XE Rate: INR 53.68

• Plan your remittances. When you plan your remittances, you can monetise the amount you need to remit and the amount which your beneficiary should receive. Also, companies do give you a better exchange rate when you remit bigger amounts. Don’t send piece-meal remittances, they usually get you lower rates and strip you of possible increase in the destination amount. 
• Choose the most transparent way of remitting money. The mode which gives you either the exact amount which will be credited into the beneficiary’s account or gives you a true indication of the FX rate movement. Most of the companies offer Indicative Exchange Rates. Compare such service, preferably by going to their site directly and compare the rates. They will give you a fair idea of the foreign exchange margins which they charge. Though it may not be the rate which will be applied, but at least you have an idea who will give you the best rates in the market. 
• Choose an Online service. You may have preferred walking into an agent location of a branch to do a remittance, realise this, they are a brick-and-mortar setup and their over heads are more and therefore logically they charge you fee and foreign exchange margins which are considerably higher than most of the online money transfer sites. But, when you do choose to remit money online, do research the operator’s credentials, check forums. Banks have also entered the online remittance space and offer a unique advantage – They operate the treasuries which do the foreign exchange! So they in some cases offer the best of the exchange rates. Also, because of their status, they are governed by the regulatory authorities, giving you that additional comfort.
• When remitting online, choose the fastest mode. As we mentioned earlier, you could check on the indicative rates on most of the online money transfer websites, these rates over a day or two could give you the direction in which the currency pair (GBP-PHP, USD-INR…) are heading – Couple this the news and you could for a short period, get to know which way the currency pair is heading and to complete the remittance during this period of a day or two, you need the fastest way to get the money to the money transfer agents. For example – in USA you could use ACH as a funding mode for your transaction which takes 3 days, but an account transfer would take just one. Similarly, in UK you could use BACS Direct Debit which takes 5 days or choose faster payments or a same day transfer. This helps the money transfer agency or bank to reconcile your transaction and convert the amount into the destination currency. Essentially, faster you fund you remittance, the less likely the variation in the foreign exchange rate. And, exchange houses and brick-and mortar agencies are certainly not the best option when you go in for the fastest, simply because the foreign exchange rates are way off and fee too high.

An example of Remittance Value -

Original Amount Sent – £3,000

Fee of remittance – £15

Interbank Rate - INR 77

Applied FX rate – INR 76.2  (Destination Amount /Amount Sent)

Margin – INR76.2/ INR 77 = 0.989

Destination Amount – INR 228,600

Actual Remittance Amount (as per interbank rate for £3000) – INR 231,000

FX Loss – INR 231,000 – INR 228,600 = INR 2,400= £31.16

Total Cost = £46.16 

Time Value – 9 (10 to 0, 10 is the value for urgent transfers.)

RV= £46.16/9 = 5.12

if the cost of remittance was reducted to £10, then the RV = 4.57 and if the remittance was not urgent time value associated was, say 5 with cost as £15 then, RV is 9.2. So, the lower Remittance Value, the better the service.

There are no indicators of a slow down in remittance, since the months prior have also shown a growth patterns. The Bangladeshi  fiscal year end in June pegged the remittance growth at 22.3% higher as compared to the last year.

Now, with this backdrop other countries are also striving to increase the remittance flows. Such efforts are visible from the recently concluded conclave of Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis, Ministry of Finance and State Bank of Pakistan to double inward remittances. In the Philippines, The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and the Association of Bank Remittance Officers (ABROI) have agreed in principle to reduce fees on fund transfers.

These indicator and efforts reflect the jubiliant move towards increasing remittances and generate greater liquidity in the times of recession.

Disclaimer – The display rates shown in above are for illustration purposes and amy not be applicable to transactions process on the mentioned day or date. We do not claim any responsibility towards the correctness of the data presented here. The data has been colledcted from various websites and we do not solicit any transactions or  remittances based on the above representation.

The combination complements both Western Union which currently has over 50,000 agent locations in India, giving them the reach to effectively service the remitters needs, India on the other hand benefits from receipts from all the major remittance origination countries as these are also covered by Western Union.

In an interview, WU MD for South & South East Asia, mentioned that the Indian entity’s revenue grew by 19% and the transactions grew by 42% (remember the advertising campaigns of ‘Yes’ which caught the eye across India sometime ago). He comments that limiting inward remittance cap to $2,500 per transaction with a maximum of 12 transactions per year (for Money Transfer Operators) is a hurdle which probably dampens India’s potential for receiving additional inward remittances.

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