Rupee record high in 10 years against dollar

Technorati Tags: Send Money To India,Rupee,Dollar,Exchange Rate

At 39.285 for 1 US dollar, Rupee is at 10 year high. I think dollar will continue to fall against rupee for next year. Why do I think so? For the following reasons:

1. Fed in US has very strongly indicated that it will continue to cut rates in US. This will accelerate the flight of money from US to places where investors can get better returns (i.e. where interest rates are higher).
2. Indian economy is doing very well and most of the business people and government officials are very upbeat about continued strong economic growth. On the other hand US economy is heading towards a recession. This is causing lots of people to move money from US to India. This is getting reflected in Indian stock market. While US market fell heavily in last two weeks, Indian market is defying all global indices and reaching record highs everyday. Note Exchange rate is all about demand and supply. More dollar move in to India, more it will depreciate.
3. Some very large IPOs (ex Reliance Power, OIL, ICICI subsidiaries, Wockhardt Hospital) are scheduled for next year. This will cause further investment from FIIs in India.
4. Real Estate prices are going up in India. Many NRIs want to maintain roots in India or want to move back to India in future. These NRIs are buying real estate in India in record numbers either because they think it is great investment or because of fear that it will be out of their budget very soon.

I am very pessimistic about dollar. In this environment, I think it is wise to move some percentage of assets to India and invest there. I would love to hear what other NRIs are doing?

Online Application for PAN card

Permanent Account Number (PAN) is a ten-digit alphanumeric number, issued in the form of a laminated card, by the Income Tax Department. http://incometaxindia.gov.in/PAN/Overview.asp has detailed information on PAN card.

PAN card is required if you are investing in India in mutual funds, demat account or if you want to make purchases like cell phone, car or house. PAN card can be applied online at https://tin.tin.nsdl.com/pan/index.html

Remit2India guaranteeing best exchange rates for transferring money to India

Remit2India is having a promotions where they are guaranteeing to match anyone who is offering exchange rates better than them. This seems like a great promotion. Their website also has comparison of their rates and ICICI bank rates. Remit2India is claiming to give few cents more than ICICI. In the past I have found ICICI to offer best rates. If remit2India is offering better than ICICI then folks transferring large amount should definitely consider them.

Here is the link to promotion http://www.timesofmoney.com/remittance/jsp/toml_nreExchangeRate_US.jsp


Looks like with Rupee appreciating against dollar so strongly, lots of people has started demanding better rates from money transfer services and this is showing effect.

SBI offerring for transferring money to India

SBI (State Bank Of India) has come out with a new web site for sending money to India. Here is the link: http://www.onlinesbi.com/glsus/#

I quickly browsed through the website. It is pretty easy to use and rate they are offering are very competitive. And being SBI you can trust your money is in safe hands.

I would love to hear from people who have used this service.

Best Rate for sending money to India

I did comparsion of exchange rates and fees charged by various services for sending money to India. Today's reference rate from Reserve Bank Of India (http://www.rbi.org.in/) is Rupee 40.97 for 1 US Dollar. All the rates should be looked in context of this reference rate. Rates offered on a given day will change.

I found HDFC offers best rates and lowest charges. ICICI bank was second. Here is my analysis:

1) HDFC Bank

Fees: No fees
Exchange Rate:
For 11 - 1000$ --> 1$ = 40.59 Indian Rupees
For 1001 - 3500$ --> 1$ = 40.68 Indian Rupees
For 3501 - 5000$ --> 1$ = 40.73 Indian Rupees

2) ICICI Bank
Fees: 2$ for 1000$ and free above it.
Exchange Rate:
For 1000$ --> 1$ = 40.35
For 5000$ --> 1$ = 40.46253

3) Western Union
Fees: $81 for 900$ transaction. They have limit of 1000$ so I tried 900$ transaction and they showed the fees of $81.
Exchange Rate:
For 900$ --> 1$ = 40.2864996

4) Xoom.com
Their online calculator didn't allow for more than 1000$. They have service fee of 15$ for the standard service and no fee for value service.

Exchange Rate:
For 1000$ --> 1$ = 39.70

5) eMoneyGram.com. This site also has limit of 1000 US Dollars. But has reasonable rates and has one day delivery. So it is good if you want to send money quickly.

Same Day Service Fee $15

Exchange Rate
For 1000$ : 1 US Dollary = 40.376700 INR


There are two other big services. CitiNRI and TimesOfMoney.com. I couldn't figure out any exchange rate information from their web site. I have no idea of TimesOfMoney.com but from what i have heard from my friends ICICI rates are much better than Citi bank. If that's true then Citi rates are lower than HDFC and ICICI.

Based on this if I am tranferring big amount I will definitely use HDFC bank. I have used ICICI bank in the past and their service was good.

Western Union fees are horrible. Only attracition is they allow for very quick money transfer. Receiver can pick money in India minutes after your transaction is done. I will use this only when I need to send money very urgently but then it only allows 1000$ which is pretty useless in emergency (atleast in my case.)

Do you trust Remit2India

Remit2India is a money transfer service offered by TimesOfIndia group. I was curious to know the rate they offer so I registered on the site and started a transfer ( I didn't complete it and canceled it mid-way). I didn't like the service for two main reasons & lots of small reasons

Big Reasons I didn't like:

1. On the site they don't talk about the exchange rate which will used for transaction.
2. They offer insurance to protect the transaction. Here are the exact words from the web-site "Remit2India, in association with ICICI Lombard General Insurance Co. Ltd, provides you with a Money Insurance Guarantee- a first ever in the industry.Now, insure your money against risks of service negligence or technology perils like virus/hacking*. Secure your money from the time it leaves your hands till it reaches your family, for as little as 4.95 Dollars . A small price to pay for complete peace of mind! " This is very scary to me. This service doesn't protect its customers for their service negligence or their system getting hacked. I will never use such service. Would you?

Some minor reasons:

1. Web site (http://www.timesofmoney.com/remittance/jsp/home.jsp) is very cluttered.
2. They give you a free photoclock for transaction of more than 1000$. Now why are you giving me clock. Add that money to my transaction. If I want to send a clock, I would go to some gift shop.
3. Usability is not great. Ex: They first ask to select the city and then ask for State. A better way would be ask to select the state and then populate the city list based on state and allow selection of city. ( Yeah I am software engineer:) )
4. At the top of site they have a link to set remit2india as your home page. Now why in the world someone set remit2india as homepage:(

Limit Order for Money Transfer

Exchange rate of US/Indian Rupee keep changing all the time. All the money transfer services to India take atleast 1 week and you know about the exchange rate used for your transaction only when money reaches to your account in India. Most of the banks uses this time to give you worst possible rate and provide no explanation for the rate they provided. I think there is need for lots of reform in this area. I would love for someone to offer a service where I can select minimum floor price for my transfer. This is similar to limit price you can set for stock sale. So once you have set the exchange rate for your transaction, bank will only do the transaction when it can provide that rate. It can mean that your transaction may not happen for some time or may never happen. In that case you will need to cancel the order and enter new order.

What do you think? Will you use such service?