[Pancham]

Hi guys need some advice.

A relative of mine wants to buy a property in India. She resides in the US. Her mother has paid for a part of the house and she wants to pitch in with the rest. The amount is upwards of 20k USD. What is legally the smartest way to transfer such high amount to India?

[manduvindupondu]

Originally Posted by hellmet

So, I can answer some of my questions myself now.

It is less than 60 days to my travel date so I went ahead and ordered some CAD cash online from Thomas Cook. You really cannot order cash in advance of more than 60 days.

When I ordered, I was promised free home delivery. I also explicitly asked them to deliver the same day (Friday) or Monday and told them Saturday was an important day, but they paid no heed and called me repeatedly on Saturday. I finally called them back in the evening to try to put a stop to their calls and he says "How will I know sir", when I mentioned about my request to not disturb me that day. No apology whatsoever.

On Monday, I call them and ask for my cash and he says "I was about to call you. We cannot deliver today, we don't have anyone to deliver. Can you come and collect?".

Although I hate taking the S.P Road for its traffic, I braved the evening traffic to go collect my cash (had no intention of waiting further for him to deliver). The guy shows the least respect. There is no "Thanks for coming down", and my questions are answered in a super distracted way. When I give up and leave, I say "Thanks" and he nods still looking at his computer.

Very unimpressed with Thomas Cook. This was definitely NOT expected from a reputable name such as this.

For my Traveler's Checks, I'm going to look elsewhere (please suggest options).

Travel cards are very convenient.
1) You can carry upto USD $5000 in cash legally.
2) Rest you can use travel cards or an Indian debit card like OBC, IOB, IDBI.
3) Travellers cheques are old and acceptability is an issue.
4) I had good experience with Centrum, Amex, Axis , Matrix Travel cards.

[manduvindupondu]

Originally Posted by Pancham

Hi guys need some advice.

A relative of mine wants to buy a property in India. She resides in the US. Her mother has paid for a part of the house and she wants to pitch in with the rest. The amount is upwards of 20k USD. What is legally the smartest way to transfer such high amount to India?

Xoom offers good exchange rates with none or minimal paperwork. You can send $20k without any issues. In their Level 2, the sending limit is $25k over some time period. Just provide your passport no (no need of sending the passport soft copy too) and you are in Level 2.

[Turbanator]

The amount is upwards of 20k USD. What is legally the smartest way to transfer such high amount to India?

Best will be to use SWIFT / WIRE , pass on account details with SWIFT Code of her mother's bank in India , its not only cheapest but very good for records in case some query is there . But 20 K is too low an amount and can be handled alternatively as well .

[TheDesertRat]

Hello All,

Is it advisable to transfer to a currency at the destination itself or at the source? Which one gives better rates? I am specifically looking for information on INR to THB.

Regards,
Saurabh

[tsk1979]

Originally Posted by TheDesertRat

Hello All,

Is it advisable to transfer to a currency at the destination itself or at the source? Which one gives better rates? I am specifically looking for information on INR to THB.

Regards,
Saurabh

Currency rates being stable, I have seen that the best is to go to an ATM in Thailand and withdraw the money with your debit card. You get hit for some fees, but when withdrawing around 10,000 baht, its negligible and the rate you get is more than the currency changers.

[yosbert]

Looking for advice on the best method of buying South African Rand (ZAR) for an upcoming trip. Will forex cards work better than direct cash? Also how about withdrawing directly from an ATM there with my international debit card? Any recommended banks/agents for these transactions will also be useful.

Thanks in advance.

[carboy]

What currencies do people usually carry when visiting those European countries which are not on the Euro? Do you carry Euro, Dollars etc and exchange it after reaching there? Or are their currencies available locally - for eg. Sweden/Norway etc?

[goandude]

I will be requiring a prepaid foreign travel card so did some research on the same to find out costs and rates. Todays interbank rate on google 76.46 and all other rates were also as of today.

Here are my findings: buyforexonline.com card issuance charges - nil, Reloading charge 100/- +ST, ATM withdrawal charge- first two withdrawals free thereafter 1.5 euro per ATM withdrawal, 76.74 per Euro.
Axis bank (in same order) 150/- +ST first card, 100+ ST second card, 100/- +ST, 1.5 euro per ATM withdrawal, 78.70 per Euro.
SBI 105 +ST, 105+ST, 52/- +ST, 1.5 euro per ATM withdrawal, 77.85 per euro.

It looks like getting the card from buyforexonline is the best. But how is there such a wide range of exchange rates, almost 2/- rupees difference from Axis and buyforexonline, the latter which incidentally sells Axis bank cards.??

[ghodlur]

Experts,

Have a query. I will be shorting going to Dubai for a training and will be carrying AED in cash. The pain point is the denominations are in 500, 100, 20 & 50. Has asked the travel desk to issue a card but they said they can do so for only USD currency. My query is can I convert the AED into a card when I am in Dubai? Is there any options available wherein I can carry a prepaid card instead of cash?

