SMBC refusing foreign cheques

[banders]

Just received this email (translated from Japanese). I believe some of you use for foreign cheques:

Notice of Change in Currency for Handling Foreign Checks

Dear customer

Thank you for your continued business with SMBC Trust & Banking.

Recently, foreign checks have been rapidly declining due to the high risk of loss, forgery, and alteration, and the shift to other means of payment in many countries, and some countries have already stopped accepting checks for payment within their own borders.
Therefore, after careful consideration, we will cease handling the purchase and collection of foreign checks in the following 9 currencies as of December 30, 2024 (Monday).

British Pound GBP
Euro EUR EUR
Australian Dollar AUD
Singapore Dollar SGD
New Zealand Dollar NZD
Norwegian Krone NOK
Swedish Krone SEK
Danish Krone DKK
Swiss Franc CHF

Currencies after January 2025
US Dollar USD
Hong Kong Dollar HKD
Canadian Dollar CAD
Thai Baht THB

[RetireJapan]

Just received this email (translated from Japanese). I believe some of you use for foreign cheques:

Notice of Change in Currency for Handling Foreign Checks

Dear customer

Thank you for your continued business with SMBC Trust & Banking.

Recently, foreign checks have been rapidly declining due to the high risk of loss, forgery, and alteration, and the shift to other means of payment in many countries, and some countries have already stopped accepting checks for payment within their own borders.
Therefore, after careful consideration, we will cease handling the purchase and collection of foreign checks in the following 9 currencies as of December 30, 2024 (Monday).

British Pound GBP
Euro EUR EUR
Australian Dollar AUD
Singapore Dollar SGD
New Zealand Dollar NZD
Norwegian Krone NOK
Swedish Krone SEK
Danish Krone DKK
Swiss Franc CHF

Currencies after January 2025
US Dollar USD
Hong Kong Dollar HKD
Canadian Dollar CAD
Thai Baht THB

Woah. The death knell for cheques

[banders]

It mentions that some countries have stopped using them internally. If so, getting money from the Inland Revenue, pensions payments, etc. would be easier if everyone has to supply account details to pay into. More room for mistakes if your case is different.

[captainspoke]

It's always seemed amazing to me that any bank here would deal at all with a foreign check. Not sure, but in the US presenting a foreign check for processing would likely never have worked--and even out-of-town checks were sus even many decades ago. This is a high-cost-no-(or negative)-reward process for SMBC and any other bank.

I've still sent personal checks to the IRS, but they "cash" them electronically, rather than the 'old' cashing process. And the stimulus checks the US sent out due to the pandemic were actual checks, but I 'cashed' mine via my broker's app, taking a pic of the front and back and submitting those. (And there was some fraud connected to those--I read about a case where someone did that, and then pleaded for someone's help to physically cash the check the old way, effectively kiting it and screwing the gullible person who helped, since then check then bounced, and this helpful person then had to get the money back from an individual who may have disappeared in the meantime.

Japan, with its common auto-debiting of many bills and direct deposit of 'paychecks', has always seemed way ahead of the curve to me.

Pension are auto deposited, I don't think there's any option but that for US persons collecting social security abroad. (Checks would be a nightmare.) I'd have to confirm on it, but I'd guess if anyone wanted to collected their japaneses pensions abroad, a deposit would be the only option.

[beanhead]

It's always seemed amazing to me that any bank here would deal at all with a foreign check.

Agreed.

This is not from SMBC, but from SMBC Trust. Their Prestia brand is basically what used to be Citibank Japan.
So the existing clientele was used to getting these kinds of services from their 'international' bank, Citi.
Who still receives cheques and expects this service in 2024; no idea.

[sutebayashi]

I remember when I closed my Prestia account the clerk saying “well are you sure because we have these great services like dealing with foreign checks”.

Never used that part of their service…

The best thing I used was the flat fees for lifting foreign currency, but that’s not something I need to do even once a year. I see that thread about Wise being able to do huge amounts now, but I suspect that for big amounts, using a forex broker together with Prestia / SMBC Trust for the foreign transfer would give a better outcome… Wise seems to win for smaller amounts though.

