Sending money FROM India

madamdarkin

I'm in a bit of a pickle!! I urgently need to get some money to South Africa. My UK bank account is with Natwest (its a relatively new account which we opened just before coming to India) - cannot transfer online or on the phone as don't have the "card reader" - when we signed up for inet and phone banking before we left we werent informed we needed this reader to do any transfers. Just been on the phone to them, there is no way to do any kind of transfer unless we have this card reader.

What's the best way to send money? I know Western Union is everywhere, but is there another (perhaps cheaper!) way to do it?

Thanks

capt_mahajan

Western Union, to the best of my knowledge, does not transfer from India abroad- or even within India.

One option is to go to a decent private bank and request them to wire transfer money to an account in SA, and pay them in cash or banker's cheque here. It is possible, even likely, that they won't do it if you don't have an account with them.

The best bet is to ask somebody who does have an account (and can transfer) to do this for you, and reimburse them. Almost any savings bank (normal) account holder in India is entitled to do this. Indian residents may be wary of doing so if the amount is large, as income tax (and other) folk may wonder why a lot of money has come into their account.

Of course, you could ask somebody in UK to do the same thing.

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Outside the machine

yasper

when I was in India 9 mounths ago I had to send money to my brother in Thailand, I went to Western Union, to send money, but no, I was foreinger so I couldn't send money out of India only get money. only possibility transfer by an hotel/bank was told that wasn't legal but the only possibility?

Nick-H

It's a pain having to remember that card reader, but you do have to, if you want access to your account while you are away.

Have you tried ringing your branch rather than the telephone banking system? There is a chance that they may be able to help you out. You may be able to answer security questions to satisfy them. I wouldn't put money on it, but its worth trying.

Otherwise, I think you'd be better and quicker seeking help from someone back home on a personal basis.

Arun

Often a faxed/signed instruction to your branch will be accepted.

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Jai Hind.

thejag

Can someone explain this card reader business? tried searching Google but i guess im not using the right keywords....

you could use paypal to move funds but it will turn out to be a tad expensive.... and i dunno if they allow withdrawal to banks in SA. I know paypal is not a funds transfer agent but they can be used that way with a little ingenuity and the best part is as you make the payment with cards from the UK you neednt bother about indian banking regulations at all....

Nick-H

When you do certain online transactions, your bank gives you a code. You put your card in your card reader, enter your PIN, and it gives you another code. You enter this on your bank site to authenticate the transaction.

Of course, there is some strong cryptography at play to make that sequence of numbers not easy to predict.

adityabee

you can't send money with western union (or with any other agency) from India if you are Indian either - this is due to the Indian rupee not being a world currency and not fully convertible against other currencies. (effectively Western Union cannot take your Indian money and give out a foreign currency out of India, for that matter you wouldn't be able to give them dollars/euros/pounds to send either).

Indians must send money from their bank account after certain procedures vide the money control act (FEMA).

thejag

gotcha... i remember foreign banks (in india, or was it an indian bank i cant remember exactly) giving out electronic tokens (with a crypto function that would generate and display a new pin every x amount of time or something similar which i did not pay too much attention to) to their customers for online transactions. this was quiet a while back... and i saw this in the news, never saw one for real... so i guess they just take out the pin and any other customer specific info (which goes in the card) leaving the crypto algorithm in the device making it generic instead of user specific...

Nick-H

Even when I was getting my Checkpoint Firewall Admin certificates, I used to go to sleep whenever they started explaining stuff like public and private keys. Incredibly soporific stuff.




... What were you saying?

thejag

i guess ill save it for the meetup...

Nick-H

That'll be my first time slumped over the table at Amethyst, then!

madamdarkin

Thanks everyone...I'm going to try asking a friend of mine in Mumbai to transfer the money from her Indian bank account. Or else will have to ask the in laws in the UK to do the transfer for me!