Job Discussion Forums

[Lyrajean]

Okay read lots of posts on wiretransfering money back home and I have a question I have not seen an answer to: where does the money get exchanged from yen to dollars? Do you tell your Japanese bank to send X amount of US$ or yen to said bank account in the US.

Reason I'm asking is I'm trying to figure which bank account here in the USA to set up with online banking/ automatic laon withdrawals to transfer money home to pay my student loans while with JET.

My current accounts are with A. a local CU and B. a local bank. I have not spoken to B. yet, but the credit union folks are clueless as to the mechanics of international money transfers... -they do not exchange any foreign currency themselves except Canadian, so as far as I gather the money I send to them would have to be in US dollars!

I have no idea who I will be banking with in Japan... I'm shortlisted but do not yet even know where exactly I'm going.

Confused.

[Vince]

Even at Citibank, it was a hassle to wire money to the US. I made my student loan payments by getting international postal money orders. The post office will take your yen and handle the conversion for you. There's a �500 fee for money orders up to $700 (or maybe it was the equivalent of �70K), which is probably cheaper and definitely less of a hassle than doing it through a bank. If you'll have several bills, you might send one money order to your US bank on a regular basis, then write checks to your US creditors. If you expect to do this, tell to your US bank manager in person and get his/her business card so you'll have the e-mail address. Many bank tellers don't know how to handle these and sometimes don't realize that the currency conversion has already been done.

[Glenski]

You have to take the responsibility yourself in watching the exchange rate, so that you can decide if the money you earned will go up or down in value on the day you want to send it home. If you go by wire transfer (about 5000 yen fee at this end no matter how much you send; Lloyds charges 2000 yen, and post offices charge 2500 yen), a bank will ask how much yen you want to send. You have to write this on the form. They have an exchange rate display posted that changes hourly, and it often doesn't change after a certain time of day, so you take that rate even if the exchange goes better in your favor from then to closing time.

The thing you have to verify is what other fees are involved at the end where your bank or credit union receives the funds (in your own currency).

So, bottom line, you choose how much you want to send in yen based on the exchange rate (and fees) in order to deposit a certain amount in your home country's currency).

[shuize]

It's not something to worry about. Most banks are familiar with foreign wire transfers. If yours is not, you should switch.

As to whether you should send yen or dollars, you can send either. The funds can be exchanged from yen to dollars at the time you send the money or after it is received (again, this is fairly standard practice). However, as noted above, if you wire yen there may be an extra charge on the receiving end to convert into dollars and, since that may not happen immediately, there's a risk that the rate will not be what you expected.

The last time I checked, UFJ charged 3,500 yen for wire transfers and has the advantage of being much faster. Once you set it up, it is as easy as an ATM withdrawal. For small amounts, sure, the postal money orders are a better deal, but anything over a couple of thousand dollars turns in to a bit of a hassle -- not to mention the extra time of insuring the mail.

[Apsara]

Lloyds is so easy that I don't know why anyone bothers with anything else, especially now the PO charge has gone up. Or is it their rate that puts people off? I made a bank transfer once a long time ago and used the post office once to send a friend's money- loads of paper work and waiting, big hassle. Bank transfer was expensive too.

With Lloyd's I just use the ATM to do a furikomi (funds transfer) and it's in my bank at home, minus several thousand yen, a couple of days later. I've been doing the same thing for about 8 years now and am totally happy with it.

In all cases you specify the yen amount you want to transfer.

[Chris21]

Just to add some info, CitiBank offers wire transfers. I've haven't yet sent money, but I've received and it was very quick. As for the amount of paperwork, I'm not sure how much work it is. Anyway, I believe their rates are as follows...

4,000 yen for CitiBank account holders with less than 1,000,000 yen
2,500 yen for CitiBank account holders with more than 1,000,000 yen
free for CitiBank account holders with more than 10,000,000 yen

[Inflames]

I use moneybookers to send money back home. It's cheap (like 1.5% and like $3.00 [for the US] and furikomi fees) and takes about a week, but it has several steps.
Domestic transfer to their account.
Online send money to family
Have family put money into joint account.
Do whatever with it from there.

[chinagirl]

Get a Shinsei Bank account.
Get a Go Lloyds account.
Go online to the Shinsei web site (also in English)
Transfer money from your bank account to your Lloyds account.
Lloyds converts the yen to dollars and wires money to your destination bank.
The money is in your home country bank account within 24 hours.
Done.
No visit to post office. No more forms to fill out.

Don't even have to leave the house.

Cost for me - 2000 yen from Lloyds plus intermediary bank ($10) plus home bank wire fee ($12) but great for sending large amounts at once.

[canuck]

[chinagirl]

The advantage with Shinsei is that you get 5 free furikomi transfers a month with your account. Instead of the ATM, you just use the online furikomi transfer. This saves a lot of hassle and about 300 yen, for me.

[Apsara]

Wow, I sent money home through GoLloyds yesterday morning at about 9.30 and it was in my account in NZ when I got home in the evening- even faster than usual. It's a pretty good service really.