Best way to send money to India from the UK (2024)

Best for Transfers to a Bank Account

• Cheapest

  Panda Remit Monito Score 8.9

  Cheapest

  in 52% of all comparisons

  Fastest

  in 60% of all comparisons

  Go to Panda Remit

• Top rated

  Wise Monito Score 9.5

  Top rated

  in 100% of all comparisons

  Go to Wise

Best of 21 providers. Compare all

Best for Transfers to Cash Pickup

• Cheapest

  Western Union Monito Score 8.6

  Cheapest

  in 53% of all comparisons

  Fastest

  in 53% of all comparisons

  Go to Western Union

• Top rated

  Remitly Monito Score 9.3

  Top rated

  in 100% of all comparisons

  Go to Remitly

Best of 2 providers. Compare all

About Money Transfers from UK to India

Monito compares 22 providers offering international money transfer services from UK to India. The total cost of the cheapest available option at any given point in the past month was -0.4% of the transferred amount. In comparison, the total cost of the most expensive provider was on average 11.2%.

How to Transfer Money From the UK to India

For millions of NRIs, keeping currency exchange fees as low as possible is a top priority when they look to send money from the UK to India. The good news is this is easy to do through Monito's comparison tools and handy how-to guides. You'll be able to see which options are available to you and take advantage of the quickest, simplest and most secure ways to transfer money from the UK to India.

When comparing your options, you must assess precisely which transfer method best matches your needs. For example, wire transfers with traditional banks can be slow and expensive, while other options might not offer the best fees, exchange rates, or fastest transfer speeds.

If you're feeling a little overwhelmed about the choices available, look at the overview below to learn more about how to send money from the UK to India through bank deposits and cash pickups.

Bank Transfers From the UK to India

One of the most popular ways to send money to India from the UK is to carry out a wire transfer from your bank account in the UK to an account in India. Wire transfers take place over the SWIFT network, an international funds transfer protocol allowing banks worldwide to exchange money with one another. You can read more about wire transfers in our guide.

But while many high street banks prefer this method, the major drawback is that the SWIFT network charges banks to use it. Much of this cost is then passed on to the customer, making wire transfers rather expensive. On top of this, they can also be very slow.

For this reason, you may prefer to carry out an ordinary bank transfer to an international money transfer specialist's local bank account. These services are much faster but just as secure as the banks. Moreover, the overall cost is significantly reduced because they don't rely on the SWIFT network.

Sending Very Large Bank Transfers from the UK to India

Should you wish to send a substantial sum of money, say more than £50,000, from the UK to an Indian bank account, you will generally be better off using a foreign exchange broker.

Foreign exchange brokers offer similar services to your standard money transfer and remittance services, but they specialise in large transfers and can negotiate more competitive exchange rates on behalf of the client.

Taxation When Sending Money to India From the UK

While sending money to India from the UK, one of the key things to consider is taxes. The best and tax-free way to do a bank transfer to India is to send the money to an NRE (Non-Resident External) account, an account used to deposit income earned outside India. Indian banks like Canara Bank and HDFC Bank offer one of the highest interest rates on NRE savings accounts.

There is a wide range of international money transfer services that you can choose from to get your money across to an NRE account. Monito’s comparison tool comparing the best services for transferring funds to a bank account in India will make this task much easier, which shows you the best and cheapest services in real time. What’s even better is once you have chosen your best-suited bank transfer service, you can go straight to the transfer option on the service website through the tool, saving you time.

Cash Pickup Transfers from the UK to India

Another option worth considering when sending money from the UK to India is a cash pickup. These services allow the transfer recipient to collect their funds in cash from a physical location in India rather than having them deposited electronically into their bank account.

We recommend using our comparison engine every time you transfer money from the UK to India to ensure you always get the best possible deal. This applies no matter how much or how little you want to send or which receiving method you choose. By doing so, you'll be able to determine which services are the quickest, most reliable, and cheapest:

What’s the Best Way To Send Money to India From the UK?

The ‘best’ way to send money to India from the UK will depend on whether speed, security or cost is most important to you – or whether it’s a combination of all three.

When it comes to security, you can rest assured that all services shown on Monito are fully authorised money transfer operators that have been vetted against the highest standards of security and reputability even before appearing on our comparison engine.

Just remember that while all services are equally secure on Monito, they won’t all be as cheap or as fast as each other when transferring money from the UK to India.

Best-Rated Services

When comparing your options, you’ll also come across the ‘Monito score’. As part of our in-depth reviews, we weigh up factors such as trust and credibility, service and quality, fees and exchange rates, and customer satisfaction to give each service a score out of 10.

Some of the highest-scoring services include the following:

• Wise (9.5/10)
• TransferGo (9.3/10)
• Remitly (9.1/10)
• PaySend (8.2/10)

The Fastest Way to Send Money to India From the UK

Also, as they say, time is expensive. So saving time can be equally important to the sender or the recipient, especially in emergencies. Monito does not only compare the cheapest service, it also pulls out data to accurately show how soon your money will reach India.

If you’re carrying out a bank transfer from the UK to India, Panda Remit trumps in terms of speed. In fact, transferred funds will arrive in the recipient’s account in just a few minutes.Also, the amount received by the recipient will be the highest compared to other services.

Alternatively, XE and Remitly also offer some of the fastest transfers from the UK to India, with transfers being carried out in a matter of minutes or hours. Remitly is especially good if you're looking for cash pickup. It offers the speediest and cheapest services with most of the transferred amount going through the same day.