So I might open a Prestia account again in future if I do need to make a massive transfer… but maybe they will ditch their flat fee lifting charges next?

[zeroshiki]

The only good thing I ever got from Prestia was them allowing me to park a few thousand USD I had in cash with them and then not charging a spread to convert it to yen. Obviously now I think I should have kept it in USD but years ago it seemed like a good idea.

[ChapInTokyo]

I remember when I closed my Prestia account the clerk saying “well are you sure because we have these great services like dealing with foreign checks”.

Never used that part of their service…

The best thing I used was the flat fees for lifting foreign currency, but that’s not something I need to do even once a year. I see that thread about Wise being able to do huge amounts now, but I suspect that for big amounts, using a forex broker together with Prestia / SMBC Trust for the foreign transfer would give a better outcome… Wise seems to win for smaller amounts though.

So I might open a Prestia account again in future if I do need to make a massive transfer… but maybe they will ditch their flat fee lifting charges next?

Sony Bank doesn’t charge a lifting charge and their currency conversion rates are substantially better than Prestia’s.

I also learned today that Sumitclub Card (the old Citicard) no longer needs to be coupled to a Prestia account so I’ve decided I really have very little to gain by keeping a Prestia account….

[sutebayashi]

Sony Bank doesn’t charge a lifting charge and their currency conversion rates are substantially better than Prestia’s.

The Sony bank currency conversion rates might be better, but the fee charged through the exchange rate spread is proportional to the amount being exchanged, and is the dominant cost for large amounts, above any flat fees.

In the old days the cheapest way I found to exchange money was to transfer money to a forex broker, and change the money there - spreads being just a pip or 2. Then withdraw the money to Citibank (now Prestia), if it was foreign currency.

There might be preferential rates available from banks these days, but to qualify you have to give them a large amount of business, I believe.

Anyway, it depends on the amount to be exchanged as to what the cheapest method is, and figuring that out is worth money too

[ChapInTokyo]

Sony Bank doesn’t charge a lifting charge and their currency conversion rates are substantially better than Prestia’s.

The Sony bank currency conversion rates might be better, but the fee charged through the exchange rate spread is proportional to the amount being exchanged, and is the dominant cost for large amounts, above any flat fees.

In the old days the cheapest way I found to exchange money was to transfer money to a forex broker, and change the money there - spreads being just a pip or 2. Then withdraw the money to Citibank (now Prestia), if it was foreign currency.

There might be preferential rates available from banks these days, but to qualify you have to give them a large amount of business, I believe.

Anyway, it depends on the amount to be exchanged as to what the cheapest method is, and figuring that out is worth money too

I used to do the same. I bought dollars at Moneypartners and then sent the money abroad from Citibank Japan free of charge (because I used to have gold account status back then).

With Sony Bank, Platinum status gets you TTM plus or minus 0.04 yen on the dollar currency exchange rate and unlike Prestia it is possible to get to Platinum status by having at least 10 million yen worth of USD sitting there for a month and a half or whatever it is that it takes for the status upgrade to kick in. If you don't feel good about having your dollars just sitting there in their currenty account, it's also possible to buy dollar denominated MMFs to earn a bit of interest on the money (currently MMF interest per annum is 4.708% so pretty good unless you are worried about the yen strengthening again with BoJ intervention which might come at any time now!).

This might or might not fit your particular use case, but I recently transferred a tidy amount of USD from Firstrade to Sony Bank, with zero landing charge, and have it sitting there waiting for them to give me Platinum status which should be from the beginning of next month when I'd be able to change the USD to JPY at 0.04 yen per dollar which is better than the current Moneypartners commission of 0.20 yen per dollar.

The only quibble I have with Sony Bank at the moment is that transferring USD to another account in Japan (say, at Monex) costs 3,000 yen per transaction so it's not something I'd do for small sums, but apart from that it's a good Prestia substitute for me.