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flaco
Joined: 27 Dec 2003
Posts: 30
Location: Brooklyn
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 Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2004 8:32 am Post subject: sending $ home |
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what's the best way? is it expensive? i have credit card debts to pay monthly and i'm wondering how to efficiently make these payments from japan. any advice is appreciated.
thanks.  |
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Celeste
Joined: 17 Jan 2003
Posts: 814
Location: Fukuoka City, Japan
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| Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2004 8:46 am Post subject: |
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| If you are from the states, the best way to go might be to get a postal money order and send it to a trusted relative to deposit for you. If you are from other countries this is also an option, but can take a longer time to do (for example, I am from Canada, and it took the postal money order more than 3 weeks from the time I sent it until the time my sister got it.) GoLloyds is another option, but it is a bit more expensive. It is easy and fast and you can do it from your bank machine. It costs 2000yen, but it can cost you wire transfer fees on the other end from your home bank. This is my preferred method, however, because it is so fast and easy. |
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Gordon
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Posts: 5309
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2004 10:24 am Post subject: |
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Celeste is right. Do a search on the Japan forum and you'll see lots of comments about this very same problem. It seems this question gets asked about every 3-4 months. I also like Lloyds, quick and easy once you register.
http://www.lloydstsb.co.jp/en/index.php |
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easyasabc
Joined: 13 Jul 2003
Posts: 179
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2004 11:15 am Post subject: |
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Yep - Lloyds!
The 2000 yen is well worth it for the ease and speed cpmpared to other sytems. It used to take 3-4 weeks for a money transfer to get from here to Australia and that was a real drag. |
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canuck
Joined: 11 May 2003
Posts: 1921
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2004 2:51 pm Post subject: |
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| The cheapest way is the post office, but it takes longer. Lloyds is the 2nd best. |
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G Cthulhu
Joined: 07 Feb 2003
Posts: 1373
Location: Way, way off course.
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| Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2004 11:15 am Post subject: |
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| canuck wrote: |
The cheapest way is the post office, but it takes longer. Lloyds is the 2nd best.
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It drives me to distraction that people just keep trotting that out as if it were true. It isn't.
A Post Office telegraphic transfer is just as fast as GoLloyds (which is just a normal TT) and you can set them up to be just as easy. It's also cheaper for smaller amounts (under 500,000?). Post Office GIRO transfers are generally even cheaper and faster, but no use to the US for the OP. The only diffrence is that you might have to <shock, horror> use some little bit of Japanese language in order to do any of them the first time.
<sigh>
Hello. Spot the person that's just done a five day training seminar that covered the exact same things the trainees should have learnt a year ago but were too busy getting drunk each night to bother with. I am beginning to hate tourist teachers.
(not meant to be snapping at you, canuck, sorry if it comes across that way) |
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canuck
Joined: 11 May 2003
Posts: 1921
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2004 1:18 pm Post subject: |
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When I went to the post office a little over 2 years ago, I filled out the form, showed them my passport, and sent money. It took over 2 weeks to arrive in Canada. It cost me 1000 yen.
Lloyds costs 2000 yen, plus the fee from your home bank. If there is a new system, I would like to know. However, Lloyds is just really easy and I have everything set up. So I opt for the convenience. No offence taken. |
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shmooj
Joined: 11 Sep 2003
Posts: 1758
Location: Seoul, ROK
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| Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2004 2:35 pm Post subject: |
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| canuck wrote: |
When I went to the post office a little over 2 years ago, I filled out the form, showed them my passport, and sent money. It took over 2 weeks to arrive in Canada. It cost me 1000 yen.
Lloyds costs 2000 yen, plus the fee from your home bank. If there is a new system, I would like to know. However, Lloyds is just really easy and I have everything set up. So I opt for the convenience. No offence taken. |
All I can say is that they must have spent your money on a round of drinks and then waited for their paycheck to reimburse you.
Two years ago I was doing the same thing. My money went to the UK within a few days and it was cheaper in terms of fees than the bank at the time and still is because the UK and Japan have a postal agency agreement.
However, the exchange rate at Lloyds is better than the post office for amounts over 500 quid and once you know how to use a furikomi machine in Japanese (UFJ UNinstalled the onest that did English - hello?  ) Lloyds is very convenient to do. |
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G Cthulhu
Joined: 07 Feb 2003
Posts: 1373
Location: Way, way off course.
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| Posted: Sat Feb 21, 2004 8:36 am Post subject: |
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| canuck wrote: |
When I went to the post office a little over 2 years ago, I filled out the form, showed them my passport, and sent money. It took over 2 weeks to arrive in Canada. It cost me 1000 yen.
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Yeah, but that was a postal remittance wasn't it? It'd take the same time if you got a bank to do it.
What people keep forgetting is that the post office can do a lot more than just postal remittances. They can do telegraphic transfers, just like any bank (and Llyods). IIRC, they're cheaper than Llyods for a TT too and you can set up an automatic payment routine on the PO ATMs.
But what the post office can also do, what no other entity in Japan can, is a thing called a GIRO transfer. For regular amounts each month it's the cheapest and fastest way to go. Literally, it will show up in your home country account (with no charges other than the Japan PO charge) in under five minutes. The *only* problem with them is that they don't go to all countries. The US, for example, is not possible (as I mentioned first time).
But hey, people are obviously happy with whatever they use. I'm just trying to correct a few misconceptions and suggest some alternatives. :) |
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ashburn
Joined: 24 Feb 2004
Posts: 6
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| Posted: Sun Feb 29, 2004 2:55 am Post subject: |
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Lloyds for the large sums and the post office for the small sums.
The post office gets progressively more expensive as you send more.
The bank charges a high commission fee for small amounts.
Credit cards are a good option as they bypass a lot of commission charges. |
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