Sending Money to India

I've read all the above posts and wondered why anyone has not talked money trasfer through check deposit. Everytime I want to send money, I ask my parents to deposit my check. Its takes time (upto a month perhaps) but it does not bother me. I dont have to pay any heavy transaction fee. I'm not sure if I get the best rate though. Any comments?

Well adding one more to the list of nightmares and horror experiences people have had with CitiBank.
My nightmare started when I deposited a dollar cheque to remit funds to India for a medical emergency. It took Citibank only a few hours to debit my Australian account. It took them 13 days (when they claim it is 5 days), they gave me a exchange rate which is Re 1 worse than that offered by HSBC or ICICI, their customer service is full of incompetent idiots and what really really drove me mad was because of these con men I missed out on taking care of the medical emergency. So moral of the story is unless you have a lot of money to feed these con men - save yourself the trouble of opening an account with Citibank - only thing I can promise is that youll soon regret the day
Anil Sood Hyderabad

Quickremit and remit2india are part of timesmoney. I am not sure about remit2india service since I read a lot of bad feedback. Here is my story with HDFC Quickremit.I have been sending money with them over the past 2 years- it takes a minimum of 9 days for the money to be tranferred via ACH. But they debit your bank account the day you make a request for transfer! I was OK with this - since I was never in a hurry for the money to get there. Well this time it was different. I was willing to pay even $100 to make sure the money got there on time. It would not let me login - finally said my id was locked. I tried resetting my password - it gave me a message saying the my password was mailed to my registered email id - never got one. Called customer service. I spoke to somone - i dont remember his name. He said he had unlocked it - actually a BIG lie. Verified my e-mail id...said the e-mails must be in my junk mailbox!! LOL BTW the 1-800-588-2156 number is never answered. At times I tried for more than 25 times and gave up. The came Giridar ... did nothing to help me - promise 24-48 hr help..all BS. Then a guy named Krishnan spoke to me said he would fix my problem - i sent so many e-mails saying i would hold them responsble for any fraudulent transaction since I believed someone was receiving my passwords. he called me to ask for the last 4 digits of the account # and routing # - saying he would delete it. In a few hours Panchu from the compliance team mailed me to ask me for details of my 3 bank accounts i had in that account so that he could disable it. I opened another account with them and waited for the verification process - the 3rd day I get an e-mail from quickremit saying the bank account is invalid! (Impossible!!) I got on chat - here comes komal- how can i assist you today?? I told her my situation. She said she woudl have krishanan call me. he called in 15 mins...i talked to him for almost 30 mins...and finally told him to go ahead and cancel my account with quickremit. I AM DONE WITH THEM. From this website I saw that sbi's serbices are good - tought will try it out. So have registered with them - so my next post will be about SBI:) So soon after Krishanan hung up - Willson Sakpal calls me to tell me he just saw my e-mail and was trying to understand the situation. It was obious that Krishnan was standing right next to him. I told him I already spoke to someone and have asked him to close my account. He said we will send you an e-mail and reply to that with "info" so that we can close your account. I said OK. In 5 misn he sends me an e-mail -
Thank you for writing to us.
 
Dear YYYY ,
We apologize for the delay response.
 
With regards to your mail, We would liek to inform you that we could delete your bank account details registered with us.
 
Please do let us know which course of action you would like to follow in this regard and provide us with the below mentioned information so we can get the necessary authorization to make the necessary changes:
 

1) SSN number

2) E-mail address

3) Beneficiary information

4) Bank account details which are as follows:

    a) Bank name

    b) Bank account number

    c) Routing Number

    d) Account type

 

5) A reason for deletion of the account.

 
Looking forward to your continued patronage and hope that you find Quick remit services convenient.
Do feel free to contact our 24-hour live chat help at Quick remit for a prompt solution to your query.
 
Assuring you of our best services always.
 
Thanks and regards,
 
Willson Sakpal
Quick remit Team

How worse can this become. I am thinking of speaking to a lawyer - to sue them! I didnt know that timesmoney was into fradulent business. I replied to him staying the same. And got on chat and there comes Komal again - asked her to get willson - she said he would call me soon- my phone rang he tried 3 times but the call didnt come thru. Just this evening I walked in from work - from 6.30 - 9.10pm EST I have not done anything but deal with these people. The best way to spend a Friday night :@@@@

Cheers,
SS

Another horror story - guessed right - Citibank - It appears that citibank neither offer nor pretend to offer any service. While I deposited a cheque overseas to remit funds to India - Citibank took hours to debit my Australian account - but weeks later - the age old story - the merry run around - boils down to straight down right daylight robbery - no excuses, no reasons - that's the way they treat idiots who fall for their hype about their NRI services.
- cheers and try anyone except Citi(shouldnt it be Shitty) bank - Anil Sood

TRY SBI. ONE OF THE BEST CONVERSION RATES, DEPENDING ON THE AMOUNT YOU CAN ALSO ASK FOR THE WAIVER OF WIRE FEE. VERY FRIENDLY EMPLOYEES IN LOS ANGELES WILLSHIRE BRANCH. I AM REALLY AMAZED WITH THE SERVICE.

try onlinesbi.com/gls , its from sbi , can do all the online setup , so far they give the best exchange rate. try the minimun amount first for the trials and get to know the service

did any one try international wire transfer (fees ~$35), do they give better rates then the icci or the onlinesbi ?

It is none other than Remit2India and timesofmoney.com.

Two worst and untrustable services from TimesGroup

Seriously, this is the worst service i ever found in my life. All false promises and bad customer support. I transferred money 3 weeks back and it hasnt reached my family till day.

Dont get trapped in to this service, its really worst and not worth. I am going to complain about this institution to RBI.

Lokesh.

I have never had a bad experience with ICICI bank.International money transfers take time for validation and processing.ICICI bank is clear about the time required for processing. The rates I have obtained are good but a little less than what I would have obtained if I sold the dollars elsewhere.

I was going through the posts regarding money transfer experience of ppl here. Guys, lets face this fact....no matter what service you choose...if it is an Indian co., it would sound unproffesional, non - cooperative and irresponsible. This might not always be the case, but if you make mistake or if they make some mistake, it would initiate a cycle of sorrows and miseries. The best you can do is to make no mistake and hope that your money reaches destination hassle free.

I used remit2india once and had horrible experience, I am giving them one more chance now and if it doesnt work out well, I would never consider them again. Would keep you updated with my expereince with other services.