💬 Banking and money transfer problems I've had sending money home from Riyadh

I've been sending money home from Riyadh since 2017 and I've made most of the mistakes. For the first two years I used the exchange shop near Batha and only looked at the rate on the board. Then my father mentioned what actually reached him, and it was always less than I'd worked out. NRE and NRO confused me for years. I opened the wrong one first and later the bank in Mehdipatnam made me open the other one too. My brother had to go three times with my signed forms. The worst was 2020. I sent a big amount for my sister's wedding and the transfer was held for four days. The bank wanted to know where the money came from, so I was sending salary slips and a company letter while the hall was waiting for the advance. Now I send big amounts in parts, a few weeks early. Then the OTP problem. My Indian number got disconnected because I forgot to recharge it, and every bank OTP goes there. It took my brother almost two weeks to get it changed. Now I recharge that SIM for a full year and keep it in an old phone in my drawer. Last year I also got two fake "update your KYC" messages with a link. The second one looked so real I almost clicked it at 1am after a long shift. Banks don't send links like that and never ask for your OTP. What do you all use now? I've moved to an app that shows the final amount before I pay. Has anyone had a transfer held, and how long did it take to release?

I had about 6 lakhs held for verification once. They asked for source of funds five working days after the money left my account, right when my father needed it for a hospital deposit. Now I keep salary slips and documents ready for anything over 3 lakhs.

It took me a long time to understand why rent from my flat in India couldn't go into my NRE account. It has to go to NRO because it's income from India. A relationship manager finally explained it properly, but only after two visits where I came out more confused than before.