In this article we discuss different ways to send money from the UK to India.
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It is often better to set up portable investment solution which can be taken with you globally if you move, especially if you are an expat, as opposed to sending money home to invest in real estate or stocks.
Introduction
International money transfer is a service that allows you to send money abroad for any reason; this can be done using your regular retail bank account, international money transfer operators (such as Western Union or MoneyGram), FX brokers and peer-to-peer companies.
Here, in our in-depth article we can help you with options of transferring money from the UK to India and suggest one of the best companies out there.
But first let’s talk about what are the most common reasons you might need to use international money transfer services?
People transfer money abroad for a variety of reasons, in this part we have collected some of the top reasons why people transfer their money abroad and why many of these people choose to transfer money abroad using transferring companies not banks.
The reasons for sure are different, starting from payments for property and finishing with wedding expenses. Sometimes people want to buy property in their country and they go to work abroad, to earn more and to send money home to their family so they could make payments.
Another logical reason can be tuition fee abroad for a child or grandchild, or maybe you want to make a foreign investment or alienation. Others regularly send money to their friends or family living abroad, just in a form of a financial support, and in this case they’ll definitely look for a more fee-suitable way.
A lot of people borrow mortgages and go abroad for a well-paid work to make payments. All we know that mortgages are very hard to pay, and standard salaries of some countries cannot help you make those payments, if not the bank will put you in black list.
To the last question mentioned above there is a good answer that will prove you that banks do not worth using for transfers. You will simply save up to 85% with transferring companies compared to retail banks.
But why? If you use your bank when you transfer money abroad, you will have to pay a commission, whether you are transferring a large amount of money or regularly transferring small amounts of money to accounts in foreign banks.
Moreover, while you also take exchange rates into account, the costs can really go up. That is so recommended to find ways to reduce these fees and achieve superior exchange rates to save you money while still offering a safe and secure way to transfer money to an overseas bank account.
That is why the number of international money transferring companies actively increases and almost all of them had success in their country.
In this article we will many focused on these type of companies worldwide, list and discuss them, try to figure out how they work, specify their ups and downs and of course give you a chance to become acquainted with different companies and decide which one will be best fit for you to send money from the United Kingdom to India.
Below you can find some of the best and high rated money transferring companies, due to what you can easily and quickly, but most importantly send your money abroad:
- Remitly
- CurrencyFair
- Skrill
- Small World FS
- TransferGo
- Azimo
These are the money transferring supporters, about what we will talk today, and the first one is Remitly, enough popular company.
- Remitly
Remitly is a web-based provider of money transfers that allows you to quickly send money from the U.S. to over 50 countries. It is mainly focused on easy and fast international money transfers for immigrants to the developed world looking to send money home.
They do a good job of keeping costs low, especially when you consider the convenience, speed, and ability of the recipient to receive cash.
The reviews that are available on Trustpilot show that customers are very satisfied. Their closest competitors are Western Union and WorldRemit, which says that Remitly is in a leading position.
But that doesn’t make them the best for everyone, for sure many complaints were found while reading the customer reviews.
While you can send both very small and relatively large amounts, the sweet spot for Remitly is when you need money to arrive very quickly and you want options like simple payment and cash withdrawal.
For pickup, they partner with shipping and distribution providers in many countries (banks, cash pickup or delivery services) so that your family can choose multiple ways to receive funds.
With Remitly, you can transfer money from these 16 countries: UK, USA, Australia, Canada, Ireland, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Austria, Belgium, Finland, Netherlands, Norway, Singapore and Sweden to over 50 countries including India.
Remitly is also available in up to 100 currencies, which is another advantage for the company. Now let’s fix some really important pros and cons of Remitly.
Pros:
- Quick and easy transfer
- Two plans to send money: express and economy
- Easy tracking for both senders and recipients
- Various options to receive money, such as bank transfers, pick up points, home delivery, and mobile wallet transfers
- Funds your transfers with a credit card, debit card, or bank transfer
- Guaranteed delivery
- If the delivery is late, the fees will be refunded
- Allows cash pickups at more than 140,000 locations worldwide
Cons:
- Banned transfers between 16 sending countries
- Fees can be high compared to other money transferring companies
- A limit of $2,999 is placed on all new accounts, and you’ll need more ID to increase daily, monthly and 180-day sending limits
- The speed and the amount of fees can differ, they depend on the country you send money
- CurrencyFair
CurrencyFair is a third party money transfer company that allows you to send funds to a selected recipient through their website.
The platform was launched in 2009 and is headquartered in Ireland, although it also has offices in the UK, Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia.
