Transfer / Send money within India
Posted on December 21, 2007
Filed Under India, Media and advertising, Reviews
Under very uncertain and unexpected situation I was in a grave need of sending some money within India. Now the fine print is that the recipient don’t have any bank account. I started to explore options to be able to send money as soon as possible without any bank account and a scene from a movie came in my mind where the main actress Katrina Kaif receives money from London, England instantly in Punjab, India via Western Union Money transfer. I never thought before that movies can also be of some good help when you need advice. Well absolutely that scene from the movie Namaste London meant exactly what was shown, I can very well transfer the money to India, had it been I was in England or for that matter of fact any other place except India where Western Union Money transfer have agents. I scanned their entire web site to make sure that I could send money within India.
I could find several agents in India, in-fact remotest of the places were being covered including where I wanted to send money and I really do appreciate that. I called up one of the agents and enquired about sending money and oops, money can only be received in India whereas sending money from India to any where is not possible. To avoid any chances of confusion I even confirmed the same with the customer care by sending them an email. Quite surprisingly Western Union Money transfer took more than 24 hours in responding to my very simple query. And not just the customer support response time was slow, I even had the same experience with Western Union Money transfer web site, that might be temporary but it was quite sluggish.
I am really not sure about the reason behind this, even after having such a well established network of agents, why Western Union Money transfer is restricted to only incoming transfers for India. A possible reason could be the benefits of receiving funds in foreign currency or may be Reserve Bank of India regulations.
Now the next thing that clicked my mind was the traditional Indian postal department service of money order. Quite surprisingly I have never had any personal experience of this service, there was never a need before. No prize for guessing where I came to know about this money order thing, tada movies again. Reason why I said money order service of Indian postal department quite old and traditional is that the movies in which I saw people using money orders were really old ones. And provided the reputation of Indian postal department I moved to private shipping services long time ago.
Just to give it a try I went to Indian postal department web site and bingo, on the home page itself I could see a link for Instant Money Order service. In a fraction of second my point of view for Indian postal services changed to a lot better position. Now I was trying to figure out if I can use this service myself. No doubt that Indian postal department web site sucks, a really huge page loaded after taking hell lot of time. Grrrr Instant Money Order service is not available where I wanted to send money, anyhow the service still sounded quite appealing to me.
After placing request for an Instant Money Order a secret number is provided that you need to convey to the recipient and just by telling that number and showing a identity card, money can be transferred instantly to any of the Instant Money Order supported post offices.
It is quite disappointing that even after having so well rooted infrastructure of decades old Indian postal department still don’t have all the services available across all the post offices in India. I tried for all the next best possible options for me, telegraphic money order is being discontinued but is still promoted on the web site, speed post also is not available in all locations. Hence only and the last option left was normal money order service that might take up to a week’s time.
Another very big reason why I never used any of the Indian postal department services was their working hours. Usually most of the post office closes down early in evening and that too depends where it is, few of them even close down as soon as afternoon. Its really hard to leave work at job behind and make trips to the post office cause you are never sure if you will get it right the first time you will go there. But now due to competition from private shipping services the main post office of major cities are kept open till 8 in the night that makes the main post offices also known as GPO (General Post Office) working hours from 10 AM to 8 PM.
I did go to the main post office in Delhi before 8 PM but surprisingly what I came to know was that money orders can only be made till 4 PM after which speed post and postal services are only available.
Now today when I went again to the main post office of Delhi I was able to send the money order and as a coincidence I saw a man possibly not from India receiving Western Union Money transfer at the post office. It is undoubtedly a very powerful combination of Western Union Money transfer quality and well rooted infrastructure of Indian postal department. Not just that, Western Union Money transfer even have collaborated with several national banks and their branches across India.
In the end all I hope for is that the money order reaches its destination soon without any exceptions. I also do appreciate the efforts Indian postal department is taking to attract more customers by providing international level modern services with expectedly improving standard of quality.
So the moral of the story is that movies are not reality, there is lot more beyond what can be seen.
PS: Yes that was quite a fancy moral but what actually I wanted to tell was that even being India one of the most biggest / powerful nations there are still times when one has to compromise for the least best option.
Comments
2 Responses to “Transfer / Send money within India”
Leave a Reply
-
About
Whiz Creed is an upcoming name on Internet that is managed by an individual and is currently a place for him to share his work and point of view with others.
-
Ruby on Rails
Popularity: 
Ranking: 
As an update on Indian Postal Department’s Money Order service. The money order I sent on 21st December 2007 was received after three working days on 27th December 2007.
This is really highly appreciable, I intend to use Indian Postal services more often now
I don’t know how often you use Indian Postal services. I had been using it for more than 15 years now without any problems. It’s Inland letters, speed post, registered-posts, money orders, telegraphic MOs, IPOs… I used them all. Believe me, no private service matches the reliability of India Post.