Job Discussion Forums

[tsunatuna]

I still don't have it after 15 days. I hope that not somebody else got the documents in their hands
I'll probably have to call them and ask what happened.
If they're so "good" that they lose simple documents, then I don't wanna know what'll happen to my money

[spidr245]

I'm a little confused by this whole XE thing. Any advice any of you could give would be appreciated.

I have a JP Post account and am trying to transfer money to their Tokyo account. But I am a little wary of pressing the "Confirm" button for sending money, since I'm not 100% sure where the money will end up. There was no prompt for entering details such as "beneficiary name" before this screen. I only entered the account number and amount before that.

The teller told me if I send it to the wrong account, I most likely won't get it back... This only makes me more frustrated.

[seklarwia]

I don't know anything about XE, but when doing a regular furikomi money transfer from JP to another Japanese account, you have to do more than enter an account number and amount.

I have done it a number of times to pay for purchases. I have to enter a bank name, then find the specific branch and choose the type of account I'm tranferring to before even entering the destination account number and amount. Then I have to enter my phone number and can edit the name and info that will appear on the receiver's statement.
Before confirming the transfer, I get a page displaying complete list of my display details as well as those of the destination account.

It's a fairly lengthy process, and when I first had a go last year, I had all kinds of issues trying to recognise the kanji on the options (turns out JP ATMs hide the option amongst sub-categories and then name it something far more long-winded than furikomi). I timed-out and restarted a number of times before I completed my first transaction after two days of attempts.

Perhaps you are choosing the wrong option. You're right not to press that confirm button.

[OneJoelFifty]

A long-term foreign resident recommended setting up a Japanese Paypal account and using it as a way or transferring money. Has anyone done this before? I haven't looked into the details as I've not had the need (or rather, the money, ha) to send money home. Just thought I'd put it out there.

[spidr245]

@seklarwia
Well, yes, I did enter the bank and branch name before that. But I didn't get a screen showing all the details before hitting the confirm button. Maybe that screen will show up after I press that mysterious "confirm" button. Perhaps I am choosing the wrong option though. It doesn't help that I can't read Kanji all that well... Like I said before, I'm just a little wary of whether the destination is actually the where I want the money to go to. (It doesn't help that I don't have any real assistance from the JP Post people either. They close the windows at 3pm!!! I, and probably many of us on here, don't get out 'til after that... )

@OneJoelFifty
Paypal sounds like a reasonable option too. I'll see if I can get that going if this becomes to complicated for me. I do like doing things from the comfort of my own home.

Thanks to the both of you. I'll go and try again tomorrow.

[seklarwia]

[Diceman]

[OneJoelFifty]

Sounds like a real pain. Thank you.

[dekkard]

I've been looking into sending money back to the UK recently.

GoLloyds, the Post Office and Xe.com are all mentioned in the forum but no one has mentioned any of the other online money transfer companies - such as Moneycorp, HiFx etc.

Is there a reason people haven't considered these companies?

[steki47]

I use the post office but it got more expensive awhile back. Went from Y700 to Y2500. Plus my bank charges me $10 to receive.

Anyone try the new 7-11 service?

[dekkard]

The 7-11 one looks a bit pricey:

http://www.sevenbank.co.jp/soukin/en/charge/

[steki47]

[dekkard]

Interestingly (for UK people with a bank account at the Alliance & Leicester/Santander), it looks like you can transfer money from a Japan Post Bank account to the UK via the Eurogiro network.

http://www.alliance-leicester.co.uk/siteinfo/international-payments.aspx

Has anyone had any experience of transferring money this way?

[dekkard]

Judging by the Yen vs. Sterling/Pound rate today (119 yen to the pound a few moments ago), now is a good time for UK people to be converting any spare yen to pounds. I don't think it's been that low for many years.

[G Cthulhu]