Job Discussion Forums

[nawlinsgurl]

Hey everyone:
I have heard that Citibank is the only American bank in Japan. I wanted to open up an acct in the states that I can also access from Japan. anyone know if other American banks are in Japan and if you can open a bank acct here and then use it in Japan EASILY?
Thanks in advance for the info!!!

[Sweetsee]

Citibank Japan is independant of Citibank America.

Check with your bank that you can access your account in Japan.

[worldwidealive]

What do you need to do in relation to accessing the accounts you already have in America? If you need ATM cash withdrawl access to those accounts, you can go to post office ATM machines here in Japan and use your ATM card from home to withdraw money with no problems, as they are on the international network. They even have English menus on the machines. There is no cost on this end from the post office machines (of course, your bank may charge you a fee back home) and you receive the bank exchange rate which is about the best you can get. In fact, I see no reason for anyone to bring a lot of money and/or traveller's checks with them. Leave it at home and get it from a post office ATM as needed. They are quite plentiful here.

If you concerned about sending money home, well there are several different options.

Let us know why you are asking and we can give you all the options.

WWA

[nawlinsgurl]

I need to pay a monthly student loan and send money home to savings.

[Gordon]

You can do wire transfers here through Lloyds http://www.lloydstsb.co.jp/en/index.php It is easy, simple and only 2,000 yen.
You don't need to set up a bank account just to transfer money.

[nawlinsgurl]

Thanks Gordon and everyone else. But my other question is is Lloyd's better than a bank acct? By "better" I guess I mean safer.
Thanks again!

[Gordon]

Safer than Japanese banks. Lloyds is huge. You can trust them for the small amount you'll be sending back home.

[bearcat]

If you get a citibanc account in Japan, your ATM card works on the same deal as your home account would when you visit an area of the US that doesnt have a citi bank....in other words it uses the cirus or other money reciprocation systems.

Now, that said, make a citibank account and get two atm cards. Keep on in Japan and send the otherone back home via insured mail. Let a relative or someone you trust use it to withdraw funds to put into your savings account in the states... from which you can have the loan folks withdraw similarly.

Here's the catch: A citibanc account will deduct 2000 yen a month from your account if your balance is below 500,000 yen(about $5000). Thus you need to save a few months worth of work in there to avoid that.

Now if you manage to get over 1,000,000 yen in your account then you will not have to pay atm fees for withdrawls. However I doubt you'd get to that point if yoursending it back.

Another nice aspect of setting up a citibank account in Japan is that you can pretty easily get a citibank credit card as well. It will be based on your credit history in Japan(in otherwords zilch) and not from the US. However the credit card will deduct from your citibank account directly so you need to becareful on your balance.

Be aware that if you use services like lloyds you have to pay the fee to transfer, plus fill out the paperwork each and every time (unless they changed things since I last looked.) Plus the exchange rate's differential.

With citibanc, if your account has the $5k balance you just get hit with the current exchange rate at the time of the withdrawl by your partner in the states.

[Gordon]

Citibank also takes charges a 1 or 2 % transaction fee when you withdraw money. That made up my mind to stay far way from them.

[bearcat]

Withdrawl from an ATM you in Japan yes. Not from the counter. As well its no different that getting charged the fees like you do from a Japanese back's atm after 7pm or such.

And again all atm fees are waived (even outside Japan) if your account has a balace above 100man.

[Mike L.]

Just Llyods everthing since your employer will designate what bank they'll pay you thoguh, that's hoew it goes here, and Llyods eveything into your account back home!!

Why go through the hassle of setting up a citibsnk account?

BTW Llyods uses a Japanese agent bank whihc is included in your 2000 yen fee!

There's no way around this here!

Your bank back home will charge you something too! My Canadian bank charges me 10$

Link your loan payment online to your account back home while you're still in country!

[Gordon]

[Mike L.]

Yeah the banks seem to be the last sector of the economy to get "it!!"

It being the market economy and things like customer service!!

[bearcat]

Ok so since I've never had a 1% fee charged when Iv'e taken money out and only the service charges when I did so from ATM's in the states I decided to go to the source:

http://www.citibank.co.jp/en/i_svc/charge_e.pdf

All of you dissenters carefully check the services charges listed. You will notice the only % crap for a NON corporate account are when you purchase a travelers check(1% of the check's value). Otherwise all other percents on charges go to Corporate accounts folks.

Notice as well the corporate % charge has an upto limit as well.

I will say again, for someone from the states, a citibank account with two atm cards, is the way to go for shifting funds.

I've been using an account with em for over 6 years now and I've yet to see any percentage withdrawl. I've taken out as much as $10,000 and I would have noticed.

[Gordon]

I went to Citibank last December to open an account. I wanted to get a card so I could withdraw money outside of Japan while on holidays. In the process of signing up for an account, they informed me that there would be a service charge of 1% (not totally sure of the exact percentage) on top of the service scharge. They gave it to me in writing too. I don't have the paper any more as it went quickly into the garbage.

If you're happy, than good for you. I'm going on what they told me.