NISA with JA Bank - any feedback or advice ?

[yamede]

Hello RetireJapan !

Myy first post on RetireJapan and coming to you for some advice / feedback...
basically, my salary is being paid by my company to JA bank because my house mortgage is at that bank, so from what I understood, if I want to open a NISA account, I have to do it through JA (otherwise, there would be a monthly JPY 770 fee to transfer funds to another bank taking care of NISA, if I understood well). Is that right?

I'm planning to put JPY 30,000 monthly into my NISA.

Does anyone have any feedback ( or advice) on having NISA with JA bank? Are they "same" or "worse" than any other bank to manage my NISA account? Would it change anything compared to other banks that I often read about here (SBI, Rakuten, etc)?

Also, is there any workaround to paying JPY 770 every month, to transfer the monthly 30,000 to another bank that would handle my NISA? \

Sorry, I've been living in JP for a while (over 10 years) but a total noob in money / bank matters...

Thanks!

[zeroshiki]

SBI, Rakuten, Monex, the 3 that are always recommended in this site are brokers, not banks. There is nothing stopping you from opening an account with these brokers. It's not a requirement to open a NISA with JA bank. The only cost you would possibly incur would be bank transfer fees but I don't think its that onerous.

[yamede]

Thanks zeroshiki for your reply and explanation. I didn't know that SBI, Monex etc were brokers and that NISA didn't have to be done through a bank.

JA charge as whopping JPY 770 to transfer over JPY 20,000 to another bank, so I assume it would be the same to transfer to a broker. And since it would be on a monthly basis, it would quite defeat the purpose...

They partner with "saison" and offer a "whole world" (all countries) low risk package (mix of bonds & stocks) with 0 entry fee and 0.56% yearly management fee.
Does it seem reasonable?

Not sure if it's allowed (or if anyone is interested) to post their docs here ?

[zeroshiki]

Couldn't you do a transfer of, say, 300k to a SBI bank or Rakuten bank account, eat the 770 yen cost, and then do tsumitate from there? 770 yen a transfer seems unreasonably high tbh but I guess for some rural banks you don't have a choice.

[Moneymatters]

…

JA charge as whopping JPY 770 to transfer over JPY 20,000 to another bank, so I assume it would be the same to transfer to a broker. And since it would be on a monthly basis, it would quite defeat the purpose...

They partner with "saison" and offer a "whole world" (all countries) low risk package (mix of bonds & stocks) with 0 entry fee and 0.56% yearly management fee.
Does it seem reasonable?

..

Assuming they don’t charge to use the ATM. You can just withdraw cash then deposit to an SBI/Rakuten bank account free of charge. That money can be made available in a linked broker account of the same parent entity.
Then pick a world fund with a much lower management fee.
0.56% is much more than the cheapest comparable funds available via brokers.

[beanhead]

I suggest opening an account at one of the online brokers and getting one of their bank accounts as well, for example Rakuten Securities and Rakuten Bank.
Then, as others have said, you could either take out cash regularly and put it into that Rakuten Bank account, or make one larger lump-sum transfer to that account if you have it.

It is always a good idea to have more than one bank account anyway. Aeon Bank and Sony Bank are also good online bank options.

[Randomletters]

I agree with that others are saying here - 0.56% is pretty high. For example, the eMaxis Slim All country has a yearly fee of 0.05775%. So, about 1/10 of what you're being offered.

Just one point, if you go down the Rakuten broker / bank account route (recommended - it's pretty easy!), you should deposit more than 30,000 yen to the ATM in each transaction to avoid fees. So, transfer your money every 2 months or so.

[adamu]

You could open a bank account with a net bank like SBI.

If you pay your salary into it, you will probably qualify for enough free transfers and withdrawals, including paying your mortgage.

Or if JA are super strict about paying from their own bank, some employers allow you to split the accounts your salary gets paid into.

[sutebayashi]

basically, my salary is being paid by my company to JA bank because my house mortgage is at that bank,

JA bank sounds like a rip-off to charge 770 yen to transfer your own money elsewhere.

Do you have a satisfactory mortgage rate with them?

I would second (or seventh) looking elsewhere.

I refinanced my mortgage with SBI Sumishin net bank, and since then I also get my salary paid there. I do a few other things with that bank, and all up, qualify for 10 free bank transfers a month, as a result.

The net brokers are low on fees too.

[RetireJapan]

One of the conditions for me getting my low mortgage rate was to pay my salary into the bank. A few years later I stopped working and no longer got a salary.

The bank has not mentioned this, nor increased my mortgage rate