I write this review as an addendum to Mr.Prakash´s review titled "Excellent Way of transfering money to ICICI Bank".
I have used this mode of transfer a couple of times. In all the cases I did a wire transfer(the website calls it Power Transfer). This choice was made just because I found it to be the only way I can do the transfer, given my circumstances.
I live in Barcelona, Spain. When you log into the ICICI Money2India website, you relalize that e-transfer is allowed only for residents in USA. I still wonder how Mr.Prakash has done the transfer from France.
We an still, do a e-transfer in some sense. Why I have used "some-sense" is explained next. Do a Power Transfer. Fill out the recipients details and submit a request. You are given a deposit slip that has the details of the patner-bank of ICICI in Europe. As of today, the patner is JP MORGAN CHASE AG, FRANKFURT in case you want to make the transfer in the currency EURO. When I made the transfer the patner bank was DEUTSCHE BANK AG, FRANKFURT.
Now you have 2 options.
Option 1: Take this deposit slip to your bank and request them to make the money tranfer to the patner bank in Frankfurt. The bank will charge you 4.50 euros as commision and 0.28 euros for the mail expenses.
Option 2: Do the tranfer yourself via e-banking. The commision the bank charges you is 1.20 euros and 0.28 euros for mail expenses.
In option 1, there is still a hidden charge. ICICI states there will be no hidden charges, but my experience says otherwise. Here are the statistics for your study.
400 Euros, Money I wished to transfer to India
2 Euros, to account for ICICI commisions
So I am debited 402 from my bank account.
4.50 Euros, My bank´s commision for making this tranfer within EU.
0.28 Euros, Mail expenses charged by my bank.
This was charged on the beneficiary by default and since I did not make any recommendations.
397.22 Euros, Money transfered to the patner bank.
387.22 Euros, Money recieved by ICICI
2.00 Euros, ICICI commision.
385.22 Euros, Money to be remitted to the beneficiary by ICICI.
So in between the process, somehere somehow, an additional charge of 10 Euros has occured.
So the net expense to make this tranfer via Option 1 is 16.48 Euros.
Option 2 is still under process.