For Monito's top tips for sending money abroad quickly, check out our how-to guidehere.

The Cheapest Way to Send Money to India From the UK

Let's look at the most expensive solutions: Banks, cash-based money transfers and e-wallets like Paypal are in general really expensive when you take all fees into consideration (incl. hidden currency exchange rate margin). Thankfully, there are plenty of online money transfer services with transparent & cheap fees and good exchange rates. You can compare them all andfind the cheapest way to send money to India from the UK with Monito.

FAQ About Money Transfers to India From the UK

• 💸 What's the best way to transfer money from the UK to India?

  The best way to send you money from the UK to India depends on how the transfer will be paid for and received, the amount you send and the transfer speed. Sounds too complicated? With Monito's live comparison, you can find the best option to send money to India with just a few clicks.

• 🛕 What's the cheapest way to send money to India from the UK?

  Let's start with the most expensive solutions: Banks, cash-based money transfer and e-wallets like Paypal are generally really expensive when you consider all fees (incl. hidden currency exchange rate margin). Thankfully, there are plenty of online money transfer services with transparent and cheap fees and good exchange rates. You can compare them all and find the cheapest way to send money to India from the UK with Monito.

  The cheapest way to send money from UK to India is through an online provider. Among the 22 available, Panda Remit was most often the cheapest provider (in 51.6% of the searches on Monito.com in the past 3 months).

• 💱 How to transfer money to India from the UK at the best rate?

  Here’s how you send money to India from the UK at the best rate:

  1. Check the INR exchange rate on Monito: You can subscribe to our daily email alert to receive the INR exchange rate in your inbox or when it reaches a Two-Week Highon Monito💹.
  2. Compare money transfer service fees and exchange rates: Enter your transfer amount, choose your desired delivery method, and compare the fees and exchange rates of all money transfer services at once.
  3. Choose the best provider for your next transfer: Choose a provider with the lowest fees and the best GBP-INR exchange rate for your next transfer to India.
  4. Create an account with the best provider: Add a beneficiary, fund your transfer, and click "send"! Your pounds will be on their way to India at the best rate. Congrats!

  Your UK bank is certainly not offering you the best rate to send money to India. But plenty of dedicated money transfer services will allow you to send money to India at the best rate. You can compare these services usingMonito's live comparison engineto find the best.

• ✅ Who offers the best exchange rate to transfer money from the UK to India?

  It depends! One provider may offer a good exchange rate but a bad transfer fee, while another might do the opposite and offset your savings... and this can all change daily! The best thing to do is to focus on comparing all of the fees each time you make a transfer throughMonito’s comparison tool. (You can alsosign upto receive regular alerts on the GBP-INR exchange rate!)

  Here are the providers that were the most often the cheapest in the comparisons of the past 30 days on Monito.com:

  • Panda Remit (cheapest in 51.6% of the searches)
  • Western Union (cheapest in 28.5% of the searches)
  • Profee (cheapest in 10.0% of the searches)
• 💻 How do I transfer money from the UK to an Indian bank account?

  Here’s how to transfer money from the UK to an Indian bank account (without the hidden fees!):

  1. Don’t use your UK high street bank for your international transfer to India, as they often charge a high markup on the exchange rate – sometimes 70x more!
  2. Find the best online money transfer provider to send money from the UK to India on Monito.com instead.
  3. Most providers are able to quickly deposit money to major Indian banks (including SBI, ICICI, HDFC, Yes Bank) on the same day of the transfer.
• 🧾 Is money sent from the UK to India taxable?

  Yes, in India the transfer recipient must pay gift taxes on all amounts greater than 50,000 INR each year. The only exception is if they are a family member, in which case no tax is due. On the UK side, you can send up to £3,000 as gifts each tax year without paying tax. You can also send wedding or civil ceremony gifts of up to £1,000 per person. This rises to £2,500 for a grandchild or great-grandchild and to £5,000 for a child.

• What is the cost of making an international transfer from UK to India using my bank?

  The average total cost (including hidden exchange rate markup) of making a GBP-INR transfer with banks compared by Monito.com during the past months was 2.2% of the transfer amount. This is -5.9x more expensive than sending money with the cheapest online provider alternative.

  For a 1000 GBP transfer, this represents a saving potential of around 25.1 GBP.

• Is Western Union a good option for sending money from UK to India?

  Western Union is a popular provider, with the biggest agent location network. The average cost of online money transfers from UK to India with Western Union* is -0.1% of the amount you send, whereas the cheapest online services have an average cost of -0.4%.

  Western Union is the provider that is most often the cheapest for money transfers to a cash pick-up location to India.

  *Sending money from physical agent locations with Western Union is usually much more expensive than using their online service.

• What is the cheapest provider to send money from UK to a cash pick-up location to India?

  Over the past 3 months, the provider that was most often the cheapest for cash pick-up transfers to India was Western Union, with an average cost of 0.1% of the amount you send (includes fees + exchange rate margin). The average total cost to send to a bank account rather than to a pick-up location during the same period was -0.4%. Panda Remit was the provider most often the cheapest for transfers to bank accounts to India.

Everyone wins, except expensive solutions

• 

  You save money on your transfer by selecting the cheapest provider.

• 

  The best providers earn new customers without expensive marketing, helping keep their costs (and prices) low.

• 

  Monito receives a referral fee from the provider you selected. This enables us to offer our service to you for free.

Why Trust Monito?

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• 

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• 

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Mid-market exchange rate