What Are Some Tips Before Sending Money To India?

[Shashank Bhaskar]

What is your process when you want to send money to India from a foreign country? Remittance can be an expensive affair at times. However, if you follow some easy tips and tricks, you can get the maximum bang for your funds. Some of the facets you should know about before transferring money are understand the terminologies, finding the most affordable service, and timing your transfer for making the sure it gets done perfectly.

If you get hold of the exchange rate concept, then sending money to India is simple. It is about making the most of the exchange rate fluctuations and other such factors –

Exchange rates change

The price of most of the international currencies changes as they keep floating. The currency value, as opposed to other countries, depends on demand and supply. While the Government has a fixed exchange rate, they mostly fluctuate. The foreign exchange gets traded round the clock in the world. If you try remitting a small amount, any change results in a slight difference. In the case of a large amount, there is a significant impact.

Foreign exchange terms

Every concept has specific jargons which you should be aware before doing a transaction or operation. Similar is the concept of foreign exchange. There are some benefits of learning the common terminologies so that you are aware of what you are getting into. Some of the basic ones are –

• Sell rate: It is the amount you get the moment you exchange your local currency for foreign currency.
• Buy price: It is what you get when you exchange foreign currency for local currency.
• Interbank rate: Also called the bank to bank rate, it is the wholesale rate at which the banks exchange currency amongst them.

Tracking exchange rates

If you seek to remain updated with the ongoing exchange rates, watch the every day interbank rates on your selected currency. Here, you get the best exchange rates. Considering they under constant fluctuations, the price you receive never remains the same and varies daily. Many factors can cause the funds to wobble right from economic forecasts to employment figures to interest rates. Hence, watch for currency movement and do money transfer to India only when the prices climb. Alternatively, when you need to do the transfer back to local currency, you can do when the rates are falling.

Window shopping

When you want to do an online money transfer, a little shopping is necessary. Currency rates tend to fluctuate from one company to another. In such cases, you need to make a comparison and find the ideal deal before you remit funds to India. Remitting substantial amount leads to significant savings. Also, check for additional commission and transaction fees which may be involved at the time of transaction. Once you compare the overall remittance costs, you can finalise the deal accordingly.