There are lot of ways you can do international money transfer from India to other countries. However, doing it with ease of convenient from the place you sit is a good option for many of us. Money2World from ICICI Bank is one such option for doing international money transfer using internet banking account. Here we will explain how to use Money2World to transfer money, limitations of using the service and general guidelines from Reserve Bank of India for outward remittance services.
What is Money2World?
This is a service from ICICI Bank for transferring money to any bank in the word. You can either send money in the receiver’s currency (like USD for USA) or use INR or USD to convert and send the money. For example, if you are sending money from India to China, you can send either in USD or in INR. The amount will be converted as per the exchange rate and sent to the receiver in Chinese Yuan (CNY). Here are some of the features of Money2World.
- You can login through ICICI Bank account and initiate the transfer. If you do not have ICICI bank account, you can register for an account and send money through other local banks like SBI or HDFC.
- It is possible to transfer money through iMobile app or using internet banking.
- You can lock the exchange rate and use guaranteed payment when sending money to certain countries like USA (you can’t use these features for all countries).
- Schedule the transfer to send money regularly by providing standing instructions.
As mentioned, the advantage of using this service is that you can send money from wherever and whenever you want.
What You Need for Sending Money?
There are two things you need to consider before sending money. One is from your side (that is as a sender) and other is the details of receiver. As a sender, make sure to keep your internet banking account details, registered mobile and debit card PIN grid handy (you should have active debit card for this purpose). You will get OTP and need to enter the random grid numbers available on the back side of your debit card for confirming the money transfer.
You need the following details of the receiver to add him or as a payee.
- Bank account number
- Bank name
- SWIFT code of the bank branch
- Address as per bank record
- Intermediatory bank details (this is optional)
This means you can send money to anyone in the world with correct bank account details and SWIFT code. In some cases, you may need to use the SWIFT code of the head office branch of the receiving bank. If you are not clear, tell the receiver to contact the bank and get the correct SWIFT code.
Login to Money2World Site
The transfer process is easy for both ICICI and non-ICICI bank account holders. Only difference is that you need to register for an additional Money2World account if you do not hold ICICI account. Here we will focus on transferring money as a ICICI bank account holder.
- Login to your ICICI internet banking account.
- Navigate to “Payments & Transfer > Fund Transfer” section.
- Select “Overseas Transfer” tab and click on “Send Money” button.
- This will take you to the Money2World website and you will be automatically logged in with your ICICI account details.
Transfer Money to Receiver
You can create a receiver while initiating the transfer or do it beforehand and then select the receiver whenever transferring the money. Entire process has the following steps – Amount, Purpose, Receiver and Payment.
- Amount – Select the currency for transferring your money and enter the amount to proceed further. Check the deductions like GST, TCS, remittance service charges and choose who will pay the receiver’s bank charges. You can either choose to pay the bank charges yourself or by the receiver. It is also possible to apply promo code if any and get some savings.
- Purpose – On the next step, select your purpose of sending money. You can select from Studies Abroad, Maintenance of Relatives, Travel, Gifting, Transfer to own account or Others. Enter the relationship between the receiver and you and then confirm the source of fund. For example, if the purpose is for sending money to your son or daughter studying abroad , then select “Studies Abroad” option, provide the relationship as son or daughter and select the source as saving.
- Receiver – The website will automatically fill the receiver details for your if you have created the receiver beforehand. However, make sure to select correct account when you have multiple receivers. You can also create a new receiver by filling up the details like country, name, address, etc.
- Payment – this is the final step to confirm the amount, TCS, accept the terms and initiate the transfer. As mentioned, you will be prompted to enter your debit card grid PIN and OTP sent to your registered mobile number to finish the transfer process.
Tracking and Receipt
If everything goes fine, you will see a “Payment Successful” message along withe the transaction reference number, expected date of receipt and other details. You can save the transaction details as a PDF and keep it for your offline reference. For each confirmed transaction, you will get a transaction reference number like M2Wxxxxxx. Go to “Track Transfer” section and enter the transaction reference number or select the date range to get the current status of your transfer.
You will also get emails and messages from Money2World for each step in the process like initiating the transfer, funds received and money sent to receiver.
Initiating Quick Transfer for Repeat Transaction
In addition, the dashboard section (Money2World menu) will show you the last few transaction history along with the status. You can initiate the quick transfer to repeat one of the recent transactions by pre-filling all the details. This will save huge time in filling up the details every time when you want to send the money to same receiver for the same purpose.
General Guidelines from RBI and Restrictions
Money2Transfer allows you to transfer money as a resident, NRI as well as a foreigner living in India. However, you need to follow the registration and KYC verification process if you do not hold resident ICICI account. So, Money2World is best suitable for the ICICI bank account holder to use the same internet banking for money transfer. You can refer the complete FAQ on outward remittance and here are some of the important points to consider for a resident Indian:
- The money transfer limit vary based on the guidelines from ICICI bank and RBI which you can see before initiating the transfer. For example, NRI can send up to USD 1 million in a financial year from ICICI NRO account and there is no upper limit for sending money from NRE account. But a resident Indian holding ICICI bank account can only send USD 250K per financial year as per the Liberalized Remittance Scheme (LRS) with USD 25K per transaction limit. If you do not have ICICI bank account, then the limit is restricted to $25K per financial year.
- You can send up to 7 lakh without any tax payable and need to pay relevant tax collected at source (TCS) for any amount more than this limit. For example, if you send 10 lakhs for studying purpose, then 5% tax will be deducted for 3 lakhs. You can see this information while confirming the transfer and the amount will be directly deducted within the transacted amount.
- Remittance service charge, GST and receiver’s bank charge are applicable for each transaction.
- It is possible to reduce your net payable income tax by claiming TCS deducted for money transfer. You can do this by including TCS in the ITR form while filing your income tax return.
Below is the summary of revised TCS deductions effective from 01 Oct 2023 for a financial year. Except for overseas tour package, 7 lakhs limit is applied combinedly for other purposes.
| Purpose | TCS % |
|---|---|
| Education payment from the loan | 0.5% for the amount over 7 lakhs. |
| Education payment (other than from loan) and medical treatment | 5% for the amount over 7 lakhs. |
| Overseas tour | 5% for 7 lakhs and 20% for the amount over 7 lakhs. |
| All other purposes | 20% for the amount over 7 lakhs. |
Final Words
Though ICICI bank claims Money2World is available 24/7, it does not. It works only during Indian working hours and you should use Google Chrome or Edge for using the site (especially not Safari on Mac). Money will be transferred in few hours to few days depending upon the time you trigger the transfer and the processes involved in the receiver country. If there are any discrepancies in the data provided, bank representative will get in touch with you for clarifications through registered email. Similarly, you can also get in touch with their support in case of any issues.
