Do you know how to open an NRI account from overseas?

All non-resident Indians are allowed to open non-resident accounts external accounts and non-residential ordinary accounts so that they are able to open savings bank account or fixed deposits with different banks in India.  However, it is quite evident that many NRI’s find it very difficult to visit banks in India in order to complete their banking formalities which are why their bank account information is impeded. In order to combat this issue, they can now open their bank accounts from the comfort of their homes overseas by just following these simple steps.

Download the form – The form for no n fact to face account opening is now made available on websites of almost all the banks. Whichever NRI wishes to open a bank account has to first download the form and fill it up so that the account can be opened. Some banks also provide the user with the facility to fill up the form online so that one doesn’t have to download it.

Attestation – some of the documents have to be attested by the Indian consulate as is the prerequisite for most banks for the opening of an NRI account. An NRI can get the documents attested from the consulate or an overseas bank or make it notarized from a foreign notary. If you wish to submit additional approved proof with self-attestation that is allowed as well.

Additional Know your customer – Some banks might want the applicant for the NRI account to fill up the document that pertains to the KYC or the “Know your customer”  in order to disclose the tax residency status  and related details under the  Foreign Accounts Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) and Common Reporting Standard(CRS) requirements. For this some additional proof needs to be submitted to the bank which would have to be submitted along with the documents that are mandatory for the opening of the bank account and the account opening form.

Dispatch – now once all the aforementioned steps have been done, all the documents duly stamped and signed 9one has to cross check several times so that nothing that is required is missing. Because if anything is missing, the banks will reject the documents and they will be asked to send them once again after rectifying their mistakes which might end up in being an unwieldy and lengthy procedure) once the cross checking has been done and all the documents are in place, they have to be sent or dispatched to the bank branch. Alternatively some of the banks provide PO box services in certain countries where the NRI can drop the application in a PO Box with a PO Box number.

Do you want an education loan? Here’s how you can avail it.

Whether you are buying a house or about to be going in for higher education, loans are common today. The college fees are increasing every year a lot of the people don’t really have any option, they have to apply for an educational loan. For instance the engineering courses, the fees could be Rs 5 to 10 lakhs and if one wants to pursue a medical degree in a  private medical college, the cost will go up to Rs 50 lakhs. For postgraduate courses on management and other courses as well, the fees can shoot up to more than Rs 10 lakhs.

It is not unknown that fees in private colleges are more than the fees in government colleges.
When going in for educational loans it is advisable to do a proper research so that you know pretty well what you are exactly looking for. Banks offer educational loans up to Rs 10 lakhs for courses in colleges in India, and a sum of up to 20 lakhs for studying abroad and these payout of loans are in absolute accordance with the banks’ association norms, however in case of post graduate courses in premier management colleges in India for instance IIM or   institute of Management, banks offer loans up to Rs 20 lakhs. These loans cover the tuition fees, examination fees, library fees, laboratory fees and hostel fees and they cover the costs for purchasing books, equipment, instruments and uniform, travel expenses for studies abroad, caution deposit or refundable deposit so on and so forth. There are at times limits on them and the education loan also covers expenses for the project tours and study tours.

What are the conditions for sanctioning the loan?
The lender checks on safe things before the loan is sanctioned. The first and foremost check that is carried out by the lender is to be sure whether the student who applied for the loan has actually enrolled or secured admission for a course or not, after that the quality of the course and the college will also be taken into consideration whether it si certified by UGC or any other university of technical education. The lender also checks whether after doing a course the student will be able to get himself a secured job so that the repayment of the loan is a breeze. The lender also checks the credit history of the co-applicant or the guarantor. At times some education loans are backed by property mortgage, in such cases the lender will also thoroughly check the value of the property.

When an education loan is availed from a bank, loans for tuition fees, examinations, library and every other charge are directly paid to the educational institutions.

Everything you need to know about Portfolio investment Schemes

The portfolio investment scheme allows NRIs to invest in shares of Indian companies, in secondary market, on repatriation and non-repatriation basis through a registered stock broker on recognised stock exchange NRIs can invest in repatriation basis under the PIS 5% of the paid up value and capital of each series of debentures of Indian companies that are listed within the limits that are overall permissible and these are subject to compliance with Reserve Bank of India guidelines. The Non-Resident Indian customer has to take delivery of the shares purchased and give delivery of the shares sold.

If one wants to make an investment on the basis of repatriation, he would have to make it from the funds available through the inward remittance of foreign exchange banking channels that are the usual or out of the money that are held in the NRE or FCNR banks accounts that are maintained in India.

