Monday, July 4, 2011

Money remittance to India - Singapore

Most of the Indians (NRI's) use the remittance services atleast once during their stay outside. Due to the unique family traditions where even adults depend a lot on family, and take responsibility of family this is almost a a given that one uses the remittance service.
There used to be only one service from ICICI (money2india) covering US, Singapore, Australia & middle east. Now there are a bunch of them covering almost the globe. Personally I've used money2india, HDFC Quick Remmit before. I was told SBI remit is good, but the process is terrible. I've to go to their bank branch to get an ID card with a number. I don't think I am going to do that as I am not a frequent user. They do offer better rates than the rest and I guess for a frequent user they are more suitable.
Below is a comparision or summary of the remittance services. of these three services

1. Money2India.


Pros:


First mover
Best website design, tracking functionality, ease of use
Faster transfer (2 working days typically) to ICICI Branches.

Cons:


Bad conversion rate. Often changes (in banks favor) after you complete the transaction
Terrible service

2. HDFC Quick remit

Pros:


Good conversion rates.
Acceptable service

Cons:


Slower transfer times (min 3 biz days and normally 5 days)
Bad site design, user experience

3. SBI eRemit


Pros:


Best conversion rates among the service providers
SBI is the largest bank and most of the town's or villages does have a SBI branch.

Cons:


Bureaucratic and processes of 'self centric' rather than customer focus.
What is customer service

Individual experience could be different and for some money2india could be the best while some swear on them. Overall in my experience/observation I found HDFC offering a balance between better rates & service/ease of transaction. I wish SBI does the same :)

2 comments:

  1. Wonderful blog & good post.Its really helpful for me, awaiting for more new post. Keep Blogging!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nice blog i liked it... thanks for sharing the article on how to transfer money easily. remittance to India

    ReplyDelete