Frequently Asked Questions about Vested Money
With Vested Money, Indians/US citizens can open a USD-denominated account. All you need to open an account is your passport (for Indians), or Government issued ID (for US citizens) and our app on your mobile phone. With Vested Money, you can:
- Make domestic and international transfers in US dollars.
- Receive payments from anywhere in the world.
- Get your own international debit card.
Your money with Vested Money is insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, just as it would be with any large U.S. bank.
The FDIC (which stands for “Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation”) is an independent government agency that insures US banks in the event of bank failures. The FDIC insures deposits only. It does not insure securities, mutual funds, or digital currency (like crypto assets). It was created (in the 1930s after the Great Depression) to maintain public confidence and encourage stability in the US financial system.
Vested Money uses industry best-practice on information security with Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) to ensure the security of the entire platform and protect your information. We require two-factor authentication for verification and support biometric authentication.
Individuals in the following categories are currently eligible to apply for a Vested Money account:
- U.S. residents above 18 years with a U.S. Social Security Number
- Indian residents above 18 years with a valid Indian passport
Vested Money is compliant with U.S. regulations and Government of India regulations. For instance, transferring money from your Indian bank account to the Vested Money account will need to be done as per RBI’s Liberalized Remittance Scheme.
Vested Money offers banking services through a partnership with regulated financial institutions in the U.S., including Mastercard and Lineage Bank.
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The LRS is a policy of the Reserve Bank of India that governs the maximum amount and purposes of remittances from India to overseas. Under the Liberalized Remittance Scheme, all resident individuals of India, including minors, are allowed to remit up to USD 250,000 per financial year (April – March) without seeking approval from the RBI. Please refer to the RBI’s Website (link) and the RBI’s LRS Notifications Site (link) for the most up-to-date regulations.
Indian citizens are freely allowed to open and maintain a bank account in the U.S. under the Liberalized Remittance Scheme (LRS) of the Reserve Bank of India. Customers will, of course, need to meet Vested Money’s KYC and compliance requirements.
S0023 – Opening of foreign currency account abroad with a bank.
Your KYC will be approved within a few minutes.
Yes, once your KYC is approved and your account is opened, you can start using your account.
Yes, you can open your Vested Money account from India.
No, there is no minimum balance requirement.
- Resident Indians can submit their valid Indian passport.
- NRIs based in the US / US citizens can submit their Government issued ID proof
It means we cannot create your Vested Money account as your application has been rejected. The reason for the rejection could be one or more of the following; the inability to verify your identity based on the information you provided, missing or incorrect documentation, a particularly high-risk type of business, limited time in business, a prohibited type of business or information provided from 3rd party vendors.
You can access your account information from the Vested mobile application.
- Account opening fee – $0
- Annual charges – $0
- Monthly minimum balance – $0
- Incoming international wire – $15
- Outgoing international wire – $5
- Incoming domestic wire – $0
- Outgoing domestic wire – $20
- ACH pull and push (where Vested Money is the originating institution) – $0.25
- Debit card charges for international transactions – We do not charge any forex markup
- ATM charges for withdrawal – $0 for withdrawals from ATMs within the network.
- You can see the list of ATMs from your Vested Money application
Please note there might be fees levied by your originating bank. Please contact your originating bank for details
Please check with your recipient bank if there are any charges applicable for receiving funds through an International wire
Please note, there will be charges levied by Mastercard
International shipping of physical card – $30
You can raise a request to change your address from the Vested application profile section. However, we would need to verify your address before the changes are reflected on the app.
Vested Money issues virtual and physical Mastercard debit cards. Any spending that you use the card for will be debited directly from your Vested Money account.
A virtual card will be immediately available to you once your account is open.
We do not charge any FX markup. However, Mastercard will charge a standard FX fee of ~2%.
You can place a request for a physical card from the Vested application. There will be extra shipping charges which have to be borne by users.
