Azimo Money Transfers India: Your full guide

Azimo is an online money transfer service for residents of the Eurozone, UK, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland. They work with partner banks to send money to 195+ countries around the world, making it easy to send money from Europe and the UK. With low fees and fast turnaround, Azimo is quite a strong competitor for money transfers if you are in their location countries. Read on to learn how to receive and send money with Azimo, and to see if they could be the right provider for you.

• Receive money internationally with Azimo
  • Sign-up and process
  • Fees and charges
  • How much time does it take
• Send money abroad with Azimo
  • Sign-up and process
  • Transfer limit
  • Charges and fees
  • How much time it takes
  • Check the status of money transfer
  • Customer support in case transactions are stuck
• The true cost of international transfers with Azimo
• A cheap, fast and transparent alternative: Wise

Receive money internationally with Azimo

With Azimo, money can arrive directly in bank accounts in India or for pick up in cash from one of the many Indian bank partners. So as a receiver, you can let your sender know which option is best for you before they make the transfer.

Sign-up and process to receive money

To receive money in India is pretty simple. You won’t need to sign up for Azimo, but just make sure you provide your contact information as well as bank details to your sender.

For direct-to-bank-account transfers, make sure to send your full bank account details to your sender so they can enter them in.

If your sender is doing a SWIFT transfer, make sure to provide them your bank branch’s SWIFT-BIC code too¹.

Once the transfer is complete, you will receive the money in Indian rupees either in your account or at your bank branch to pick up. If you are picking it up in cash, please bring along a government-issued photo ID and the pickup reference number provided to you by your sender.

Fees and charges to receive money with Azimo

If you are getting the direct-to-bank-account transfer there won’t be any fees to receive the money. The fees and charges will be borne by the sender.

But, if you are getting a SWIFT transfer, your local bank may add on additional charges to receive the funds. Consult your local bank to see what that may be, and consider if the direct to bank transfer will save you money.

How much time does it take to receive money with Azimo

One of the major benefits of Azimo is the quick turnaround time. Whether it's to your bank account directly or a SWIFT transfer, your money will be there within 24-48 hours from payment by the sender².

Need to send money to India from the US, Canada or Australia? Wise has got your covered. With our one low-cost fee and transparent exchange rate, you can get the best deal for sending money directly to your loved one’s bank accounts. On top of that, 90% of transfers to India with Wise are completed within 24 hours from payment.

Sending money to Azimo is fairly straightforward to do from their website or their app. Make sure you have all of your recipient’s contact and bank information together before you begin.

Sign-up and process to send money

To start you will need to sign up for an Azimo account. This usually doesn’t take more than a couple of minutes and can be done on their website or app. They have also made it easier to create an account using your email, Facebook or Google+ account.

Just make sure you are using your real name when signing up. So if you have a nickname or alternative name on Facebook or Google+, make sure you change it to your real name if you are using either to sign up³.

Once completed, you can set up your transfer directly from the home screen. First, you will have to choose your delivery method. Then enter the recipient details, the amount you want to send and then pay for the transfer with either a debit/credit card or a bank transfer. You will receive a Transfer ID for your particular transaction once you have paid. Azimo takes over from this point and processes and delivers to your recipient within the time indicated⁴.

Depending on your transfer amount, you may need to upload additional ID verification to Azimo.

Azimo transfer limit

The minimum transfer amount for a direct to bank transfer is ￡10 GBP, and there is no maximum limit.

Please note that some recipient’s banks have a limit set on how much they can receive, so double check with them before sending⁵.

Charges and fees to send money with Azimo

The charges and fees for Azimo depend on where you are sending, how much and how frequent.

In all cases, there are 2 different charges incurred. There is an FX (foreign exchange) fee, plus a Transfer fee. Azimo sets their own foreign exchange rate, while Azimo internally will use the mid-market exchange rate, which is the rate shown by Google or Reuters. They then will provide you a weaker rate on your transfer. In this way, they are able to gather a profit from the difference⁶.

The combination of these charges can cut into the amount of money that you send to India. We will look deeper into this in the next section.

Azimo is offering a sign-up promotion of no transfer fees and an attractive introductory exchange rate for your first 2 transfers with them.

How much time it takes to send money with Azimo

The overall total time to send the money can range between 2-4 days.

Depending on your method of payment, it can be 1-2 days for your payment to Azimo to clear. From that point, whether it is a direct-to-bank-account transfer or SWIFT, you can expect the transfer time to be 1-2 days for your recipient to be able to access the funds.

Check the status of money transfer⁷

You can track your Azimo transfer on their website or app. On the app, you will see the transfer under the “History” tab on the bottom of your screen. If you are on the site, you can log in to your dashboard and check the status of your transfer there.

Customer support in case transactions are stuck

Azimo has customer support available in 8 different languages, including German, Italian, French, Spanish and Polish. They are available to help from Monday to Friday, from 9 am to 6 pm GMT.

The true cost of international transfers with Azimo

There are plenty of good reasons to look at Azimo for your money transfers. But let’s take a look at what it may cost you to send ￡1,000 GBP to India and to see if there is a better alternative with Wise.

	Azimo	Wise
Transfer Fee	￡1.49 GBP	￡5.48 GBP
Transfer Amount	￡998.51	￡994.52
Exchange Rate	₹87.316 INR	₹87.82380 INR
Your recipient gets	₹87,185.89 INR	₹87,342.53 INR

June 26, 2019

Wise ends up being the better option that allows for your recipient to end up with more rupees in hand. To note, Azimo has an attractive introductory offer for the first two transfers as mentioned. For those first two transfers, Azimo would be a stronger choice against Wise. However, if you are planning to send money frequently for payments, gifts or family maintenance, then Wise will be the way to go.

A cheap, fast and transparent alternative: Wise

Lots of online money transfer providers advertise competitive rates and offers to sign up, but once the offers are over the charges begin to add up. If you are looking for a money transfer partner, that has one low cost per transfer and transparent exchange rate, look no farther than Wise. By using the exact exchange rate that Google and Reuters use, you will never be hit with hidden fees or charges. This is why over 5 million people use Wise.

Sources used for this article
1,5 https://support.azimo.com/hc/en-us/articles/360001259508-Making-a-SWIFT-transfer
2 https://azimo.com/en/send-money-to-india
3 https://support.azimo.com/hc/en-us/articles/360001252807-How-do-I-create-an-Azimo-account-
4 https://support.azimo.com/hc/en-us/articles/360001249768-How-do-I-set-up-a-transfer-
6https://azimo.com/en/how-it-works
7 https://support.azimo.com/hc/en-us/articles/360001253607-How-can-I-view-the-status-of-my-transfer-