How to send money to India from the UK, and pick the right account on the other side

Three kinds of account, in plain words

Before you pick the app, find out which account the money is going to. There are three main ones.

The first is NRE (Non-Resident External). Use it for your own UK savings. If you are an Indian person living abroad, you open it in your own name. It is for money from outside India. The bank can also accept income you earn in India once the tax is dealt with. It holds rupees. India does not tax the interest while you are classed as a Non-Resident Indian. You can send all of it, principal and interest, back out of India at any time with no cap.

The second is NRO (Non-Resident Ordinary). Use it for money you earn in India: rent from a flat in Mumbai, a pension, a dividend, or a share of a family business. You hold this one in your own name too. Foreign money can be paid in as well. The bank takes tax from the interest before you get it: 30 percent, plus surcharge and 4 percent cess.

If you live in the UK, you can ask for the 15 percent rate under the UK-India tax treaty. Give the bank a Tax Residency Certificate from HMRC and the treaty form it asks for, before the interest is credited.

Current income, such as rent, a pension, a dividend or interest, can go out of India from an NRO account. The yearly limit does not apply to it. For other money in the account, the limit is the equivalent of one million US dollars in each financial year, April to March. That one limit also covers inherited assets, and money from selling assets you did not pay for from abroad. A flat bought with money from abroad or from an NRE account has its own rule, so ask your bank. The bank will ask for tax forms first, and a chartered accountant in India may need to sign one. Ask your bank which forms it wants.

The third is a resident savings account, the regular kind, held by someone who lives in India: your mother in Kolkata, your brother in Chennai. You can send money into it from the UK. The interest is taxed as ordinary Indian income, at their own rate. If your family lives in India and the account is theirs, this is the one.

• NRE account: Your own account, funded from UK earnings. Interest is not taxed in India. You can send it all back out, any time.
• NRO account: Your own account, for money earned in India. Interest is taxed at source. Sending it out needs tax forms first, and an accountant may need to sign one.
• Resident savings account: Held by family living in India. Takes money from the UK without a problem.

There is a fourth type, FCNR(B), a foreign-currency fixed deposit for Non-Resident Indians. It is a savings product, so this guide leaves it out.

If you moved abroad and kept your old Indian account

Under India's foreign exchange rules, your resident savings account has to become an NRO account once you move abroad. If your old SBI or HDFC account is still open in its old form, ask the bank to change it to NRO.

If the account belongs to a parent or sibling who lives in India, the rule does not apply to them. Their resident savings account is fine.

Which account is your money actually going to

If you are sending to your mother's savings account in India, that is a resident account.

If you are sending to your own account back home, the source of the money decides. UK earnings go into NRE. Income from India goes into NRO.

If you are sending to a sibling who also lives abroad, in Dubai or the US, they will hold an NRE or NRO account too.

Which app to open, and for which job

For £100 to £500 into a family member's resident account, open Wise. For anything else, find your job below.

• I am sending £100 to £500 to family with a resident account in India. Use Wise. The rate is close to the market rate, the fee is small, and it usually arrives the same working day.
• I am sending to my own NRE account with ICICI Bank. Use ICICI Money2India. It is same day into exactly this account.
• I am sending to my own NRE account with another bank. Use Wise. It usually arrives the same working day at HDFC, Axis, SBI and Kotak.
• I am sending for the first time. Try Remitly's new-customer offer once. The price is under the table below.
• I bank with Lloyds, Nationwide or Santander. Do not send from the bank. The table below shows how far behind they came.

Use Wise for a send to a family member's SBI, HDFC, ICICI, Kotak or PNB account in India. The rate on the screen is close to the average market rate, the one a Google search shows. Wise also pays straight to a UPI ID, and the money arrives in the receiver's linked account in about a working day after conversion. That helps when the family member does not want to give out an account number.

Use ICICI Money2India for speed into an ICICI NRE account: same day. Money2India's rate page shows no fee from the UK. ICICI's UK page shows a £1 fee for ICICI Bank UK account holders who send online or in the app. To an NRE account at another bank, ICICI says the money arrives within 4 hours, and a few banks can take up to one working day. ICICI posts its rate on its own page, and that rate can be days old. On 24 October the page showed a rate dated 16 October, below the average market rate and about 100 rupees behind Wise on £300. Compare the two on the day you send.

Remitly's first-transfer rate is for one send only, so take it and check again for the second. After that, Remitly's fee from pounds to rupees is £1.99 on sends below £500. On £500 or more there is no fee, and Remitly's page says this ends on 31 December 2026. The rate is a little below Wise's. The app shows the delivery speed before you pay.

Check your UK bank before you send from it. The table below has each bank's numbers from 24 October. HSBC's rate came within £1 of Wise. But HSBC's own page charges £5 on this send. At that rate, the £5 puts an ordinary account about £6 behind Wise. The £5 does not apply if you are a Premier or Private Banking customer, or use a Global Money Account. HSBC has two exchange rates and does not show either for rupees on its pages, so check the rate in the app.

NatWest, RBS and Barclays charged no fee but kept more in the rate: about £5 to £6 behind Wise. Lloyds, Nationwide and Santander added a fee and came out £18 to £32 behind. Some Nationwide Flex accounts and Santander Edge accounts do not pay that fee, but check the rate before you send.

What £300 looked like on 24 October

These are numbers from 24 October 2026, from the Wise price comparison and each provider's own page. Some bank prices on the comparison were taken the day before. Rates move by the day, so check the calculator on the day you send.