CurrencyFair founders were disappointed with the international money transfer industry. In response, this group of enterprising expatriates came up with a plan to build a payment infrastructure from scratch.
Over a decade later, CurrencyFair is one of the few players to have developed a truly innovative product. Specially developed technology ensures independence of customer experience management from start to finish.
CurrencyFair was one of the first innovators to recognize the benefits of peer-to-peer money transfer services.
In short, the company gives you the option to choose your own currency exchange rate. If another user in the CurrencyFair ecosystem agrees to use the same rate, you can exchange currencies on a peer-to-peer network.
As for the exchange, by sending the required funds in your local currency to CurrencyFair, the platform will then transfer the funds in the recipient’s local currency – directly to their bank account.
Moreover, the process is not only much faster than using the SWIFT network through a traditional financial institution, but also much cheaper. CurrencyFair supports transferring funds to approximately 157 countries.
To this end, the service has established a network of international bank accounts using its own local subsidiaries. This allows CurrencyFair to facilitate many transfers without actually entering the foreign exchange market. It can also use the SWIFT network.
CurrencyFair has a minimum transfer amount of £ 1, which is great news if you need to transfer a small amount. The maximum transfer amount is £ 10,000,000. This is a significant amount for an online platform and should be enough for most individuals and small businesses.
Pros:
- Cheap money sending
- Huge transfer fee saver
- Easy to use
- Mobile good working application
- Reliable service
- Regulated and licensed
- Recurring transfers supported
- High rating on Trustpilot
- Best provider for sending £10,000 to Europe
Cons:
- Sign up restricted to certain countries
- US citizens excluded
- Slow customer support
- Skrill
The Paysafe Group, a large payments group that provides payment services online, in person and through other channels, currently owns Skrill.
Skrill started out as an e-commerce payment gateway specializing in gambling, but has now expanded its services to include an online service that allows you to send money around the world, Skrill Money Transfer.
Opening an account with Skrill gives you access to this service as well as the Skrill wallet (an overview of which you can find at the end of the page).
Skrill money transfers are fast, easy and inexpensive due to very attractive prices, exchange rates and fees. You can send money abroad via Skrill Money Transfer and make payments by credit card, debit card, SOFORT or bank transfer, depending on where you are and what currency you are using.
The recipient can choose to receive funds directly into their bank account, although receiving money in a mobile wallet is also an option in a small number of countries.
According to customer reviews posted online, Skrill is a great money transfer service. It is very often the cheapest option and provides very competitive fees and rates, is easy to use, fast and is a long established company that is trusted by a large number of customers who give a lot of positive reviews on TrustPilot.
Skrill mobile apps have excellent ratings in the Apple App Store (4.5 / 5 stars out of 2,900 ratings) and the Google Play Store (4/5 out of 74,758 ratings). With Skrill mobile apps, you can make online payments, send money abroad, and exchange cryptocurrencies.
Pros:
- Both personal and business options available
- Ability to work with Forex and online gambling accounts
- No fixed transfer fee when you send money directly to a bank account
- Send money easily to an email address or phone number linked to a bank account
- Buy and sell cryptocurrency
- Offers a prepaid card powered by MasterCard
- User-friendly mobile app
- Secure, fast and convenient transfers through Skrill Money Transfer
- A lot of glad customers
Cons:
- Getting fully operational can be tedious
- Difficult fee structure
- High currency exchange fees for “Skrill to Skrill” international transfers
- Currently available in only a limited number of countries
- Small World FS
Small World Financial Services will be different for anyone who comes across its services. The company, which owns a portfolio of businesses, has created an online platform to complement its retail presence.
Small World strives to facilitate transfers in a simple and secure manner. Since its founding in 2005, it has gradually expanded its activities with over 500 employees throughout Europe and abroad.
Now more details, Small World Financial Services is a remittance company operating under various brands (UNO, Express Funds, Global Link, Choice, Swiss Transfers, LCC, etc) from over 20 countries (mainly Europe, USA and Canada) and allows you to send money to up to 190 countries, which is great.
You can transfer money from their online platform using their mobile app, available for iOS and Android, or at one of their agent branches. It is one of the few remittance companies that can send money to so many countries and also offer various options for receiving money about what we’ll talk later.
The Small World FS website can be a little confusing and difficult to navigate, and their support team is not always quick to answer questions. Information is not always presented in a clear manner.
