Sending Money From the UK to India: Pick the Account, Then the Service
Whose account are the rupees going into? Answer that before you compare a single rate. A service that can pay your mother's savings account may be barred from crediting your own NRE account at the same bank, because the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) sorts transfers into routes with different rules, and a good quote is no use on a route that cannot reach the account you chose.
Start With the Account
If the money is for a parent, sibling or other relative with an ordinary Indian savings account, pay a UK transfer service from your UK bank account and have the rupees credited to that account. On £1,000, our lowest standing price is Revolut's, £1.53 all-in, with Remitly at £2.08 and MoneyGram at £3.03 behind it.
If the money is yours, the account outweighs the quote. An NRE account keeps it repatriable, yet a payment under the Money Transfer Service Scheme cannot be credited there, so find out which route a service uses before you pay in. The two sections after the live board cover both questions.
It applies to each payment under the Money Transfer Service Scheme. At today's mid-market rate that is about £1,850, so a transfer of £2,500 sent this way would be over it.
Live Quotes From UK Services
The board opens at £1,000, funded from a UK bank account and paid into an Indian one. Type your own amount and it reprices.
Compare Money Transfer Services
Sending 1,000.00 GBP → INR · Estimated typical cost · bank deposit, bank-funded
Showing 12 of 17 services we can price for GBP → INR
Estimates only, not live quotes. "Recipient Gets" is for a bank deposit funded from a bank account, on today's mid-market rate: for a "provider quote", minus the rate markup and fee from that provider's own recent quote; for an estimate, minus the provider's typical markup and fee. Rows are ranked by total cost, the fee plus the rate markup, so a fee charged on top of the amount sent counts against a provider even when its recipient gets more. Real cost varies by corridor, amount, delivery and payment method, and promotions (e.g. new-customer offers can be cheaper). Tap a provider to get its live rate before sending. The dot by each provider shows confidence, and the label says how the figure was grounded: "corridor estimate" is a rate we measured for this exact pair; a currency-code estimate (e.g. "USD estimate") is measured for that source currency but not this destination; "typical estimate" is the provider's general figure across all its corridors; "provider quote" is that provider's own recent quote for this pair, its markup and fee applied to today's mid-market rate exactly as its calculator shows them, and a provider whose quote depends on a payment or delivery choice is left out here and priced on its own calculator. Margins are verified against live provider quotes and the World Bank Remittance Prices database; the date above is the most recent collection. Some “Send money now” buttons are partner links: we may earn a commission if you sign up, at no cost to you, and rows are ranked by cost whatever the link. See how we collect these prices and our advertising disclosure.
NRE, NRO, FCNR(B) or a Relative’s Savings Account
Four kinds of account take money from the UK, and they do different jobs. The first three are yours: an Indian citizen living abroad can hold them, and so can an Overseas Citizen of India cardholder, whom RBI counts as a Person of Indian Origin. The fourth belongs to your relative.
A joint NRE account does less than people expect
Adding a parent to your NRE account does not hand them the money. RBI lets a resident relative join only on a former-or-survivor basis. While you are alive they can operate the account solely under a power of attorney, which covers local payments, sending money back to you and permitted investments. It cannot be used to give money to a resident on your behalf. FCNR(B) works the same way. An NRO account is looser and can be held jointly with a resident.
The word “relative” also changes meaning here. For joint accounts RBI borrows the Companies Act list, which leaves out an uncle or aunt, who do count under the tax rules further down, unless you share a Hindu Undivided Family.
An old savings account needs changing
If you moved to the UK and left an ordinary savings account open in India, RBI's direction says it should be redesignated NRO once you are resident outside India. ICICI tells customers to close or convert such an account and warns of penalties, so speak to your bank before paying anything into it.
The Two Routes Into India
Transfer services reach India through two RBI arrangements. Most limits you read online belong to one or the other, so a figure given without its route tells you very little.
Money Transfer Service Scheme
Personal remittances between individuals, such as family maintenance. Each payment stops at USD 2,500, and one recipient can take 30 a calendar year. Up to Rs 50,000 can be handed over in cash; anything larger goes by cheque, draft or direct credit to a bank account. It cannot be used for property, investment, charity or trade, and it cannot credit an NRE account. RBI's alert to banks adds NRO accounts.
Rupee Drawing Arrangement
An Indian bank ties up with an exchange house abroad. RBI's FAQ sets no limit on the amount or number of remittances, apart from Rs 15 lakh on trade payments. There is no cash payout. It can credit an NRE account and pay the family of a non-resident Indian into a KYC-compliant account at any bank. Charity donations are barred, apart from a few named relief funds. RBI's March 2025 Bulletin says fintechs can operate only through this route.
Three practical points follow.
- The count falls on the recipient, not on you. If you and your sister both send your mother money under the scheme, you share her 30 payments.
