Beginners’ Guide To Sending Money Overseas From Singapore Using Remittance Services

As a global city that aims to be the best place to live, work and play, Singapore has attracted a large number of foreigners living on our shores.

Today, there are about 1.9 million non-residents in and a further 0.5 million PRs in Singapore – combining to make up close to 40% of our population. These individuals likely have close family ties outside of Singapore. Moreover, as global citizens, Singaporeans ourselves may have cross-border ties and investments.

As a result, remittance services today are relied upon by an ever-increasing group of people, including Singaporeans, expatriates and migrant workers, who have family members living overseas or international business and/or investment interests.

This guide introduces you to various remittance options available, as well as the pros and cons of using each type of service so that you can best retain and transmit the value of your hard-earned money to your loved ones.

Read Also: Looking To Transfer Money Overseas From Singapore? Here’s 5 Things You Need To Know

Overseas Remittance Services In Singapore

Overseas remittance refers to the act of sending money from Singapore to another party overseas. This can be accomplished in several ways, such as a wire transfer, electronic payment system, mail, draft, or even cheque.

Because overseas remittance is one way ill-gotten money can be laundered or illegal causes like terrorism can be supported, all remittance services in Singapore are regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

Companies must be registered in the list of licensed remittance agents to operate, and they must follow strict Know-Your-Customer (KYC) processes when performing transactions.

It is illegal to run a remittance business in Singapore without a valid license from MAS, and you should make a report to the authorities if you come across advertising or are offered remittance services by a company or individual without a license.

In general, overseas remittance services in Singapore are provided by two classes of companies: banks and wire transfer companies.

When choosing between remittance services, you should look at factors like admin and platform fees, exchange rates, processing duration, minimum transfer amounts, countries supported, and convenience (such as availability of branches or in-app features like tracking of transactions).

While you may incur a lower cost when remitting larger amounts with certain providers, many digital-only solutions, such as YouTrip do not discriminate based on how much or how frequently you remit money overseas.

Read Also: Step-By-Step Guide to Getting And Using A YouTrip Card

Bank Remittance Services

Most of us would have an existing bank account(s), hopefully, one that gives you high interest with some or no effort.

Often, one of the most convenient (but not necessarily cheapest) way to send money overseas is to do so with your bank. Furthermore, if you make the transaction before the cut-off time, your transfer could be completed on the same day for selected destination countries.

If you’ve already activated internet banking facilities, you can remit money overseas by making an online money transfer overseas. You don’t have to first do a bank transfer to your remittance agent, wait for them to confirm the receipt of funds, and then have them send the money overseas for you. In the event the transaction is rejected for some reason, your money stays put in your bank account.

Since you’re using your bank account, you’ll be subject to the prevailing transfer limits on your account, so you might want to increase it prior to performing your remittance.

To facilitate the transfer, your bank may request additional information from you, such as your recipient’s name, address, contact number, bank details (SWIFT/BSB/IFSC/sort code) and account number/IBAN.

You can receive overseas remittance services from all of the local banks (DBS, OCBC, UOB) as well as foreign banks, including Bank of China, Citibank, Maybank, Standard Chartered, and many others. Some foreign banks have preferential rates and quicker transactions for overseas fund transfers to an overseas account of the same bank.

Read Also: MAS Is Issuing 5 Licenses For Digital Banks – We Explain What They Are (And Why You Should You Care)

Overseas Wire Transfer Companies

To serve the pool of foreigners in Singapore, the number and variety of companies providing remittance services have been growing.

There are small companies operating out of a single location; multi-national wire transfer companies with a large network of branches like Western Union, and purely digital FinTech remittance platforms like YouTrip, InstaReM, Wise, and Revolut.

To send money overseas using one of these companies, you’ll first need to take the extra step of transferring the funds from your bank account to the money transfer company, or if you want to remit physical cash, you’ll have to do so at a physical branch.

Read Also: Complete Guide To Opening A Bank Account In Singapore For Foreigners

YouTrip

YouTrip is the latest fintech platform to throw their hat into the remittance ring. While many of you already use YouTrip for its overseas payment function, it now also supports cross-border remittance to over 40 countries, including Malaysia, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Australia.

Similarly, many of us have come to trust the rate that YouTrip gives us when we pay for our purchases in foreign currencies – whether on our travels or online purchases while in Singapore. Now, we can get the same transparent and competitive exchange rates when we want to remit our money overseas.

Unlike making overseas purchases, where we do not incur any fees (because the merchant bears it), we have to pay a remittance fee when sending our money overseas via YouTrip. This is no different from most other banks and remittance platforms. On the YouTrip app, we can preview this fee transparent, and even compare it against other platforms.

Whether we want to spend in the foreign currencies or send money in the foreign currency, YouTrip also allows us to exchange and store 12 currencies, including the Malaysian Ringgit, Japanese Yen, Euro, US Dollar, Australian Dollar, Thai Baht, British Pound, Hong Kong Dollar, and more. This means we can exchange the currencies and store them, before we even need to spend or remit them overseas.

For those who want to send money overseas via YouTrip, you can register here. 

InstaReM

InstaReM is a Singapore-headquartered digital cross-border payments company that was started in 2014, with presence across Asia-Pacific, North America and Europe. InstaReM allows you, as an individual or business entity, to make money transfers internationally. You can expect to pay at a significantly lower cost than what it normally costs you via banks or traditional remittance companies.

You can send money overseas from Singapore (and 8 other countries/territories) to more than 60 countries across the world including China, India, Indonesia, The Philippines, Thailand, and the United States and Canada.

Depending on the method used to send money overseas, there might be a maximum limit, and you can also refer to the full list of InstaReM’s International Money Transfer Limits here. There are limits on maximum inwards remittance amounts too, due to regulations in receiving countries.

Depending on the amount that you send, you also earn InstaPoints – which you can use to discount your overseas transfer fees or convert into KrisFlyer miles.

Wise (Previously Known As TransferWise)

Wise is one of the pioneer innovators in the remittance space, and they’ve grown to be one of the largest and well-known names in the global digital remittance space. They allow payments between 70 over countries, including Singapore. On average, Wise can be 7x cheaper than banks and PayPal.

You get transparent rates and fees, which differ based on the transfer amount. Money takes a maximum of 2 days to arrive, though in most cases, money is received much sooner, in as little as an hour, in fact.

In addition to remittance services, Wise offers an international (“borderless”) money account with debit card and can help businesses receive payments from around the world.

You can sign up for Wise here.

Read Also: Send Money Overseas For Your Foreign Domestic Worker, Without Incurring Unnecessary Costs And Effort, With TransferWise

Revolut 

Launched in 2015, Revolut, a London-based fintech has since included cross-border transfer in their extensive offerings to customers to spend, transfer and control their money internationally. By downloading the Revolut app, we can now transfer to any Revolut user instantly or do bank transfers to over 130 countries.

You can sign up for the Revolut card here.

Read Also: 3 Reasons Why The Revolut Card Is Perfect For Digital Nomads

Western Union

Western Union is one of the most recognisable remittance services in Singapore. You can choose to make your transfer using their large network of physical branches, by visiting their website or using their app. This is probably one if its differentiating factor, as fintech platforms would not have a physical presence.

You can send money to one of 40 countries around the world, and your receiver can choose to pick up the money at a Western Union branch or have the funds deposited in the bank account.

You can pay for the transfer using a bank transfer, handing over cash in-store, or by using a credit/debit card.

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