Job Discussion Forums

[dawnbuckley]

Hi,

I am considering a job in Osaka and need some advice on sending money home. I need to send as much as I can every month or two to Ireland as I have a loan to pay off.

I have heard that Japanese banks are strange and its really expensive to transfer cash. I just read this on a random website, is it true?
What is the easiest way to send money home, any bank recommendations, and is there a large fee?

Thanks!

Dawn

[slodziak]

Hi there,

This question comes up quite regularly on the message board. You will probably get a lot of luck by using the search function at the top of the page. The advice from the FAQ section says this:

[Apsara]

I have also been using GoLloyds for about 8 years now and think it's great. If I send the money from here in the morning it will be in my bank in NZ by the afternoon. I did a transfer from an ordinary bank just once and they made me go to a central Tokyo branch, it took forever to process, it was expensive and took almost a week to get to NZ. No comparison.

[G Cthulhu]

Japanese banks are not difficult to deal with in the slighest. If you speak Japanese.

The cheapest way to send money is through the Post Office via the Swift system. Next cheapest is often post office money order. Failing that, wire transfers. Lots of people like GoLloyds because it is cheap-ish and easy (it caters and aims at people that can't speak Japanese), but xe.com is actually cheaper and (slightly) faster. An account with xe.com can be a pain in the arse to set up, however - it takes about two weeks to get the whole thing worked out & you *need* a net connection to do the transfers. After that, any bank can do a conventional wire transfer - costs will vary wildly and small branch secondary banks will often avoid doing them because they don't want the hassle.

Personally, assuming Ireland still has banks offering Swift, I can't think of any reason not to use that mehtod: 1500 yen flat fee and it arrives in under ten minutes. Can't beat that.

[chinagirl]

If you do a wire transfer from the post office, what is the charge these days? Is there a cap? Since they privatized, things seem to have changed and I cannot find the information online.

I'd like to hear more about xe.com from those experienced with it.

I've been happy with Lloyds. Their service is great and when I had a problem I was able to get a real person on the phone, immediately.

UPDATE:
I have been poking about on the XE site - it actually looks like a good deal.

http://www.xe.com/fx/

I just had an online chat with web rep and she said that I could furikomi the money to them in Japan and then they'll transfer it from there. Since I don't have to pay a commission, and can make a transfer as an EFT and not a wire transfer, I think I will end up saving 30 or 40 dollars US. I'll keep you guys posted - just got my account set up.

[poohbear]

i used goloyds my entire time in japan to send money to canada, as long as i sent it before 3pm tokyo time it'd arrive that same night in my account in canada (so by 9am toronto time it'd be in my account online). they only charged 2000yen regardless of how much u sent (there was a cap for the 2000yen fee, but it was something like $10, 000, which i unfortunetly never had to worry about :p). its also very easy to sign up and u just use any atm at one of the big banks. my bank in canada charged me $10 for the service, but all in all it was much faster than any other service and competitively priced to boot.

[G Cthulhu]