You can withdraw cash from any ATM that accepts Mastercard. You can find a list of ATMs from your Vested Money application.
You can freeze your card instantly from your Vested application. When you find your card, you can unfreeze the card from the application.
You can place a request from your Vested Money application for a replacement card. The process is similar to placing a request for a new card.
Please note shipping charges will be applicable.
You can reset your card’s PIN from the Vested Money application under the “Manage card” section.
Some merchants outside the US )offline and online) block the internationally-issued card. Hence, such merchant outlets will decline the Vested Money debit card.
Please check with your merchant for more details
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- Under Mastercard Rules, you will not be held responsible for unauthorized transactions if you used reasonable care to protect your card from loss or theft and promptly reported to us when you knew that your card was lost or stolen.
- If you become aware of and/or your statement shows transactions you did not make, notify us immediately. You can call on +91 9513375607 or contact us by email at helpbanking@vestedfinance.co or write us at Vested Money Inc, 222 N. Sepulveda Blvd. Suite 10-124, El Segundo, CA 90245. If you do not notify us within sixty (60) days after you become aware of the transaction and/or after the statement was made available to you, you may not get back any value you lost.
If you believe your card or PIN has been lost, stolen or compromised, call +91 9513375607 or email us at helpbanking@vestedfinance.co or write us at Vested Money Inc, 222 N. Sepulveda Blvd. Suite 10-124, El Segundo, CA 90245. You should also call us at the number set forth in this section or write us at the address set forth in this section if you believe an unauthorised electronic transfer has been made using your card. This should be done immediately.
You can stop the payment by notifying us orally at +91 9513375607. If you call, we also may require you to put your request in writing by emailing us at helpbanking@vestedfinance.co.
You can check the transaction history of your account from the bank account dashboard in the Vested Money application.
Neither the Bank nor Vested Money is responsible for the delivery, quality, safety, legality or any other aspects of the goods or services you purchase from others with the card. If you have a problem with a purchase you made with the card, or if you have a dispute with the merchant, you should first handle it directly with the merchant. If you have exhausted, all options, email us at helpbanking@vestedfinance.co with all relevant documents/screenshots. It might take 7-90 days, depending on the type of transaction
- You can transfer funds from any Indian bank through the bank’s netbanking channel using the wire transfer instructions mentioned in the Add funds sections of the Vested Money application
- Attention: if the origin bank does not request the intermediary and beneficiary bank information separately, inform the SWIFT code, the name of the Intermediary Bank, the Routing Number, and your account number (as shown in the app) to your Bank and add a note to the transaction stating that the Beneficiary Bank is Lineage Bank. It is extremely important to inform at the time of the transaction which will be the intermediary bank and the bank benefiting from the transfer. If you have difficulty filling in the information, contact the bank issuing the transfer for more details on the operation in the system.
You can transfer funds through ACH and domestic wire from another US bank account.
- To initiate an ACH pull request, first, you have to link your other US bank account with Vested Money.
- To link your other US bank account with Vested Money, we have partnered with Plaid to verify the account information provided by you.
- You need to provide the account name, account number, bank name and routing number.
- Once Plaid successfully verifies the information, you can initiate an ACH pull request from the Vested application.
We have temporarily paused the transfer of funds from your Vested Direct account to your Vested Money account.
Yes, you can pull funds from your Vested Invest account to Vested Money. It will be an ACH transfer.
How many dollars can I send?
- Domestic daily limit (ACH) – $2,000
- Domestic monthly limit (ACH) – $8,750
- Domestic daily limit (Domestic Wire) – $2,000
- Domestic monthly limit (Domestic Wire) – $8,750
- International daily limit (SWIFT) – $1,000
- International monthly limit (SWIFT) – $4,375
- Domestic daily limit (ACH) – $4,000
- Domestic monthly limit (ACH) – $17,500
- International daily limit (SWIFT) – $1000
- International monthly limit (SWIFT) – $4,375
- Daily limit – $4000
- Monthly limit – $17,500
How many dollars can I receive?
