Diwali, the festival of lights, is fast approaching, with many Hindus, Jains, Sikhs and some Buddhists looking forward to celebrating the occasion on November 4.

 

The festival of Diwali is all about spreading love, light, and appreciation, and coming together with family to celebrate with a message of hope and prosperity, which will be especially important this year with the pandemic.

 

However, as most are still unable to travel due to ongoing restrictions, sending money to family and friends in India and overseas will again be a popular way to share well wishes of wealth and happiness for Diwali this year.

 

Scott Eddington, Managing Director of Asia-Pacific at WorldRemit, a cross-border digital payments service, said: “With many Indians in Australia separated from their family for the holiday season for the second year in a row due to international travel restrictions, we know how important sending money home for Diwali will be.”

 

“India receives the largest amount of remittances in the world, with $83.1 billion (USD) received in 2020 according to the World Bank and Diwali is one of the busiest times of the year for sending money from all regions of the world on WorldRemit.”

 

“With over 721,000 people of Indian origin living in Australia, we expect to see digital money transfers to India and across the world peak across the five-day Diwali festival, with physical gift exchanges harder to organise with postage delays.”

 

To help those sending money overseas for Diwali get the most out of their transfer, Eddington has the following four tips:

 

1. Use a money transfer service that is transparent with fees and shows them upfront. Some banks and services have hidden fees like foreign currency conversion fees so be sure to read reviews and do your research before choosing a money transfer service.
2. Pay attention to exchange rates to get a good deal. Some money transfer services and apps, like WorldRemit, offer daily exchange rate notifications so you can check the best times to send money.
3. Use a service that has live exchange rates and locks in your rate when you transfer money. Some services that don’t do this may have an enticing rate now, but by the time your transfer goes through, the exchange rate could have shifted.
4. Consider the minimum transfer amount. Look for a money transfer service that has a low minimum transfer amount so you can send the amount of money that you want and you don’t have to break your budget by meeting higher transfer minimums.

 

Worldremit is a leading global payments company and, along with Sendwave, part of Zepz, a group powering two global payments brands. We disrupted an industry previously dominated by offline legacy players by taking international money transfers online - making them safer, faster and lower-cost. We currently send from 50 countries to recipients in 130 countries, operate in more than 5,000 money transfer corridors worldwide and employ over 1,200 people globally. On the sending side WorldRemit is 100% digital (cashless), increasing convenience and enhancing security. For those receiving money, the company offers a wide range of options including bank deposit, cash collection, mobile airtime top-up and mobile money. Backed by Accel, TCV and Leapfrog – WorldRemit’s headquarters are in London, United Kingdom with regional offices in the United States, Canada, Australia, Malaysia, South Africa, and Belgium.