On 24 October the average market rate was about 127.1 rupees to the pound. That is what a Google search would show. On £300, that rate would give you about 38,120 rupees before any fee. In each row below, the fee is taken out of the £300.

Remitly charges no fee on a first transfer only, if you pay by bank transfer. It also gives a better rate on the first £1,000 of that transfer. The rate is not one number. In checks on 4 November, new customers saw between 127.46 and 130.33 rupees to the pound, so two people can see different rates. That is about 38,240 to 39,100 rupees on £300, and the low end is almost the same as Remitly's normal rate. Take it once. Do not plan monthly sends around it.

When the app matters, and when the account matters more

The app matters most when the account is a plain resident savings account belonging to a family member in India. Then only the rate on the screen and the fee matter, so use Wise.

The account matters more than the app when the account is your own NRE or NRO. Then how the money is taxed and how you can move it out later matter more than a few hundred rupees of rate difference on one send. If your UK earnings go into NRO when they should go into NRE, India taxes interest it would not have taxed. A different app does not change that.

What the receive side looks like on other routes

The Nigeria guide walks through the arrival check on a naira bank account and the rule on a recipient's Bank Verification Number and National Identification Number. A basic Tier 1 account needs at least one of the two, and a Tier 2 or Tier 3 account needs both. A Tier 1 account with neither can be frozen, and a good transfer to it does not arrive. The Ghana guide walks through the check on that route: a UK bank sends to a bank account, not to a mobile money wallet, and the wallet has a limit on what it can take.

What this guide does not answer

This is not tax advice. It does not say how to file a return or how to claim the treaty rate on NRO interest. For a large, unusual or business send, or one that crosses a tax year, use an accountant in India.

Each number here carries its date. For today's prices, check the apps themselves on the day you send.

Corrections

• 2026-11-05: An earlier version of this page could be read as putting the £1,000 limit on Remitly's no-fee first transfer as well as on its better rate. The limit is on the rate only.
• 2026-11-05: An earlier version of this page called no fee on £500 or more Remitly's usual fee. Remitly's page says this ends on 31 December 2026, and this page now says so.
• 2026-11-05: An earlier version of this page said sending to an ICICI NRE account has no fee and gave one price. ICICI shows two: no fee on Money2India's rate page, and £1 for ICICI Bank UK account holders on its UK page.
• 2026-11-05: An earlier version of this page gave the NRO limit as a year. The year is the financial year, April to March. Inherited assets, and money from selling assets you did not pay for from abroad, count towards the same limit. A flat bought with money from abroad or from an NRE account has its own rule.
• 2026-11-05: An earlier version of this page gave one million US dollars a year as the limit on all money leaving an NRO account. The limit does not apply to current income, such as rent, a pension, a dividend or interest. It applies to other money in the account.
• 2026-11-05: An earlier version of this page did not say that Remitly's 37,752 rupees, and each other figure in the £300 table, has the fee taken out of the £300. It now does. No figure changed.
• 2026-11-04: An earlier version of this page said the money in an NRE account has to come from outside India. India's central bank also lets the bank accept income earned in India, such as rent or a pension, once the tax is dealt with.
• 2026-11-04: An earlier version of this page said ICICI Money2India takes one to two working days to an NRE account at another bank. ICICI says within 4 hours, and up to one working day at a few banks.
• 2026-11-04: An earlier version of this page gave one figure for Remitly's first-transfer rate, 128.20 rupees to the pound, or 38,460 rupees on £300. New customers can see different rates. The page now gives the range seen on 4 November 2026.
• 2026-11-04: An earlier version of this page said HSBC charged no fee on £300 and was close enough to use. HSBC's own page charges £5 on this send unless you are a Premier or Private Banking customer or use a Global Money Account. At the rate we compared, that puts an ordinary account about £6 behind Wise. HSBC does not show its rupee rate on its pages, so the page now says to check it in the app.
• 2026-11-04: An earlier version of this page said Wise has a better rate than ICICI Money2India, with no date, and the page now says to compare the two on the day because ICICI's rate moves. It also gave Nationwide's £15 and Santander's £25 with no exception; some of their accounts do not pay these fees.
• 2026-11-04: An earlier version of this page named Forms 15CA, 15CB and 10F and said an accountant always signs off. India renumbered its tax forms in April 2026, so the page now says to ask your bank which forms it wants, and that an accountant may need to sign one.
• 2026-11-04: An earlier version of this page said a transfer can be reversed later without warning, that enforcement can put a hold on an old resident account, that the account usually keeps working, that plenty of people never converted theirs, that most sends go to resident accounts, that no bank applies the treaty rate automatically, that an old account can wait until your next visit to India, and that no regulated app can keep up Remitly's first-transfer rate. We could not source these lines, so they are gone.
• 2026-11-04: An earlier version of this page said a Nigerian account must have both a BVN and a NIN linked, and that a transfer can be held when one is missing. The December 2023 directive says Tier 1 needs one of the two, Tier 2 and Tier 3 need both, and the freeze is for Tier 1 accounts with neither.
• 2026-10-24: An earlier version of this page said a UK bank charges £15 to £30 and loses £15 to £20 on £300, and that ICICI's rate was above the average market rate. On 24 October HSBC, NatWest, RBS and Barclays charged no fee, HSBC came within £1 of Wise, and ICICI's rate was below the market rate and below Wise. The bank advice and the £300 numbers now come from that day's prices.
• 2026-10-24: An earlier version of this page described a 2026 Nigerian rule linking a recipient's BVN and NIN. The linkage rule is a Central Bank of Nigeria directive from December 2023; the line no longer dates it to 2026.