missed diwali muhurat because my bank wire was slow, rethinking how to send money to india from abroad
Sister called me diwali morning asking if I'd forgotten the kids' shagun. I had sent it. Five days earlier. Money was just parked somewhere in the international banking pipeline doing whatever wires do for a week, scheduled to land november 3rd.
Diwali was october 31st. Mom's verdict: "not the same, they opened their other gifts without anything from you."
Four years I've used chase wire for every festival send because I set it up my first week in seattle and never touched it again. Apparently UPI from abroad has existed for two years and lands in phonepe in minutes. Minutes. While I've been wiring.
NRIs, what are you actually using these days? Is UPI really as fast as people claim or is that best case scenario marketing?