Sending Dollars from India

April 24, 2008 3:45 AM

I'm wondering how to send a check in dollars to someone in the States from a bank account in Indian rupees (for a low sum like $200). Essentially I'd like the equivalent of what, out there, would be mailing a money order.

(I'm just ruling out the notion of sending a personal check in rupees and hoping their bank would take it and deposit the dollar value?)

Do bank wire transfers sometimes convert currencies so if I have the payee's routing number and so on it may work? (My mom has a special account with a dollar balance so I'll check with her bank--they let her deposit international currencies but withdraw only rupees.)

Long shot: can traveler's checks function as a psuedo-money-order?

Any ideas welcome.

posted by Non Prosequitur to work & money (11 comments total)

Yes, I believe that a wire transfer will do the conversion.

if the other person has a paypal account, you could always do that way as well
posted by Mr_Chips at 4:34 AM on April 24

Why can't you just do western union? Then whoever picks it up will get it in the currency of the country they're in. Or am I not understanding the question?
posted by taff at 5:01 AM on April 24

The best way is a wire transfer. That's how my parents sent me money for sudden emergencies. It came surprisingly quickly too. I don't think money orders or personal checks would work.
posted by peacheater at 5:21 AM on April 24

Western Union is very expensive. I vote for wire transfer, but be aware that there might be some hoops on both ends to setting up your first one.
posted by meta_eli at 5:30 AM on April 24

Wire transfer. I do it between currencies all the time and usually within 24 hours.
posted by meerkatty at 5:32 AM on April 24

My fiance uses xe.com to send money from his bank account in UK to our bank account here in the US. It works very well at a reasonable price. The transfers usually take about a week to complete, and so far, we've not had any problems.

Western Union sends money to India. The great thing about Western Union is how quick the money is transfered, usually within minutes, but like the others have said, their fees are a bit much. I recently used them to send $200 within the US and it cost me almost $30 to send it. However, it was worth it as it was an emergency situation.

We have looked into sending money by bank wire transfer but found that both our banks charge fees to do this, especially high on his end. I was kind of shocked that my little bank charged for me to receive a wire transfer. So check with the banks at both ends to see what they charge.
posted by sapphirebbw at 5:59 AM on April 24

Could you accomplish this with Paypal.com? Their fees are low and transfer is very quick. I have used them to purchase software priced in Euros from the USA.
posted by swarkentien at 6:39 AM on April 24

A traveller's check will work fine. If speed is not an issue, I think that's your best bet.

If you're going to the bank, you can ask them if they can issue a dollar-denominated check that can be cleared through a US bank (some banks may have correspondent agreements that permit this): the thing is that even if you do draw a dollar-denominated check on an Indian bank, if it can't be cleared through an American bank, then the clearance process takes a very long time (6 weeks, I think). Traveller's checks avoid all these issues.
posted by adamrice at 7:34 AM on April 24

I had the same problem sending a small amount ($95) from the US to Australia, in Australian dollars. The bank wouldn't do a wire transfer that small, and it wouldn't write a cashier's check that small either. Even if I had been able to do a wire transfer, the charge for the currency switch would have been almost as much as the amount I was sending.

I ended up going to a currency exchange shop and changing US dollars for Australian dollars, which I wrapped in a couple of sheets of paper and sent by ordinary international mail. Based on my experience, at least, that's the best way to do it. The exchange fee was very low.
posted by KRS at 2:10 PM on April 24

Seconding adamrice.
Most banks do issue dollar denominated checks (though not all branches do - you may have to go to a branch that has a foreign exhange department). You may need to take along your passport, an invoice/bill/reason for the dollar payment.
posted by Arthur Dent at 4:34 PM on April 24

My apologies. I just realized that I misread the question and thought it was a US to India transfer. So, disregard my earlier suggestion of Western Union as they clearly state in this help section that they only send money to India not from it.
posted by sapphirebbw at 6:30 PM on April 24