Indus Fast Remit International Transfer: Your full guide

The popular Indian bank, IndusInd Bank, has launched a specific service for NRIs in Canada, the US and Australia to send money back home. It is called Indus Fast Remit (IFR) and is a simple and fast way to send money online to your family or your own account back in India. Canada and Australia both have their own country-specific websites through Indus Fast Remit, while the US goes through a third party provider called Vianex Fast Remit.

In this quick guide, we’ll walk you through how to receive and send money through Indus Fast Remit, and then take a look at the costs. Read on to see if Indus Fast Remit is the right money transfer service for you or if there are better alternatives out there.

Table of contents
Receive money internationally with Indus Fast Remit Send money abroad with Indus Fast Remit The true cost of international transfers with Indus Fast Remit A cheap, fast and transparent alternative: Wise

Receive international funds with Indus Fast Remit

It is simple to receive money with Indus Fast Remit and you don’t need to have an IndusInd Bank account to do so. Indus Fast Remit allows for transfers to over 100 banks in India, so you can receive the money at your preferred bank.

How to receive international funds

Indus Fast Remit only allows for transfers to deliver directly into a bank account. So cash, wire transfers, cheques or demand drafts are not available through this service. But, if you provide your sender your bank details, the money will be delivered straight into your bank account. There is nothing further you will need to do.

Charges and fees to receive money with Indus Fast Remit

Indus Fast Remit does not issue any charges or fees to receive money through its service. The charges and fees are taken out in the exchange rate given by Indus Fast Remit on the sender’s side.¹

But, there is a Goods & Services Tax (GST) of 18% in India which will be applied to the currency conversion, or “value of the service”.

The value of the service is determined using the following slabs²

(a) 1% of the gross amount of currency exchanged for an amount up to Rupees 100,000 subject to the minimum amount of Rupees 250.
(b) Rupees 1000 and 0.5% of the gross amount of currency exchanged for an amount of Rupees exceeding Rupees 100,000 and up to Rupees 10,00,000.
(c) Rupees 5500 and 0.1% of the gross amount of currency exchanged for an amount of Rupees exceeding 10,00,000, subject to the maximum amount of Rupees 60,000.

How much time does it take to receive money with Indus Fast Remit

It can take 3 days to receive the funds after the payment has been processed from the sender’s side. It can take an additional day or two if the payment is through the local clearing or through check³.

With a low one time fee and a transparent exchange rate, Wise is up to 8x cheaper than banks to send money to India. Try out our Wise comparison rate tool to see how we compare with other money service providers. And don’t worry, if we aren’t the cheapest, we will let you know who is. It is our honest and fair policy.

Send money abroad with Indus Fast Remit

You can use Indus Fast Remit from Canada, Australia and the United States (through Vianex Fast Remit). You are not required to hold an account in IndusInd bank and you can send money to any bank account in India. Let’s take a look at the steps needed to send money.

How to send money abroad with Indus Fast Remit

You will first need to sign up for Indus Fast Remit through your country specific website. They will ask for your personal contact details and your bank account information so make sure to have those ready. You will also need a soft-copy of your government issued ID to upload. Once you have entered your bank details, they will send you 2 sub-dollar credit payments to your bank account to validate your ownership of the account. This process of bank account validation can add on 2 days to the process, so keep that in mind³.

Add international beneficiary

They will ask you for your recipient’s information at the same time as when you enroll so have their personal contact information and bank details at hand. Once your enrollment is complete, you can move ahead with your registered beneficiary and the money transfer.

Send money to a beneficiary

Once your recipient or beneficiary is registered, they will be notified by SMS on their local number once the transfer is complete. Their information will be saved for ease of use for future transfers, and you can also create recurring transfers if you would like.

Charges and fees for sending money with Indus Fast Remit

Indus Fast Remit often advertises their free transfers, but in reality, they are taking a sizeable cut out from your transfer. They set their own exchange rate, and it is weaker than the one on Google or Reuters. The one you see on Google is called the mid-market exchange rate and it is the rate the banks use within themselves to transfer money. When banks give customers a different exchange rate, they are then able to take a profit from every dollar transferred. Read on to see what this looks like in action.

How much time it takes to send money with Indus Fast Remit

Once you have enrolled, it can take 3 business days for your money to arrive in your recipient’s account.

Check the status of money transfer

You can check the status of your transfer through your Indus Fast Remit dashboard so you will always know if it was delivered successfully or if there were any problems. If you do run into any issues, you can contact Indus Fast Remit’s country-specific customer service or email the support team.

The true cost of international transfers with Indus Fast Remit

The true cost of transferring with Indus Fast Remit lies in the exchange rate and the time required for delivery. By giving you an exchange rate that is less than the mid-market exchange rate is a sneaky way for Indus Fast Remit to take a profit from your transfer. Wise, on the other hand, uses the mid-market exchange rate for all transfers, big or small. Take a look for yourself how much time and money you can save just by using Wise-

	$1 CAD	$1000 CAD	Time
Indus Fast Remit	52.38 INR	52,380 INR	3 Business Days
Wise	52.73 INR	52,733.60 INR	90% within 24 hours
Difference	-.35 INR	-353.60 INR

June 26, 2019

This small difference in the exchange rate can start to add up and take a bite out of the amount you are sending!

Wise does have a one-time low cost free with every transaction that has not been included. Similarly, Indus Fast Remit does have a service fee associated with the payment method used. At the time of this article’s writing, this service fee is not clearly illustrated but is highlighted as a fee in the fine print on the site⁴.

A cheap, fast and transparent alternative: Wise

Want a fast, clear and easy way to send money to India? Use Wise. Wise is available in 45 different countries around the globe and can send money directly to your bank account in India. And Wise can typically complete the transfer within 24 hours of receiving payment. With one low time cost and a transparent exchange rate, it is no wonder more than 5 million people have trusted Wise with their money transfers.

Sources used for this article
1 , 3, 4 https://www.indusfastremit-ca.com/showFaqDirectProduct.do?faqPrevious=true#top
2 http://www.cbec.gov.in/htdocs-cbec/gst/eflier-valuation-gst27062017.pdf