I had to wire transfer few thousands to my parents in Chennai. I was told by the bank here in Ottawa that it would take 3-4 days. After a week, the money has not reached and this morning I got a call from the bank saying that the bank in India is not accepting the wire transfer and they (secondary bank in India) wanted to know why the money was sent, what purpose, is it a loan, what will be done with th emoney, etc. I gave the reasons for the wire transfer and am waiting to see what's going to happen.

My bank in Ottawa does not deal with the bank in Chennai (Indian Bank to be precise). The money has to go through a secondary bank before it goes to Indian Bank in Chennai. I dont know if the scenario would be different if my parents had an account in SBI.

I cant believe this. The money was needed urgently in Chennai. Now I am wondering if I made a mistake in wiring the money. Could have sent a bank draft via Fedex.

Anyone had any exp reg wiring money to India? Any other alternatives when I send money in future.

DIO

You can use the NRI services offered by Citibank, ICICI, HDFC bank and probably SBI. I personally use ICICI bank's money2india service. You don't need to have an account with ICICI bank (I am not sure about other banks). I do have an NRI account with ICICI so it takes one business day once they recieve check (I mail check to Toronto address).

Two options I have used for money transfers are (1) Western Union and (2) NRI Services account by banks like Citibank, ICICI, etc.

I did use wire transfers many years back (via SBI) - maybe more than 5 years back now.
They were always a slow process and took 3 - 4 weeks to complete even though the sending and receiving bank was the same (SBI).

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"Mah deah, there is much more money to be made in the destruction of civilization than in building it up."

-- Rhett Butler in "Gone with the Wind"

IMHO, Western-union is better for $$$ from CA to India.

I wanted to do same, wire transfer, urgently and so when I asked the bank manager about time line, he was nice enought to tell me in advance that the process is very fast from here but as soon as funds reach india it gets really slow and he has noticed that usually it takes minimum of 2 weeks, could be even more. Secondly if you have the swift code / route no. of indian bank where you are sending money to, the process becomes a bit faster.

I believe western union is the quickest method.

Thanks

Aashu,

They got the money last Friday. Since my bank here in Ottawa does not deal with the bank in India, it took time to go thru a secondary bank. May be SBI or ICICI should be good. Next time I will look into it.

DIO