds absurd to me. So the trick is book your transfer request in remit2india and do a CHAPS transfer to transfer money across different Banks. The benefit is you get the exact rate offered by remit2india and also is cheaper than Citibank International transfer which gives exchange rates which are almost INR 2 less than the prevailing RBI exchange rate. Just remember the CHAPS transfer in Citibank UK can only be done via phone, which is also quite funny.
Do try my method and get best exchange rates while transferring money to your near and dear one's in India.
