Moneybookers Withdrawal (bank Wire), India And Rbi

Hey guys, I have a bit of a problem and I wanted to discuss it with fellow indian and community users.

I currently have a current account with Axis Bank (India).
Till now I was using my personal account for MB withdrawals and it was working great, all bank wire withdrawals used to credit within 3-4 days max since almost a year.

But 3 months ago I started using moneybookers with my current account.
It was working same as before till last month (December 2012).

I made a withdrawal of $100 on 15th Dec, I was always sure to get my money on time so I didnt bothered checking my account, but around 5th Jan when I did, I still didnt had my money yet.
Coincidentally, the next day the bank itself called me saying I have a pending wire transfer and it needs a few docs to credit due to RBI Rules.

I visited the local branch and there were just 2 formalities they asked of me, one was a Appendix. kind of form (letter) on which I had to fill details about my acc, amount, sender, their bank etc. and sign it and stamp it (company stamp)
Second, they wanted some proof for source of transfer like invoice or such, for that I gave my moneybookers account statement and they accepted it.

I was shocked at seeing how they are telling me my payment is pending after 15 days to me and just for such small things.
I even asked them if this will happen again and if I can do anything to avoid delays as I may need money ontime and they said its just verification and shouldnt happen again but if it does, I will have to submit same thing again.


Astonishingly, I again withdrew another $100 last Monday and have been almost 7 days yet I havn't got my money in my bank yet.
I suspect its the same thing as last time and will probably visit the branch myself tomorrow.



Anyways, the above was my story, but the main thing I made this thread was to ask if anyone else is having any such similar problems and if its due to RBI or the Axis Bank (as then I can shift to HDFC instead).


Most of my payments are via moneybookers and I need to withdraw weekly around same $100-200 but this kind of delays will suck.

I also wanted to know if its due to bank wire or what or whether taking payments in my personal account will affect it as it maybe for current accounts only.


What do everyone else thinks ?

 

I wonder myself, I will withdraw some amount to my personal account as well now and check.

 

Axis bank is known for these kinds of issues related to Moneybookers. And I think it will happen each time you receive a transfer from MB.

Try HDFC instead and use your savings account. Let us know if it works.

By the way, did they (Axis Bank) by any chance deduct any exhorbitant amount for receiving the wire transfer?

One of my friends received transfers from Moneybookers last year and they ended up with almost $25 less out of the amount they had transferred. E.g, they transferred around Rs 9000 (USD to INR converted equivalent) but ended up getting something like Rs 7,750 when they the money finally reached their account.

 

may be the rate of USD to inr was less at the time of wire transfer actually took place.., i guess...

 

No, it happened on two separate occasions. Moneybookers said that it was correspondent banking fees charged by the receiving bank involved in wire transfer. It wasn't currency fluctuation.

 

Nah, I always get good rates. $100 withdrawal came to be 5100+ INR to my bank after MB and bank fees

And I have withdrawan $40 aswell from my personal acc to my Axis Savings bank acc yesterday, will wait and see

Btw HDFC or Icici bank, which is better ? I will need international Visa Debit card as well with my account

 

from my point of view HDFC is best and i prefer HSBC bank for all international remittance....

 

Yes, HDFC is definitely better overall.

 

Well so today I called my Bank and to my surprise it was what I expected, The money had arrived to bank in time but was again pending credition and those 2 docs needed to be submitted again.

I asked the manager why wasnt I informed when the money had arrived on Thursday itself and was pending, he said that the person who handles remittance and information in the branch has been on leave and so there was no communication.
I was a bit pissed that its Wednesday today and I wasnt informed yet and I had to call myself to verify my doubt (as last time I was informed after 18 days)

I asked him about docs and all and he confirmed me that this is now a mandatory formality from RBI itself and is a needed step for remittance of wire transfers and even personal accounts will have to do the same (I asked about that too).


But I am 17 and a bit of a good customer of the branch and its almost a year of my acc there so the manager and Assistant Manager know me by face and name as well.
He was kind enough to tell me that I can take their form format in a pendrive and keep it printed on the Company's Letter head in advance and just submit the docs 3rd day after any bank wire itself.

That way it would remit fast and like usual.

So I guess tomorrow I will go and take the forms and the docs and submit them for this week's withdrawal and next week I will withdraw on Sunday (coming sunday) and submit the docs on Wednesday to see if it remits like they said.




PS: Can anyone confirm bankwires and the same with HDFC bank ?

 

may be due to your age this happens... i guess

 

Lol ofc its not my acc :| It cant be anyways, its of my GMom (Personal) and a Current acc of a Company I work with as a Webdev who made a local acc at that branch as well for ease of indian clients

I asked a friend and he said in HDFC aswell he was asked for such docs and wasnt informed anything about it till he visited branch himself, his amount at that time was $500 but he said he didnt had any probs with below $500 yet

 

hmmm... i think rbi rules are the reason behind such delay...

 

Wow lol, I will have to submit docs and see credit time for current account tomorrow but some good news

The another $40 I withdrew as a test from MB to my other personal Axis acc on Monday night got credit today just a few hours ago.
Can't believe it, its almost within 24 hours


That means probably its for current accounts

 

hmmm may be your assumption is right....

 

It is useless if we withdraw from moneybookers to bank. They will add lot of transaction and conversion charges.

 

Are they still charging those charges and fees? I know that it was a major issue last year when a lot of people got lower-than-expected amounts when they withdrew from Moneybookers to their bank.

But it seems like Shubhank is getting good rates on withdrawal. What's the current scenario like?

 

Yes they are still doing. while we withdraw they say some amount but if we check bank credit it will be way lesser then it was mentioned.

 

Dude, you do know that bank wire's general fees itself is $15-25 per transfer right ? Plus there will be fees at receiving bank and different exchange rates aswell.

In my $40 withdraw (2200INR~) I was charges just Rs. 460 as fees (barely below $10)
and in my $100 and bigger withdraws, the fees are so low that I dont even care calculating as they are hardly 100-300 Rs. ($2-6)

I find that very obvious and satisfying as they are less than even bank wire general fees which should be charges and Moneybooker's Bankwire is fast and secure and always gives best exchange rate.

Also, everyone knows that even if Paypal is mostly used worldwide, Moneybookers is still the safest and industry level payment processor and more secure and safe and trusty than Paypal.




Overall, these are my personal statements since switching from Paypal (you also know their shit in india and even globally) to moneybookers since almost 1.5 years+

 

They are not true to us. They convert our INR to Euro and again they convert Euro to INR and transfer to bank. This means they charge twice conversion rate for same money and this is very bad of them.