- Cash means the scheme. The arrangement pays no cash, so as we read the two rules a counter collection in India has to be a scheme payment, with its Rs 50,000 cash ceiling. Our cash quotes on this route come from MoneyGram.
- A service's terms may use neither name. If you are funding an NRE account, or sending more than the scheme allows, ask support which route your transfer takes before you pay in.
A SWIFT payment from your UK bank is a third path. RBI's no-limit statement is about the arrangement, not about bank wires: we found no current RBI page setting a ceiling on an ordinary bank transfer to a resident, and none saying there isn't one, so check with the receiving bank before a very large sum.
One exception is worth asking about. If your relative holds a small account opened without full KYC, RBI's directions stop the bank crediting foreign money until their identity is fully established.
What a Transfer Costs in Pounds
A transfer has two costs, and only one is printed on the button. This table adds them up, the visible fee and the rate margin, for rupees credited to an Indian bank account after you pay by bank in the UK.
| Service | Rate and fee at £1,000 | Cost shape | £200 | £500 | £1,000 | £5,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taptap Sendrate ref differs | 127.57 INR£0.99 fee | -0.07% rate + £0.99 | ≈£0.84 | ≈£0.62 | £0.26 | −£2.68 |
| RevolutDelivered by bank transfer | 127.33 INR£0.35 fee | 0.12–0.16% rate + £0.35–£40.35 | — | — | £1.53 | £48.17 |
| Remitly | 127.21 INRNo fee | 0.21–0.22% rate + £0.00–£1.99 | ≈£2.43 | £1.12 | £2.08 | £10.41 |
| MoneyGram | 127.28 INR£1.49 fee | 0.15% rate + £1.49 | ≈£1.80 | ≈£2.26 | £3.03 | £9.21 |
| XEDelivered by bank deposit, paid by bank transfer | 127.03 INRNo fee | 0.35% rate, no fee | — | — | £3.50 | £17.49 |
| WorldRemitDelivered by bank deposit | 127.45 INR£3.49 fee | 0.02% rate + £3.49–£13.49 | — | — | £3.70 | £14.56 |
| Wiserate ref differsDelivered by bank deposit, paid by bank transfer | 127.52 INR£5.14 fee | -0.03% rate + £1.49–£23.46 | ≈£1.43 | ≈£2.71 | £4.82 | £21.86 |
| Sendwave | 126.91 INR£0.99 fee | 0.45% rate + £0.99 | ≈£1.88 | ≈£3.22 | £5.45 | £23.31 |
| InstaremPaid by bank Transfer | 126.76 INRNo fee | 0.52–0.61% rate, no fee | ≈£1.22 | ≈£2.98 | £5.67 | £25.87 |
| XoomDelivered by bank deposit, paid by bank account | 126.09 INRNo fee | 0.99–1.30% rate + £0.00–£1.99 | ≈£4.56 | £8.46 | £10.91 | £49.59 |
| OFX | 123.23 INRNo fee | 2.87–3.33% rate, no fee | — | — | £33.34 | £143.43 |
From our current data, collected November 3, 2026, for a transfer from the UK paid from a bank account and delivered to a bank account. Each rate is the service's margin from that data on the latest mid-market rate, 1 GBP = 127.48 INR on November 5, 2026, so it moves with the market. A dash means the provider has no quote at that amount whose fee and rate we can state. ≈ marks a price between two amounts the provider quoted, where its fee and rate are known to hold. How we collect these prices.
Revolut, Remitly, Instarem, Xoom and OFX charge a different rate margin at different amounts, so their costs can fall as the amount rises rather than climbing steadily.
- Ria Money Transfer and Western Union don’t price a transfer paid from a bank account and delivered to a bank account on this route, only other ways to pay or receive.
- We hold no current quote for this route from BOSS Money, Pangea and Paysend.
TransferGo appears on the live board above as a dated estimate marked "No current quote", and this table lists only services with a current one.
Every figure is in pounds. Each column's green figure is its lowest price with no label; promotions and rates above our mid-market reference keep theirs and stay out of the ranking.
On £1,000 the standing prices in this table sit £31.81 apart. With the mid-market rate at 127.5 rupees to the pound on November 5, 2026, each 1% of margin on that transfer means about 1,300 fewer rupees for your family.
Size changes the order: Instarem leads at £200 and Remitly at £500.
Taptap Send and Wise carry the “rate ref differs” label: somewhere in the table a quote gave more rupees than our reference. That shows two rates disagreeing on the day, so those rows stay unranked.
Run your own figure through a service's calculator:
Against your own bank
Your own current account is the obvious alternative, and the bigger charge is the one inside the rate: on £1,000 the published margin comes to more than the fee at every bank here that states one.
