Send Money to India from USA (Best Ways Found)

Last Updated on October, 2024

Are you planning to send money to India? I understand the struggle of picking the best solution. 

If you fail, you might lose a considerable amount of money during the transfer; no one wants that.

This is the best place to learn your options to send money from the USA to India. 

In this article, we will be looking at the best way to end money from USA to India in five aspects, with the overall best aspect too. I did that after shortlisting the ten best options, and cutting down to what I had discussed.

All you should do is read through and choose.

But, why trust me?

Why Trust Me?

I have used the listed money transferring options, and several others for years, especially to send money to India, and several other countries.

So, what you read here is not merely what’s there on the internet; it’s from personal experience.

I also thoroughly went through the most recent information provided by the relevant companies. As usual, I browsed credible platforms like Reddit, Quora, and even YouTube to triple-confirm everything.

That’s why what you read here is all you need.

Before you get into the details, let me give you the best case-specific solutions.

An Overview of the Best Case-Specific Solutions: Transfer Money from USA to India

This overview aims to give you a surface idea of case-specific solutions which we will discuss in detail later.

The Best Rated: Wise

Wise is the best way to transfer money with the lowest rates and fastest transfer speeds as fast as a few seconds. It also enables multiple delivery options with multiple layers of security. 

If you’re interested in learning more about Wise, click this article to find out more.

The Least Expensive: XE

If you’re okay with a delivery time of 1-5 days, XE is the least expensive option. Although Wise-level operational convenience is there, don’t expect Wise-level digital protection.

If you’re interested in learning more about XE, click this article to find out more.

The Best App: Wise

Known for its simple and swift user interface and pleasant user experience, Wise is the best app for the job. You can do anything and everything from account creation to sending large amounts of money.

The Best Exchange Rate: Wise

Most service providers stick to mid-market exchange rates but Wise does it the best. In fact, they’re known to offer competitive exchange rates better than any other. Wise is highly recommended when sending large amounts of money for the best conversions.

The Fastest: Wise

Wise can transfer money to India from the USA within seconds. Can it really get better than that?

Let’s start the review in detail now.

The Best Money Transfer Method to India from the USA: Wise

Wise is the best way to transfer money from the USA to India; several features and facilities support this claim.

Wise is an international debit card that operates in 160 countries supporting 50+ currencies, including INR (Indian Rupee), and of course, the USD. 

How does Wise work?

Wise gives you a card which is mainly connected to your Wise account, that can be monitored by the Wise app. The Wise app is the best all-rounder money-transferring app and a very important feature, which we will discuss in detail in a later section.

It’s great that Wise uses mid-market exchange rates to convert USD, giving you the best exchange rates. When sending money, you can either send it to a bank account or for cash pickups which makes things easier.

The built-in currency conversion feature shows the exact amount your recipient gets. It also shows the total fees that combine the Wise fee and the bank provider’s. 

Wise provides an unparalleled convenience in international money transfers. You can send money to India in just three steps, and the amount will be credited in 0-2 days.

Instant money transfers from the USA to India are one of Wise’s advantages that makes them the best. It’s much better than the traditional financial institutions.

How Much is it to Send Money to India from USA with Wise?

Pros and Cons

The Least Expensive Way to Send Money to India From USA: XE

If you’re heavily cost-conscious, XE is the cheapest method to send money from the USA to India when you compare fees.

XE charges you no transfer fees if the amount is above $500 with the best exchange rates. Sometimes, the transfer fee can be as low as $1 or even free.

Collectively, it makes XE the best pick for anyone looking for the cheapest option for money transfers from the USA to India.

Similar to Wise, XE also has a free app that clearly shows the receiving amount with the incurring fees.

These features apply to over 65 currencies in over 170 countries. Compared to Wise, one of the biggest downsides XE has is the transfer speed. Although they claim the transfer will be completed in a few minutes, the actual time is roughly 24 hours to 5 days.

Wise can do it almost instantly.

XE lets you transfer funds directly to a bank account as a deposit up to $535,000 (or the currency equivalent). Furthermore, Customers in the USA need to send $3,000 or more to pay by bank or wire transfer. 

How Much is it to Send Money to India from USA with XE?

Pros and Cons

The Best Money Transfer App to Send Money to India from USA: Wise

Operations are typically centralized on websites with money-transferring organizations. However, the current financial landscape allows enough app-based online transactions.

The most important concern about financial apps is safety. Wise is SOC 1 Type 2, SOC 2 Type 2, PCI DSS, and ISO 27001 certified, while being GDPR compliant. The two-factor authentication feature is also there when you send money to India and everywhere else.

The app is synchronized to the website and all data is stored on their secure servers.

This is not the usual practice in most international money transfer services as that can be costly; Wise is established enough to do that.

Wise in Apple App Store boasts a 4.7 rating with 70,000+ reviews. Paralelly, Wise on PlayStore has a 4.6 rating with 950,000+ reviews.

In other words, it’s a fantastic app to send and receive money.

One of the biggest downsides of competitor mobile apps is notification latency, which can lead to irreversible issues. As a solution, the Wise app enables real-time notifications ensuring you’re updated on time.

Did I say how easy it is to manage the app? The wise app has one of the user-friendliest interfaces with a pleasant design.

