Transferring Regular Payments From the UK to Japan

[adamu]

I’ll go to my Japanese bank and ask precisely what, if any fees, would apply to receive an international payment in Yen. Then I’ll confirm with the pension provider (a private company, not the UK state pension which I won’t be eligible for for much longer) precisely what fees and exchange rates they would use when sending the payment.

I'm pretty sure they won't be able to tell you, and will start talking about mysterious intermediary bank fees. Good luck.

[ricardo]

I’ll go to my Japanese bank and ask precisely what, if any fees, would apply to receive an international payment in Yen. Then I’ll confirm with the pension provider (a private company, not the UK state pension which I won’t be eligible for for much longer) precisely what fees and exchange rates they would use when sending the payment.

I'm pretty sure they won't be able to tell you, and will start talking about mysterious intermediary bank fees. Good luck.

That’s what I’m thinking, too!

The pension provider should be able to clearly explain their fees and whether they themselves expect remittances to Japan to go through an intermediary. They have previously told me they “use Citibank” to make payments to other countries. I wonder if opening my own account with Citibank might help? (No idea if this is possible in Japan - another thing to check out in the near future..)

[TokyoWart]

They have previously told me they “use Citibank” to make payments to other countries. I wonder if opening my own account with Citibank might help?

Citibank sold its Japan operations to SMBC and the brand has become "Prestia". Their deal allows Prestia customers to use Citibank ATM's internationally without fees (at least those of us who were originally with Citibank) but I do not know to what extent there are agreements regarding international transfers. In any case SMBC Prestia would be the place to ask. As a bank Prestia's service has been better than Citibank --which was very customer-unfriendly because the bank got in trouble for money laundering and made routine operations difficult-- and I get a reasonable rate for transfers out of Japan but have never transfered money into Japan.

[ricardo]

I emailed Transferwise yesterday with a simple question about charges.

No response yet.....

The test of a good company is how quickly they acknowledge (which they didn’t), and then reply to, an email (which they haven’t - yet..)

[goodandbadjapan]

I understand you wanting to know as much as possible and agree that a quick response is a good sign, but just for your information when you do send money, they will tell you exactly how much you will get in the destination country for your yen or whatnot before processing the transfer. It is very clear once you start using it.

[ricardo]

I asked them specifically about potential intermediary bank charges from a named UK bank to a named Japanese bank.

I understand that they’ll tell you exactly how much they will send, but that might not be what you get in your account in Japan.

You could say it’s unfair of me to ask them about charges which may be beyond their control, but they should be able to help to an extent. Even if they just said I should check with the receiving bank that would be an answer. (I did. They couldn’t give me a clear answer because it depended on which banks processed the funds en route - which I thought Transferwise should know about..)

[goodandbadjapan]

I asked them specifically about potential intermediary bank charges from a named UK bank to a named Japanese bank.

I understand that they’ll tell you exactly how much they will send, but that might not be what you get in your account in Japan.

You could say it’s unfair of me to ask them about charges which may be beyond their control, but they should be able to help to an extent. Even if they just said I should check with the receiving bank that would be an answer. (I did. They couldn’t give me a clear answer because it depended on which banks processed the funds en route - which I thought Transferwise should know about..)

What I meant is that whenever I have made transfers to and from Japan they have shown me exactly how much to expect in my bank account and that is exactly what I have always received. There may be costs I am unaware of but I have never received a penny or yen less than what they told me I would get.

[ricardo]

They finally replied - and it’s very interesting:

“What TransferWise does is split one international transfer into two local transfers - this means that you will send your GBP to our GBP bank in the UK, we will convert it on our end using mid-market exchange rate, and send out the JPY to your JPY account from our bank in Japan.

This is how we operate across all the currencies that we support and this is how we manage to keep the fees as low as we can.

I hope this helps. If you require further assistance, please feel free to reply to this email, and I will be glad to help you.

I would recommend you to check with the beneficiary bank if they charge your to receive money to their account. About TransferWise's fees you can find more information here.”

So, they send money from their bank in Japan. This means that my Japanese bank are receiving a normal domestic bank transfer, not an international payment. That seems to be much more straightforward and almost certainly free. I suspect it will also lessen the likelihood of largish deposits triggering phone calls from the bank to find out where they money came from.

[goodandbadjapan]

Yes, it seems in all the discussion none of us actually bothered to mention the key point of how it works! There basically isn't an international transfer happening, which is why everything can be done so easily and cheaply!

[adamu]

This means that my Japanese bank are receiving a normal domestic bank transfer, not an international payment.

Yes, it seems in all the discussion none of us actually bothered to mention the key point of how it works!

Yes, that's their whole premise. I did sort of mention it

I understand TransferWise isn't as great for transfers to Japan, because Japanese regulations force them to require an international transfer, preventing them from being able to eliminate many of the bank/intermediary fees - one of the premises of the service.

Perhaps I was mistaken on this last point, and it's no longer an issue? I've never tried it in that direction myself.