Below are enlisted some of the main characteristics of NRE Portfolio Investment Scheme

One cannot transfer the shares by way of sale under private arrangement that have been purchased by the NRIs on the stock exchange under PIS  or by way of gift  to a residential Indian or outside India without the prior approval of RBI

The NRIs have to open a Non-Resident Rupee (NRE), Passenger Information System (PIS) account  so that they can invest in the secondary market on repatriation basis NRO savings bank account will have to be made use of if any investments are to be made.  The NRI’s can maintain the NRE PIS account which is independent of NRE savings bank (SB) account for their other needs. To deduce the proceeds of the share sale. The PIS account will be used, and all these transactions will have to be reported to the Reserve Bank of India.

The NRIs cannot maintain multiple Portfolio Investment Schemes accounts  with various banks  Both the purchase and the sale contract notes  should be submitted by the NRI in original within one day or maximum 2 days  from the execution of the contract  to the designated branch  with whom the PIS account is maintained. The sole responsibility os on the NRI for the submission of the contract notes to the designated branch of the AD bank.

SBI offers the facility of opening NRE PIS account for its NRI customers who have a KYC compliant NRE Savings Bank (SB) account that the bank maintains . For new customers all these accounts can  be opened simultaneously. The PIS account is mapped to the NRE savings bank account that is being maintained with any of the SBI branches so that the customer is able to execute trades. The PIS account is used to be settling funds that have arisen out of sale and purchase transactions.

What are the most common 4 methods of international money transfer?

There are various alternatives available to transfer money to India. However, it is mandatory to research about it ever more and make sure you choose the best while you send your money.

Online Transfer
This is the simplest method for an international money transfer. To do this all one requires is an internet connection and you also should be using the local banking services to send the money to an Indian account. Some other important things that you will be requiring to do this successfully are the account holder’s address and obviously his/her name, the name of the bank of the recipient, the IFSC code and the branch address to which the money will be sent. You will also need the IBAN or SWIFT code of the bank the money is being sent to. This method is mostly suggested if you regularly transfer funds. You can get rid of the steep banking charges and you can also carry out the transaction from the comfort of your home.

ACH transfer
Automated clearing house is another way of international money transfer and is used for transferring money from an Indian account to an account in the US.  A huge advantage of such a method to transfer money is, you can get rid of long bank queues, you will not have to worry about hidden costs, you will also not be required to send checks for the money transfer to materialise. When the money is transferred in this manner, the bank gets the sum that has been sent in the next four working days. This amount can be delivered to the payee on the next day.

Paypal transfers
Another method of electronic money transfer from one account to another throughout the world. Paypal money transfers can also be cloaked as an online money transfer method. While sending the money through paypal be sure that you won’t be charged a penny, however, the one who receives the sum will be asked to pay a nominal charge of 3.9% on every international money transaction along with the exchange rate of the transfer.

Wire Transfer
One of the most commonplace methods of transferring money internationally is the Wire Transfer method. This method requires the sender to visit a financial institution or a bank or bureaus that cater to international money transfer, for instance Global Exchange, book my Forex,  Western Union, Remit2India, and transfer the money. This wire transfer international money transfer service first takes all the required details about the person or persons the money is being sent to from the person sending the money, the sender is also supposed to divulge the bank details of the money recipient. One those facts are collated, the bureau then starts the transfer procedure which takes the next few days to complete.

What are the different Types of NRI bank accounts and NRI services?

Have you just become a Non Resident Indian? This is for sure one of the most important and crucial problem that you might be facing now is with regards to a bank account in India. Are you aware of the various NRI services available to an NRI and the kind of bank accounts you can maintain in India? There are mainly three kinds of NRI bank accounts one can maintain they are 1. NRO 2. NRE 3. FCNR

Let us know about these NRI banking accounts a little more deeply.

i. Ordinary non-resident rupee account– These are primarily rupee governed NRI bank accounts that are non repatriable and these can either be in the form of savings, recurring, fixed deposits or current accounts. All of these accounts can be jointly opened with Indian residents.  When a resident of India takes up a job abroad, his bank account automatically gets labelled as an NRO account. Now all the deposits made into this accounts can be used for all authentic payments in the Indian currency.This is one NRI service that should be availed of.

ii. Non resident external rupee accounts – Non resident Indians (NRI’s), Persons of Indian Origin (PIO’s), overseas corporate bodies (OCB’s) all are worthy of opening NRE accounts. These NRI bank accounts again are primarily rupee governed accounts and these can either be in the form of savings, recurring, fixed deposits or current accounts. These accounts can be opened by money paid in support of funds in free foreign exchange. So any foreign exchange that is accounted legally for or any repatriable income of the account holder can be deposited in the account. What’s more, you can jointly operate these NRI bank accounts with other NRIs and PIOs and a power of attorney too can be given to other Indians so that they can conveniently operate the accounts. When talking about NRI banking this is one such bank account which is more than useful.


