Here is an update on the money transfers to India. xoom is superfast. I did it on a Friday evening and was in India Monday morning even before the funds left my account here. Problems are that xoom allows 12 transfers to each receipient/year and cannot transfer to NRE/NRO accounts.

Xoom is going to be my backup as Citi is much cheaper at $1. However there are no limits on how many times you can send/restrictions to NRE/NRO accounts. Only problem is that it takes a week to reach India. They do take out of your US account in a day though.

(I use Xoom). Downside of Xoom is that there is a dollar limit for a period of time (I think 2500 limit over couple/few months).

Is there a dollar limit with Citi? I have never tried Citi.

The per tran limit is 10K, the per month limit is 25K. I'm not sure if this is the limit for everyone as soon after I made my first or second transfer I got an email saying my limits were changed. Don't remember whether it went up or down.

OK, will check it out. I presume you need a US-based Citi account to do this? (but can transfer to any bank in India?...not necessarily Citi.).

Yes you need a US bank and you can transfer to a lot of banks. One thing to note is that one of my relatives has their acct at Federal Bank. I kept looking under "F" and didn't find it. Later by accident, I found it under "The Federal Bank".

OK this is great info!!
Will sign up soon. They kept advertising both Citi and Xoom during cricket world cup. However, I had only used Xoom.

If you used willow tv to watch cricket, I hope you got the 50% discount for using xoom.

Oh boy! I sure did not know that one.!!

Its too late now.

Just tried to use xoom to do an urgent transfer and the branch is not listed.

i know i asked this question about 6 months ago but i never got a definite answer so asking again....i need a prepaid sim in the US to use on an iphone....

i have a factory unlocked iphone 4 from hong kong so i can upgrade to the latest software & am not locked to any network....

i know t-mobile & at&t both offer prepaid plans but does anyone know if the sim would work on any phone or just on a t-mobile/at&t locked phone????

Oh thats not good.
I never thought that they may not list some banks.:eek:
I always transfer to one bank, and it was always there!

The bank is there, not the branch.

I have a feeling that t-mobile might help. i have my prepaid service with them and I will be calling them soon for something else, I shall try to ask about this.

Back on the money transfers, Western Union outlets in quite a few bank branches in India. I'm about to transfer some AUD back to India, and Western Union is surprisingly giving the best rate; about 3 Rupees better than my bank (and just 1.20 Rs off the forex rate on xe.com).

I'm guessing going forward, an HSBC account in Australia and an NRE account in India might be the way to go. Their listed exchange rate seems marginally better than Western Union. Anyone here using HSBC? Any idea if their displayed exchange rates and the actual rates at which the transaction is processed are the same or if there's a spread of a rupee or two? Any comments re. citibank vs hsbc for NRE banking?

Unsure how the exchange rates compare from the US, but if Western Union has an outlet in the bank/branch you are sending money to; perhaps that might be an easier way.

I don't know about Australia, but in the US Citibank has something called global transfers. One can transfer money instanly to a Citibank account anywhere in the world. For some countries there is a charge but not for India.

I am planning to open a Citi NRO account with my in-laws as joint holders. This way if there is ever an emergency, I can transfer money in seconds and they can withdraw it from any ATM.

Also Citibank India has some special offer for NRE/NRO accts in which the minimum balance is waived for 20/10 years.

If you transfer through Western Union, would your folks have to go to their branch? Is there a way to transfer directly into their bank account?