Personal current account, standard online payment, currency other than euros. Margins are the top published rate for amounts up to £10,000; Lloyds calls its figures indicative, and Santander's payments are not available in its mobile app. Some accounts pay no fee, among them HSBC Premier, Santander Edge and Nationwide FlexOne. Read at each bank's own site on 4 November 2026.
At those rates £1,000 comes to between £27.50 and £55.00 at the five banks that publish a percentage, against £1.53 for the cheapest unlabelled service in the table above. A bank along the way can also take a charge out of the payment.
Tax in India, Tax at Home
The Income-tax Act, 2025 replaced the 1961 Act on 1 April 2026, so anything you read about section 56 is out of date. These are the questions that matter once the money has arrived.
- Gifts to family
- Money received for nothing is taxed on the recipient once it passes Rs 50,000 in a tax year, and then the whole sum counts, not only the excess. Section 92(3)(a) takes out money from any relative, whatever the amount.
- Who is a relative
- A spouse; a brother or sister; a brother or sister of the spouse or of either parent; any lineal ascendant or descendant, of either spouse; and the spouses of those people. A friend or cousin is not listed. The list reads from the recipient's side, so an uncle sending to his niece is covered, while a niece sending to her uncle appears not to be. Check before a large sum.
- NRE interest
- Exempt in India under Schedule IV of the 2025 Act while you are resident outside India. GOV.UK says UK residents normally pay UK tax on foreign savings interest, usually through Self Assessment, unless they qualify for Foreign Income and Gains relief. Neither source names NRE accounts, so treat the UK half as a prompt to check.
- NRO interest
- Taxable in India, with 30% plus surcharge and cess deducted before it is credited; ICICI charges 31.2% on interest up to Rs 50 lakh. Article 12 of the UK-India tax treaty caps Indian tax at 15% for a UK resident, though getting that rate at source takes paperwork with your bank. Foreign Tax Credit Relief can stop you paying twice.
- FCNR(B) interest
- RBI's FAQ treats it as exempt and ICICI lists it as tax-free. We could not trace the matching section of the 2025 Act.
- British passport
- India's Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act treats money from foreign citizens of Indian origin, OCI holders included, differently from money an Indian citizen abroad sends from savings. A person in India who receives more than Rs 10 lakh in a financial year from such relatives must tell the Central Government within three months on Form FC-1. The home ministry's 2022 FAQ is worded around donations, so a family making large transfers should ask an Indian adviser.
- UK Inheritance Tax
- GOV.UK treats gifts as a question for after death rather than for the day you send them. It lists a £3,000 annual exemption, a £250 small gift allowance and an exemption for regular gifts from income, and does not treat a gift to India separately. Our guide to the Philippines goes through the family maintenance rule.
UPI on a +44 Number
NPCI, which runs UPI, opened it to NRE and NRO accounts with international mobile numbers in January 2023, and the UK's +44 was on the first list of ten countries. Kotak and ICICI now list twelve. We could not read NPCI's current list, so confirm with your bank.
This is rupee UPI inside India, drawn on an account you have already funded. It does not move pounds out of the UK. You register the +44 number with the bank, and support varies from one bank and app to the next. ICICI adds that UPI from an NRO account to an NRE account is not permitted.
Paying a recipient's UPI ID from the UK is a different thing, a payout option at the service's end. In our data MoneyGram, Ria Money Transfer and Xoom list UPI as a way of receiving on this route.
IFSC, Account Number and the Purpose Box
Get these right once and save them, because a UK name check will not catch a mistake at the Indian end.
- 01Collect the full set. RBI's NEFT FAQ lists the beneficiary's name, bank, branch, account type, account number and the branch IFSC.
- 02Read the IFSC carefully. It runs to 11 characters: four letters for the bank, then a zero, then six for the branch. A letter O in the fifth place is a typing slip.
- 03Copy the account number, never retype it. On NEFT, one of the last-leg rails RBI names, the credit goes on the number alone and the sender answers for getting it right.
- 04Choose the real purpose. Banks report the purpose of foreign exchange deals to RBI, and family maintenance and personal gifts are separate categories, so pick the one that is true.
- 05Ask for proof only if it is needed. ICICI issues a statement called a FIRS for gifts and family expenses, useful when filing an Indian return. We found no RBI rule that an ordinary family recipient must hold one.
If a UK Firm Fails
Look the company up on the FCA Firm Checker before paying in. The brand on the app may not be listed, so search for the operating company named at the foot of its website or in its terms, and make sure the contact details match, because clone firms copy real ones.
A bank deposit has FSCS cover. Money held by a payment firm does not. An authorised payment or e-money firm must instead keep it in a separate account or cover it with insurance or a similar guarantee. If the firm fails you should get most of it back, but that can take time and may fall short of the full amount, because the administrator's costs can come out of it.