It’s not just the interface but also the operating mechanism.

When you enter the amount that you want to transfer to India in USD, the app (and the website) shows all the transfer fees and the final amount the recipient will receive.

It’s important to know the transfer fee clearly as fluctuations can heavily affect the receiving amount with any online money transfer.

Not only that, the transfer time is also shown which is instant almost always. It well-informs the sender who can share the information with the receiver easily.

Suppose you have preferred websites so far for international money transfers. In that case, the Wise app will change that — the combined operation of its high-quality features is appealing to any customer.

Pros and Cons

Best Exchange Rate Method to Send Money to India from USA: Wise

As you already know, the exchange rate refers to the relative price of one currency expressed in terms of another currency.

Although this is fixed for many instances, it varies for money transfers; i.e. depends on how you send money.

Wise is well known to provide the best rates as they depend on the mid-market exchange rate. Although most of its competitors including XE use the mid-market exchange rate, Wise always chooses to give competitive exchange rates.

Why is the mid-market rate important? 

It’s because it impacts the net amount you transfer and receive. If it’s not so good, the lesser will be the amount that the recipient gets. The impact is even higher when transfers are done in higher-value currencies like the USD and GBD.

That’s why competitive rates are important.

Some of the lesser-known money transfer apps claim to give the best rate but they don’t specify how, blindfolding senders. 

Considering the full picture, choosing an app with the best mid-market exchange rate is what you should pick as that’s more practical and realistic.

Wise is the one for that, especially when you’re sending money from the USA to India.

The Fastest Way to Send Money to India from USA: Wise

Unless for the rarest situations, anyone would want to transfer money as fast as possible. 

Wise holds the crown in enabling fast transfers. 

Wise sends money to several countries instantly, including India. 

If there is any reason for the receiving delay, it is always because of the receiving bank. Processing times of different Indian banks can be different, although the money will be sent to the bank account in the promised duration.

There’s another side to this.

Some countries require a transfer time of around a few hours to 2-3 days but even that happens seldom. Wise is known to be the fastest money transfer platform because of this. 

For instance, XE takes around 1-4 working days on average although it can extend occasionally. It’s even delayed in Remitly which takes about 3-5 days.

Understand that these are working days which means that it can take 2+ days if you happen to send money on a Friday evening. 

In my experience, I admire how Wise also lets us know if there is any hold-up compared to the transfer time they show before sending.

With that, we have covered the best ways to send money from the USA to India.

Next, let’s look at the ways you can wire money to India.

Ways How You Can Transfer Money to India

Choosing the sending method is as important as choosing the delivery method. Let’s talk about the ways how you can transfer money to India.

How to Transfer Money to an Indian Bank Account from the USA?

Let’s break down the typical process of transferring money (and sending payments) to an Indian bank account from the USA.

Before we proceed, go through these steps carefully as the process is a bit unique to Indian transfers.

You can do this either online (via the bank’s dedicated app) or go to the bank. Let’s see how both ways work for transferring money.

These steps could slightly vary depending on the banks involved.

As you know this guide intends only for people who are looking to send money to India from USA. So, if you’re out of USA and looking to send money to India, you should read our “Best ways to send money to India from anywhere in the world” guide.

What if you want to send large amounts of money from the USA to India? Let’s discuss that next.

How to Send Large Transfers from the USA to India?

Great safety and exchange rates with low fees are critical to sending USD from the USA to India. Delivery duration should only be prioritized depending on the urgency extent.

Almost all service providers (banks and apps) typically require additional information to verify the payment. There are also maximum transferable amount limitations too. It is also likely that you will be inquired about the source of the funds for legal compliance.

Collectively, that keeps your money safe while enabling fraud prevention.

Apart from that, the rest of the process is as same as before.

What You Need to Send Money to India from USA?

To summarize, let’s see what you need to send money from the USA to India.

As we discussed, there can be some additional information based on the transfer amount, and also the provider.

Next, let’s look at the transferring speed.

Average Money Transfer Duration: To India from USA

Wise can transfer money to India in a few seconds, and sometimes, instantly. However, as we discussed, it can also take as long as 3-4 weeks. 

Thus, the average money transfer duration from the USA to India is approximately 2 weeks, although instant money transfers are there.

There’s another important question to answer: are there any limits on sending money from the USA to India?

Limits On Sending Money from USA to India

For instance, Wise has imposed a 1,000,000 USD limitation per wire transfer (which I believe falls well within the maximum amount the average American would transfer unless you’re Elon Musk or someone similar).

Next, let’s look into some USD INR exchange rate trends.

USD (Dollar) /INR (Rupee) Exchange Rate Trends

You too can access historical data via websites such as investing.com with accurate data where you see the exchange rate fluctuation.

For a broader understanding, this is an exchange rate fluctuation from the late 1990s based on Google Finance.

Useful guides:

• Open US Bank Account From India

Over to You

Sending money from the USA to India is hard as it once was. With the right service provider, you can send money to India from the USA within a few seconds.

Upon critical evaluation, Wise is the wisest option for that due to several reasons that we discussed in detail.

Features and facilities that WIse provide set industry standards. That applies to all money-transferring aspects such as convenience, fees, transfer speed, and most importantly, security.

I hope this article helps you. Feel free to share this in your community and raise awareness.

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