Under the liberalised remittance scheme, all resident Indians are allowed to freely remit up to $250,000 in a financial year (April-March) for any permissible current or capital account transaction. While most banks offer this service to their customers, ICICI Bank has recently launched its online product Money2World, claimed to be India’s first fully online service that enables a resident to transfer money online from any bank in India to any overseas bank.

How does it work?

Using ICICI Bank’s Money2World, you can transfer money in 16 currencies. As the first step, you need to complete the one-time registration by providing your personal details, such as name, address, etc. Besides, you also have to ensure compliance with the Know Your Customer (KYC) norms mandated by the RBI. Finally, you must furnish account details of the beneficiary you intend to transfer the money to. Upon initial registration, it takes about 24 hours for KYC verification after which you can start transferring money.

Once the amount to be transferred is entered, the confirmed currency conversion rate will be displayed.

This rate has a validity period. If you initiate the outward remittance before 3 pm on any given working day, then the conversion rate is valid till 7 pm on the same day. The exchange rate for a transfer initiated after 3 pm is valid till 9:30 am the next day.

What is validity period? The amount you intend to remit should get transferred/debited from your account before this cut-off time of either 7 pm or 9.30 am. If you fail to meet the cut-off time, you have to repeat the process all over again. Once the transfer is done, the beneficiary’s account will get credited within one international working day, if the transfer is initiated before 3 pm.

For transfers initiated after 3 pm, it takes two international working days for the amount to get credited. This excludes the weekend and holidays in both India and the country you intend to transfer the money. A flat charge of ₹750 plus service tax per transaction is collected as fee, immaterial of the quantum you remit.

Money2World, being an online product, enables you to do the transaction from the comfort of your home. It saves a lot of time which you would otherwise have to spend in visiting the bank branch to submit the required documents to make the transfer.

When it scores

Although other banks allow you to remit money using their internet banking facility, the service is available only to account holders. But Money2World allows individuals holding an account with any bank in India to transfer money to any bank abroad.

The other advantage with Money2World is that the service is available round the clock. In contrast, most banks have cut-off time for their outward remittance service. For instance, private banks, such as Axis Bank allow fund transfers only during banking hours — between 10 am and 4 pm.

On the flip side, you need to possess Aadhaar card to complete the KYC process. Those without an Aadhaar card cannot use this product.

The premium charged on the exchange rate seems higher; you may have to shell out more than ₹1 per unit of foreign currency. For instance, on November 3, after the spot market closing, the exchange rate quoted by Money2World was 66.91 a US dollar.

This is higher than the RBI reference rate of 65.45 on the same day. Similarly, for euro the exchange rate quoted by Money2World was 73.85, implying a ₹1.75 premium to the RBI reference rate of 72.1.

Money2World may come in handy in times of emergency, when you want to remit money instantly, say during odd hours.

But if you have enough time to remit the money, doing it directly through your bank may work out cheaper.

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