How many dollars can I spend with my card?
Be aware that your money will always be available for you. If you need to withdraw or transfer above the limit, we might ask you for additional documentation.
Yes, you can withdraw funds to your Vested Direct account.
Alternatively, you can withdraw funds back to any Indian bank account by initiating a wire transfer from your Vested Money account
Yes, you can use domestic wire transfer or ACH to move funds to another US bank account.
Yes, you can transfer funds to your Vested Invest (Drivewealth) account from your Vested Money.
Yes, you can use a third-party money transfer service provider to withdraw funds.
You do not earn any interest on the balance.
You can see the transaction history from your Vested application.
A vested user can raise a request with us through email or chat, or call for reversal. A zendesk ticket will be raised for the user.
The vested user needs to make the request within 24 hours. Once we receive a response from our banking partner, the user will be updated on the resolution via the Zendesk ticket
- ACH Reversals are not guaranteed to be honoured by the receiving bank, as the funds have already been debited or credited and may not exist in the receiving Bank Account. The receiving bank has 48 hours to respond to the ACH Reversal request.
If the user’s Vested money account does not have sufficient funds to cover the debited amount, an automatic ACH Return is filed by our banking partner with the originating bank.
- A vested user can raise a request with us through email or chat, or call for reversal. A zendesk ticket will be raised for the user.
- The vested user needs to make the request within 24 hours as we must receive the request to file the return with ODFI (originating bank) within 24 hours.
- ODFI decides if the request is legitimate to process for the reversal.
- Once we receive a response from the originating bank, the user will be updated on the resolution via the Zendesk ticket.
- By indicating your Vested Money account to receive a transfer, the institution from which the amount originated will be responsible for processing the transaction. For this reason, Vested Money does not have access to the status, tracking or further details of this transaction.
- As soon as the amount enters our system, it is automatically available in your balance. Therefore, if you have not received a transfer, we recommend contacting the issuing bank for tracking and transaction deadlines.
- Only the institution responsible for processing the transfer has access to this information.
ACH
Wire
- Starting October 1, 2020, foreign remittances of over Rs 7 lakh (in a financial year), will attract a TCS of 5%. In case of education-related foreign remittances funded by loans, however, a TCS of only 0.5% will be levied for an amount above Rs 7 lakh. The objective of this regulation is to expand compliance with filing of income taxes in India.
- The TCS is not an additional cost but only paid upfront. The withholding TCS can be offset against tax paid in the year, and will be refunded if the tax liabilities are already met or are zero. The TCS will not apply if the remitter is subject to the Tax Deductible at Source (TDS), under the Income Tax Act, 1961. If tax has already been paid as TDS, and still the TCS is levied, you can claim a refund. For additional details about this, please consult with a tax advisor.
There are no taxes to be paid for moving funds into your Vested Money Account* up to Rs. 700,000 in a financial year (April-March). If the amount of remittance (in aggregate) exceeds Rs. 700,000 in a financial year, you will be liable for the TCS at the rate of 5% (provided PAN/Aadhaar is available; otherwise, TCS will be 10%) only on the amount in excess of Rs. 700,000 and not the entire amount.
We advise you to check with your legal advisor on the same
Yes, you can get the payment made to your Vested Money account. A resident individual can receive Freelancing or Consultancy income in his/ her foreign currency account held. However, the received/realised/unspent/unused foreign exchange, unless reinvested, shall be repatriated, and surrendered to the Indian banks within a period of 180 days from the date of such receipt/ realisation/ purchase/ acquisition or date of return to India.
The TCS on remittance for education funded by a student loan is at a lower rate of 0.5% instead of 5% on the amount in excess of Rs.700,000 in a financial year (April-March).
You can download monthly account statements from the Vested application.
Yes, you can transfer the sales proceeds from ESOPs to their Vested Money account to invest/spend. If not reinvested then it needs to be repatriated in 180 days.