iii. Foreign currency accounts – This is another NRI services in
India available to non-resident Indians (NRI’s), Persons of Indian Origin (PIO’s) and overseas corporate bodies (OCB’s). They are allowed to open such bank accounts in US, Australian and Canadian Dollars, Pounds, Yen and Euros. However something worth noting with regards to this is that such NRI bank accounts are to be opened only for term deposits that would amount to the following time periods –
1. one year or more however less than two years,
2. two years or more however less than three years,
3. three years or more however less than four years and
4. 4 years or more however less than five years or
5. just complete five years.

iv. Non resident rupee deposit accounts (NRNR accounts)  - Non-resident Indians (NRI’s), Persons of Indian Origin (PIO’s), overseas corporate bodies (OCB’s) are allowed to open such bank accounts by transfer of freely convertible origin currency funds from abroad or NRE or FCNR accounts. Non resident accounts can open such accounts in conjunction with other non residents except Pakistani and Bangladeshi people. What’s more the deposits to such accounts can be held jointly with a resident. The time frame for such deposits range from6 months to 3 years and then it can be renewed again.

What is the best money transfer to India, online?

This is a big question everyone wants to know about is which is the best way of online money transfer in India? There is no single best online money transfer service in India. It all depends on a lot of other external factors. Some want best exchange rates, some value for money, some want ease in using and sending the money fast and a host of other things.

When it is an emergency and you want to send the money as fast as possible you could ease the Western Union Money Transfer because it is aimed at people who want to transfer money soon on an emergency basis. They charge a flat fee and the exchange rates too are lower in comparison to the other money transfer services.

Xoom money transfer to India – Xoom is yet another money transfer service which offers a fast and easy money transfer. It has tie-ups with Punjab national bank and is touted to have a good service. They too have fees associated with every transaction. If it’s a check payment the transaction fee is $ 4.99, if you are making the payment with a debit card, there is a transaction fee of $9.99 and if in case you are doing the transaction with a credit card the charges are $9.99 as well.

When you want to have good exchange rates and are not worried about how soon the money will reach your people, you can go for the remittance service to India which requires you to have an account with them. They give good value for money remittance services and good exchange rates but the process isn’t speedy enough.

State bank of California Remittance service – The State bank of California is a US bank and it is more like SBI’s US extension. However they want you to open an account with them in order to use their money transfer services. When you open your account with them, you can add recipients for the money transfer.

TransferWise – This is a new game changer in the world of online money transfer that is transparent and simple and they even claim to have no hidden charges. For money transfer up to $300 they flat charge $3 and for money transfers up to $4999.99 the fee is 1% of the amount, over that the charge is 0.7%.

This means that for a transfer of $6000 the fee would be 1% of the first $4999.99 and then the additional $1000.01 the fee would be 0.7% that would make it a total of $57. When this rate is compared to the rates of the other banks, one can easily find that this rate is much higher.

Here are three best credit cards in India

Credit cards become useful in case you do not have the cash with you and you need to make a purchase. You can use your credit card and own what you want to own and pay later. This feature of a credit card does come in handy but at the same time too much usage of a credit card might also and you up in a lot of debt. However there is some cards which have a lot of reward points and other benefits for their usage. Therefore before going in for a credit card it is always useful that you do a proper research and then choose a credit card that suits you and your purpose.

Here are a few of the best credit cards you can get your hands on

1. Standard Chartered Manhattan Credit Card.
2. ICICI Instant Platinum Card.
3. Standard Chartered Platinum Rewards Card.

1. Standard chartered Manhattan credit card – This is all time favourite card where one can spend almost 90% of the expenses and save a lot of money through cash back and reward points. Nowadays it’s more of a trend to spend money on grocery in stores like reliance fresh; Spencer’s or Big Bazar and this card will offer you 5% cashback on all your grocery spends. Rs 999 are the annual fee for the card which you can get waived off. You also get 5x rewards when you use the card to make payment of your hotels, airline ticket reservation and fuel.

2. ICICI Platinum credit cards – it is difficult to get your first credit card in India. However, if you have a fixed deposit or you have a savings bank account with the ICICI bank, ICICI offers you instant credit cards. There is absolutely no annual fee for the credit card. There are 3 payback points for every 100/- spent, the card has a global emergency assistance facility and the card replacement service is also available. You also get 100/- off on movie tickets twice a month. What’s more a 2.5% fuel surcharge waiver can be gotten on a transaction of Rs 4000 at HPCL pumps.

3. Standard chartered platinum rewards card – if in case you are a salaried employee, you have a better chance of approval for this credit card, you can also get additional 1000 reward points if the transaction is done within 60 days. Now travel in Uber because you can avail 20% cashback on your Uber rides, you also get 5 reward points each on every 150/- spent on
dining and fuel.