Pros:
- Flexible delivery methods
- Large selection of recipient countries
- Small World offered low fees and competitive rates within 0.5% of the mid-market rate on average, with rates updated daily
- Small World’s easy-to-use website allowed us to sign up and initiate a transfer in an impressive 3.5 minutes
- No additional fees for using a credit card
- Multiple transfer options such as wallets, credit and debit cards
- Small World is a trusted provider worldwide, with 52 million transactions under its belt
- First transfer is FREE
Cons:
- Available for residents of the UK and Europe only
- Exchange rates are not very competitive
- Suitable for low value transfers only
- You didn’t receive an ETA with your receipt
- There are some daily limits to send money abroad
- TransferGo
TransferGo is an internet-only money transfer company founded in 2012 and based in the UK. As is the case with most money transfer startups, the founders claim that they started the business with the goal of revolutionizing the slow, expensive and time-consuming process of transferring money abroad.
While banks and longtime providers like Western Union and MoneyGram are saddled with high fees and endless paperwork, TransferGo claims to provide fast, low-cost, and free international transfers at the click of a button.
In terms of how the platform works, TransferGo works in a similar way to most other money transfer companies operating only online. In short, you first start by entering the amount you want to send and where. After you enter some details, you will be prompted to deposit funds.
This is usually done by transferring funds to a local bank account, which is monitored by the TransferGo team, or using a debit or credit card. Please note that debit / credit cards can only be used for transactions under £ 2,500 (or local currency equivalent). Finally, once the funds are received by TransferGo, they will proceed to transfer funds to the recipient.
However, the key difference from money transfer professionals like TransferGo is that the transfer is usually made from a bank account located in the recipient’s country of residence.
As such, the platform can offer significantly lower fees than those typically charged by traditional banks and transfer times that are often done in one day.
TransferGo charges a flat transfer fee based on the speed at which you want the transfer to be completed. If you’re looking for the fastest 30-minute option (if available) you’ll pay just £ 2.99.
Pros:
- Can be very cheap
- Transparency of all of fees/costs
- Very quick for card transfers
- All rates guarantee (24/48 hrs)
Cons:
- It’s an online focus, and limits telephone contact
- Bigger transfers can be limited
- Customer support have to be developed
- The website is a little frustrating
- Azimo
Azimo provides a simple and user-friendly platform for day-to-day transfers. However, the service suffers from a lack of phone support and lackluster customer service.
It features an elegant website and intuitively designed mobile apps that enable its customers to send messages to over 200 countries around the world. Its transfers are fast and inexpensive, especially when sending money to South Africa, Nigeria and other African countries.
Customers who have used Azimo praised it for its flexibility in payment methods, from credit cards to debit cards to bank transfers. In addition, the fact that you can send as little as $ 1 through the platform makes it easier for customers to regularly send small amounts of money to support their families back home. Besides internet money transfer services, Azimo also allows users to send conversations to their families and friends.
Customer support is a very important element when making an international money transfer. As such, the lack of phone support on Azimo and the limited availability of online customer service make it a bit difficult for customers to get help when they need it most.
With the target market in mind, Azimo has tried to regulate the costs of its transfers by simulating different fee structures and exchange rate differences depending on the countries to which customers are transferring money.
Azimo charges a variable or fixed fee for its transfers. The key factors that determine the amount you will be charged are the transfer payment method, payment method, and participating countries. Typically, the commission is £ 1-10.
Like most remittance providers, Azimo charges margins above market average or interbank rates. Its margin is between 1% and 3%. Compared to banks charging an average of 5%, Azimo’s rate is clearly ahead of banks. They allow their clients to fix the rate at the time of the transfer so that you know exactly how much the recipient will receive.
As a rule, Azimo has no hidden fees. The only fees you need to be careful with are credit card fees. They can go up to 2.99% per transaction. However, if you are using your local bank to pay and receive transfers, no fees should be charged.
While providers like TransferWise and CurrencyFair do not charge margin on their exchange rates, they are pushing the needle towards transfer fees. In addition, Azimo has good control over remittance corridors from Africa, a payout network coverage not many companies have.
Pros:
- Multinational money transfers
- Very low rates
- No hidden fees, transparency is the main key
- FCA-regulated service
- Fast transactions
- Easy to use
- Very user-friendly app
Cons:
- Credit/Debit card required for deposit
- Sign up available only for Europeans
Here are all the options that are different, have various options, competitive fee structures and unique features, but all of them are leading to one goal, which is safely transferring your money from UK to India.
Here you can find totally new companies such as CurrencyFair, Azimo or TransferGo, about what we have never talked, but they also have satisfied customers which you can see on TrustPilot.
Hope this quick guide can help you decide and choose which transferring company is best for you and which one can help you meet all your expectations.
Further Reading
The article below looks at investments for non-resident Indians. What options exist and how can we help?
