Do you guys remember those math questions? The ones with a hypothetical situation like “Sam has two thousand Rupees. He can either buy 20 watermelons or a nice pair of headphones”. I don’t know about you but the heck am I gonna do with 20 watermelons?
In this situation, you are Sam and you have two thousand rupees. Watermelons refer to the transaction fee that you have to pay to a bank while sending money abroad. And a nice pair of headphones refer to anything else that you can do with those two thousand rupees. The best thing to do would be to save it but the worst thing to do would be to spend it on something as useless as transaction charges to a bank for an overseas transfer.
Reasons for sending money abroad
- University fees
- Enrollment fee
- Accommodation rent
- Uni-assist fee
- Blocked account money
Do you want to do the math or should I do it for you? I think I will do it for you- so that is five times two thousand rupees (or more depending upon the bank) which is ten thousand. Tell me, do you want to spend ten freaking thousand on watermelons?
Do I have an alternative
You might be wondering now that if you cant use the services of a bank, how are you supposed to send money abroad? I agree it’s a genuine question. And I am not here to only highlight the problems but also present you with an amazing solution.
The cool company
If there is one thing I love about digital companies, it’s that they are just so cool. The company I am talking about here that comes as a guiding angel to solve your problems is InstaReM (https://bharatingermany.com/instarem). Just see the screenshot of the website- it is just so cool. If you read some of the content, it says ‘may the forex with you..…’, that’s a StarWars reference. Another thing to love about such companies is how user-friendly their website is. It’s super easy to find stuff on the website and understand all the content. But I know that we are not here for the cool stuff. We are here to solve the problem. So let’s talk about that.
Actual Exchange rate
Anyone who wants to transfer money abroad goes through the following steps: 1. They check the exchange rate online on multiple days 2. Then they go to the bank on a day which shows the lowest exchange rate, for example, 78.34. 3. Then they talk to the bank employee and the bank employee tells them that he will just confirm the change rate. 4. The bank employee comes and says that we can transfer money for you and the exchange rate will be 81.84. 5. Then the person who already saw the exchange rate online thinks that maybe he made a mistake because the bank employee cannot be wrong.
Everything that I described happened to me twice. It’s not an imaginary situation. Every time when I was transferring money I paid more than I should have because there was no other alternative. I didn’t have a choice or maybe there was a choice but I didn’t know about it.
Banks charge extra because they are supposed to buy the currency from the country or the RBI. As a result, you end up paying a higher exchange rate plus the transaction fee that the bank charges. This is something known as the Zero Fee Myth. Many banks will sometimes tell you that they do not have any transaction fee while in reality their transaction fee is hidden in the higher exchange rate. That’s the way banks work. It’s neither right not wrong. It’s just reality.
InstaReM exchange rates
The exchange rate charged by InstaRem is based on Reuters. That means that they don’t charge 81 rather the true exchange rate if you look it up which is 79 for example. They only charge some nominal fee. In the image that you see, you can see the conversion rate provided by InstaReM and the exchange rate as it says on Google. InstaReM does not charge any hidden or extra exchange rate. They have Zero-Margin Exchange rates. When I think about all the money I spent when I was transferring money abroad for fees or accommodation, I feel stupid. But I will never make the same mistake again.
InstaReM works two ways
There are some other companies that provide money transfer services at a very decent price. The problem with that is that they only work one way. Which means that you can send money TO India, BUT you cannot receive money FROM India. My parents had to send me money for my university fee last year but the only option available was to go to the bank. It was even more complicated because my parents were travelling at that time and there were regional holidays. I can think of so many instances when someone or the other had to send me money from India, but it didn’t work. I also had some money that I saved in India in my SBI account that I wanted to transfer in my German account but for some time I didn’t have any option because you can’t send money from an Indian bank account to a foreign bank account through internet banking. With InstaReM it’s very easy to send money to and from India. As soon as I got to know about it I was so happy that I would finally transfer my savings to my German Bank account.
So you see everything that I am telling you is based on my own personal experience.
Cashbacks, Paybacks and Loyalty Points
Yesterday I was at a restaurant and the people who work there recognize me because I work at Liferando and go there often for food deliveries. In the previous week, I went there twice to eat something and they gave me a discount. Of course, I didn’t ask for any discount but they just said that it’s 10 euros but I only charge 8 from you and the second time the bill was 15 euros and they charged 10. I felt so happy not because I had to pay less or anything but because they could have charged the entire amount and I would have happily paid but they didn’t. With InstaReM you can get loyalty points every time you do a transaction through them. The points get credited to your account and you can accumulate them or use them when you use their services again. Will a bank give you points? No, they won’t. And it is such a wonderful feeling to get something back.
Time is of the essence
InstaReM transfers your money to the recipient’s account in 1 or 2 working days. This aspect is particularly handy when you have tight deadlines and you need a confirmation as soon as possible. Sending money through banks can sometimes take more than a week. Imagine if you have your VISA appointment next week and you really really really need the blocked account confirmation. But apparently, it’s just getting delayed. As it is, getting a VISA appointment is equivalent to getting a kidney these days. I mean we all have seen so many people missing their university enrollment dates just because they couldn’t get a VISA appointment. Some students had to miss their VISA appointment because they were missing blocked account confirmation and all this because the bank couldn’t trace their payment. It is a horrible experience. But the best part about InstaReM is that you don’t even have to go anywhere. Even if it’s a bank holiday, you can still transfer money. We know how painful the banking system is in India. The private banks are still better but most of us have accounts in Public Sector Banks. The official timings of the bank and the actual timings vary so much. Lunch break is supposed to be till 2 PM but bank employees don’t show up in the bank till after 3 PM. And it’s painful if you have to come to the bank branch again and again.
No Surprises
I transferred my university fee with SBI, I paid the hiked exchange rate, I paid the transaction charges. Normally my work is done as soon as I get a confirmation from the university that they have received my money. I did the confirmation after a week or so but in the email, they wrote that the money I transferred it short of 35 Euros and I can pay that when I enrol at the university. The same thing happened to my friend. TWICE. So I had to pay 35 euros extra even after paying a hiked up exchange rate and transaction charges. It’s not a pleasant experience.
Thankfully InstaReM is so transparent that they tell you in advance the money that the recipient will receive leaving no room for additional payments. You can use their online calculator to know how much you need to send for the recipient to receive the exact amount without any shortage.
So there you have it, folks. Companies like InstaReM make it so much easier to send money abroad. It’s not only easy but also hassle-free and cheaper in comparison to banks. A normal person might overlook all these factors but a SMART person knows the importance of saving money. Especially when your parents are paying for everything at the beginning, you can be a good son or daughter and save some of your parents money.
Getting 710 INR Discount
Now if you like what you read, you can get 710 INR discount on your first transaction with InstaReM (so that you pay even lesser for any kind of extra fee that will be shown to you). It is anyways the cheapest service out there, but by using this coupon code, it gets even more affordable for you. To avail the coupon discount, follow these steps:
- Sign up with this link: https://bharatingermany.com/instarem
- Enter the coupon code BHARATINGERMANY while checkout
And you are good to go!
