This is obviously well outside the realms of language learning however I thought that many people in this community might be able to give some good advice. If anyone thinks it doesn't belong on this forum then please let me know.

I'm sure that many people have been shocked by how cash based Japanese society is. Here in the UK, I pay for almost everything by card and there's no way that I would carry around large amounts of money with me. Many of my Japanese friends only withdraw money from their bank accounts once a month, which I find incredible. It's also a testament to how safe society is in Japan.

I have an account with Tokyo Mitsubishi and if I have the audacity to use one of their ATMs outside certain hours then they charge me for the privilege of withdrawing my own money. Not very nice of them. I do find it very interesting that electronic money might be taking off in a very different way in Japan. The suica cards seem to be gaining a wider level of acceptance and keitais are also being used as electronic wallets. Anyway, enough digression...

The point is that it would be good if I could find the most efficient method of transferring funds from my home country to Japan and potentially even in the other direction too. Although ATMs are scarce in Japan, and ones that accept foreign cards even more so, there are a few Citi banks in Shinjuku and Ginza. I just discovered that Citi bank UK allows you to open a Japanese yen denominated account which you can link to a normal (sterling denominated) current account. This means you can transfer money back and forth between these accounts whenever you want (and whenever you think the FX rate is favourable) and you can withdraw from your yen account whilst in Japan and incur no charge. The only fee that you incur is on the exchange rate where citi take 'up to 2.5%'. I thought that was pretty good.

I don't know whether similar schemes are on offer from citi bank in other countries. Another drawback is that you can't make deposits in Japan, you have to make all deposits, be they in sterling or yen, from within the UK. Also, this Japanese yen account earns no interest so I'll only put money in there if I think I need it. Transferring between accounts in the UK can be done free of charge though, I don't know what it's like elsewhere.

Anyone else with any advice or experiences?

I haven't been here long, but I have one tidbit to add: Post office ATM machines all seem to accept foreign cards, and I usually get decent exchange rates minus a 1% fee. I'm not sure if that's charged by my overseas (US) bank or by the ATM, so it may change if you're using a different bank, but it's the cheapest way to withdraw money from my overseas account that I've found so far.

It's hard to offer advice without knowing why you want to transfer money so much. Do you go back and forth between Japan a lot? Are you looking to dabble in the currency market on a small scale?

Whenever I used my debit card at the Yuubinkyoku I got charged a $5 service fee as well as whatever they added onto the exchange rate. My advice is to get traveler's cheques and then cash them all in at once on arrival. They can be free depending on your bank (if you have a gold card etc). Just don't try to use them to pay for anything anywhere - nowhere takes them.

I use this to transfer money to america.

https://www.golloyds.com/en/index.php

to get money from America in japan, I use the post office ATMs to make withdrawals with my american ATM card.

Jarvik7 Wrote:My advice is to get traveler's cheques and then cash them all in at once on arrival.

I ain't not お金持ち but I had problems cashing my traveller's cheques at the same time. This was dispite the fact that I was in the process of opening an account with the bank in question.

In my experience, traveller's cheques and Japan don't mix!

EDIT: I use the Lloyds service that johnzep recommends too. It's not free but it's fast and convenient.

If anyone is considering joining the Lloyds service, you could do johnzep or myself a big favour by allowing us to introduce you We would get a free transfer out of it...and you would get a nice warm feeling in your heart!

Thanks for the replies.

JimmySeal Wrote:It's hard to offer advice without knowing why you want to transfer money so much. Do you go back and forth between Japan a lot? Are you looking to dabble in the currency market on a small scale?

I certainly wouldn't like to try my luck as a proprietary FX trader. I think you have to be very smart or pretty crazy to do that. I travel to and from Japan quite a lot so I'm asking from that point of view.

I tried to find out what exchange rate you'll get if you use a foreign card with a post office ATM. It looks like it might depend on the foreign bank so it's hard to tell. With the Citi bank scheme I described above, I was quite impressed. When the JPY to GBP market rate was at 230:1, I was quoted 225:1 for buying yen, which looks very good. Although, using the post office ATM certainly seems like it involves the least hassle since you don't need to bother setting up accounts.

The golloyds scheme also looked interesting but it's for going the other way right? You can only use it to transfer funds from Japan to abroad I think. It looks very convenient but very expensive for small amounts. 2000 yen fee up front and then another fee when it arrives at the receiving country. For the UK, it was GBP 7. That means that you'd have to transfer (2000+(230*7))/0.025 = 144,400 JPY in order for you to get the 2.5% commission that you get with citi for going from GBP to JPY.

I'm definitely with synewave when it comes to traveller's cheques. Not only do staff in Japanese banks look very perplexed when you present them, the exchange rate you get when you change them never seems to be that competitive.

The UK nationwide bank flexaccount debit card lets you take out money
from a foreign ATM without a fee. Their exchange rate is listed as "a wholesale
exchange rate", whatever that means. I'll have a look at my statements tonight
and see how close it was.

Wholesale exchange rate is the rate you see quoted in newspapers and on xe.com, etc. In other words, nobody's taking a commission on the rate.

I find changing money between yen and dollars to be a huge hassle, with lots of money lost along the way. Travelers' cheques are fine as long as you exchange them at the airport, but I think the airport's rates are a bit of a rip off (not compared to the rates at American airports, though).

You can search on the internet for ATMs that will let you withdraw yen with your overseas card. There are plenty of them at Narita Airport, of course. It might be a bit inconvenient, but at least in Tokyo there is usually one within reasonable distance. Usually the exchange rate they give you is pretty good, at least for American banks.

rilak Wrote:The UK nationwide bank flexaccount debit card lets you take out money
from a foreign ATM without a fee. Their exchange rate is listed as "a wholesale
exchange rate", whatever that means. I'll have a look at my statements tonight
and see how close it was.

I've just had a look and the exchange rate I got from the bank last time I used
the card was 222.7 and the rate on xe.com and others was about 223.4 at
the time so it seems they're not making up some crazy rate.