[govigov]

What are the reviews for HDFC multi currency forex card?

http://www.hdfcbank.com/personal/pro...icurrency-card

I am thinking about getting one of these. Does anyone know if there are annual charges? I would also think, that one can do online transaction and thus save a lot of money on not getting conversion charges for each transaction.

[n_aditya]

Originally Posted by govigov

What are the reviews for HDFC multi currency forex card?

http://www.hdfcbank.com/personal/pro...icurrency-card

I am thinking about getting one of these. Does anyone know if there are annual charges? I would also think, that one can do online transaction and thus save a lot of money on not getting conversion charges for each transaction.

HDFC Forex card has a one time fee of Rs. 600 per card. You can top up the card balance from your HDFC account directly and it will support multiple currencies as well, with limits which you can define for each currency type.

We visited USA last month and took a centrum card which was tied up with Axis bank. The card charges of rs. 150 or so (much cheaper than HDFC) was waived off and dealing with Centrum also was a pleasure.

HDFC did not send me details despite many requests so went with Centrum. My apprehension was that they would not respond if I had an issue on my travel since they were nonchalant before issuing the card itself.

[phamilyman]

Folks,

whatever you do - don't buy AXIS bank currency cards from UAE exchange. They are thoroughly incompetent. Here's our six month long story as posted on my blog:
http://freerider.in/blog/never-buy-a...hange-gurgaon/

UAE Exchange (esp Gurgaon) are a bunch of idiots who enter the wrong details and then refuse to correct mistakes. AXIS Bank does not care about the customer and has arbitrary policies. Avoid BOTH esp UAE Exchange. I suggest Weizmann-Axis at the very least. Please see screenshots for each step.

a. UAE Exchange Gurgaon forex manager is an idiot. Signs up all new customers using some random GMail ID of their own, and cell number 000000000.

b. AXIS Bank detects this but instead of someone in the system applying their intelligence, the geniuses that they are, cluster all the forex customers registered to that gmail ID to a common user ID. IMHO this is permanent and irreversible. UAE Exchange cannot do anything now (as said telephonically).

c. Now when we need our travel card usage statement, we can’t get it. Because our Login ID is disabled – the “migrated” login ID does not have our details, and AXIS bank customer care instead of realizing their mistake, tells us to get lost since we are calling / emailing from third party numbers / emails.

Net result? Beg / follow up UAE Exchange every single time for a statement. God save us if there's any fraud on this card - they won't even entertain our request as third parties!

Why? Because an idiot at the first step did not bother to enter correct details, and customer care could not care less.

Please stay super vigilant about your currency card when you purchase it next time. Avoid UAE Exchange till they stop this stupid practice.

Exhibit A (see phone / cell / email address -the root cause of the problem)

Exhibit B1: Note migration of internet banking IDs by Axis bank (had this not happened, things would’ve been fine)


Exhibit B2: Not able to login



Exhibit C: The standard password regeneration approach fails – because this ID is not linked to a single currency card, but possibly dozens or hundreds of them.


Exhibit C2: Now you would’ve thought – some boffin would, per our request note the fake phone/ generic email ID data and point it out? No – axis bank customer care follows rules and does not help the customer even in the face of overwhelmingly incorrect data staring them in the face.

[govigov]

@phamilyman, Can't you cancel the card and move over to a different provider? Signing up with bogus email and mobile is sure to get one into trouble.

[akshaymahajan]

Originally Posted by phamilyman

Folks,

whatever you do - don't buy AXIS bank currency cards from UAE exchange. They are thoroughly incompetent. Here's our six month long story as posted on my blog:

Exhibit C2: Now you would’ve thought – some boffin would, per our request note the fake phone/ generic email ID data and point it out? No – axis bank customer care follows rules and does not help the customer even in the face of overwhelmingly incorrect data staring them in the face.

I think all Forex cards have one issue or another and all the customer care folks are a bunch of idiots. I say this after having used the Axis, ICICI and Thomas Cook Prepaid cards in the last 18 months.

Thomas Cook: No email/mobile transaction alert. And one fine day they decided to block my card when I was overseas, because they thought it was a fraudulent transaction. They do not give a duplicate card and 3 X one hour customer care 'All our customer care executives are busy', I got tired and gave up. Finally, it took me 2 hours at the Delhi Thomas cook office to get a replacement card.

ICICI Bank: Had a case of fraud transactions amounting to 800 Euros. Raised a case. Waited the 105 days without any alert. Then they tell me my case hasnt been looked into because some documents were missing.
Facts:
1. The documents were attached
2. I got no alert asking for the supposedly missing documents.

Email shot to : seniormgmt@icici

Wait another 105 days

I get an email saying issue resolved and you should see the balance shortly.

Wait another month. No update on the balance.

Shoot back an email to the Senior Management. Finally, roughly two months later, I get my money. Run to the bank and withdraw each cent and destroy the card.

Lesson learnt:

1. Always have a backup credit card/debit card
2. Always withdraw some cash for spending rather than handing out the card at each shop/restaurant because you only need the card number and cvv to do an online transaction
3. car Rental companies will not take forex card for security. Ensure you have that accounted for on a personal/corporate credit card