A small payment institution need not safeguard at all. The FCA gives a remitter serving a single country as its example and tells customers to ask such a firm what protection it offers. New rules for firms that safeguard took effect on 7 May 2026. Your exposure is whatever sits with the firm, so pay in when you are ready to send rather than leaving a balance.
Scams are a separate risk, and the UK's reimbursement rule stops at the border; our Nigeria guide explains why.
UK to India: Your Questions
What is the cheapest way to send money from the UK to India?
Usually a transfer service funded by a bank payment, with the rupees going straight into an Indian account. In our latest quotes Revolut is lowest on £1,000, at £1.53. At their published rates, the UK banks that state a percentage come to between £27.50 and £55.00 on £1,000. Price your own amount on the live board, because a different sum can reorder the services.
Will a transfer service credit an NRE account?
Only if the transfer does not travel under the Money Transfer Service Scheme. RBI bars that scheme from crediting NRE accounts, and its alert to banks names NRO accounts as well. The Rupee Drawing Arrangement can credit an NRE account, so ask the service which route your payment takes. A payment from your own UK bank to your NRE account is the other way in.
What is the most I can transfer to India from the UK?
That depends on which RBI route carries it. The Money Transfer Service Scheme stops at USD 2,500 a payment and 30 payments a calendar year for each recipient. RBI's FAQ sets no overall ceiling on the Rupee Drawing Arrangement beyond a Rs 15 lakh cap on trade payments. Your UK bank adds its own ceiling: among the six we read, published online limits run from £20,000 a day upwards.
Will my parents be taxed on what I send?
Not under India's gift rule. Gifts worth more than Rs 50,000 a tax year are taxed on the recipient under the Income-tax Act, 2025, but section 92(3)(a) carves out money from a relative, and parents and children count as relatives. A British citizen sending large sums should also read the FCRA note in this guide.
Can my family collect cash in India?
The Money Transfer Service Scheme lets a recipient take up to Rs 50,000 as cash. A larger sum needs a cheque, a draft or a credit to their bank account. In our latest quotes, MoneyGram prices cash collection from the UK.
Do I need an NRE account to send money to my parents?
No. Family maintenance can go straight into their ordinary savings account in India, by either RBI route, as long as the account meets the bank's KYC rules. An NRE account is for your own money, which you may want to bring back to the UK.
Why does a rupee quote say "rate ref differs"?
We work out each cost from our own mid-market rate, and Taptap Send and Wise quoted more rupees than that rate at some amounts. The sum then comes to almost nothing or less, which tells you the two rates disagreed that day, not that a transfer pays you. We show those rows with the label and leave them out of the ranking.
Key Takeaways
- Decide the account first: a relative's savings account, or an NRE or NRO account of your own.
- A scheme payment cannot exceed USD 2,500 or credit an NRE account; ask which route a service uses.
- Revolut holds the lowest standing price on £1,000 in our data, £1.53 all-in.
- Money from a relative sits outside India's gift tax at any amount, but the list has edges, so check who counts.
- Payment firms safeguard your money rather than offering FSCS cover, so check the FCA Firm Checker first.
Price Your Pounds Into Rupees
Put in your amount and see what each UK service would credit in India today.
Related Calculators & Guides
Every fee on an international transfer, from the exchange-rate markup to card, cash pickup and bank wire charges, and how to see the real price.
What a monthly £200 or £500 costs, GCash against bank and counter payouts, which Philippine banks still remit from the UK, and the Inheritance Tax rules.
The live mid-market pound to rupee rate.
Every route from Britain, compared in pounds.
Sources & References
- RBI: Master Direction, Deposits and Accounts
- RBI: Master Direction, Money Transfer Service Scheme
- RBI: Master Direction, Rupee Drawing Arrangement
- RBI: FAQ on cross-border inward remittances
- RBI: FAQ on accounts in India by non-residents
- RBI Bulletin, March 2025: India’s Remittances Survey
- RBI: NEFT FAQ
- Income Tax Department: section 92, Income-tax Act, 2025
- Income Tax Department: Schedule IV
- Income Tax Department: TDS rates
- GOV.UK: UK-India double taxation convention
- GOV.UK: Tax on foreign income
- GOV.UK: Inheritance Tax on gifts
- PIB: Foreign contribution rules, July 2022
- PIB: UPI for non-resident accounts, July 2023
- FCA: Using payment service providers
- FCA: How to check a firm is authorised
- Nomis: Census 2021 ethnic group, England and Wales
- Barclays: international payments
- HSBC UK: international payments
- Lloyds Bank: international payments
- Nationwide: international payments
- NatWest: international payments
- Santander UK: international payments
Provider pricing and exchange rates are set by the companies named and can change. Figures in this guide are checked against these official sources. Always confirm the live rate before you transact.