OnlineSBI Remit Vs ICICI Money 2 India

Recently I did a small experiment to compare money transfer from US to India.

My priorities were:

• Money Value (Exchange Rate + Transfer Fees + Service Tax)
• Remittance Speed
• Trustworthiness of financial institute.

I decided to try SBI Online Remit and ICICI Money 2 India. The reason being that SBI is the biggest bank in India, and so it was promising in terms of my 1st and 3rd priorities. ,On the other hand, ICICI being a very big private bank too seemed like a fitting match to SBI.

Here is my finding:

	SBI Express Remit	ICICI Money2India E Transfer
Transfer Requested	100 USD	100 USD
ACH Debit From US Bank	100 USD	102 USD
Money Credit Into IN Bank	4820 INR	4891 INR
Time Taken	4 Business Days	5 Business Days

Each of the banks did offer multiple options of remitting(Using ACH, Using Wire Transfer, Using Checks, and what not). My experiment was with ACH type of transmitting options only. Because it is usually the cheapest means.

I also had an eye open for fastest means of transfer and was quite impressed by the claims of Western Union to transfer money within hours.

In terms of cost effectiveness, if you are sending large amounts (More than 1500USD) then do check out Xoom (https://www.xoom.com/sendmoneynow/india/fees).

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Updated on Dec 4, 2011: Apparently for larger amount, the result is different.

	SBI Express Remit	ICICI Money2India E Transfer
Transfer Requested	600 USD	600 USD
ACH Debit From US Bank	600 USD	600 USD
Money Credit Into IN Bank	30,549 INR	30,634 INR
Time Taken	5 Business Days	5 Business Days