Transferring Regular Payments From the UK to Japan

[Dabitto]

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.

Although this is true, TransferWise forgot to tell you that in case of transfers between Yen and other currencies, their above explanation is only applicable when you send an equivalent amount of 1 MILLION YEN OR LESS. Everything above 1 million Yen will go the old-fashioned way, by SWIFT, which in turn will increase the fees (intermediary bank fees), and will reduce the advantage WeTransfer has over its competitors. So be advised! In case you want to send receiving amounts of over 1 million yen, I advise you to either cut up your transfers to make them less than 1 million yen (something I did in the past) or find another service which has lower fees when you send large amounts of money.

This is the message you get from TransferWise when you type in a number larger than 1 million yen in receivings (you can try it out yourself, but you have to be logged in to get the message):

“Transfers exceeding 1M JPY are processed through SWIFT. In such cases, we will help you cover the intermediary bank fees. However, the receiving bank may also charge a small receiving fee of their choosing - TransferWise is thus unable to guarantee the final amount the recipient receives.”

[ricardo]

The plot gets thicker.

“We will help you cover ... the fees.”

What does that mean, “Help you?” Pay some of them? How much??

I was roundly criticised for criticising TransferWise.

Then I asked them a simple question which they took 7 days to reply to - way past the target they promised on their website.

Now it appears they don’t even tell you the full story when they DO reply...

But it still appears they are a good option for regular, monthly payments of around GBP2,000 from UK to Japan.

If I want to send the equivalent of ¥10million I’m going to have to split it into more than 10 payments. Apart from looking very dodgy, it’s a big hassle. Asking my UK bank just to do a normal international transfer (cost GBP25) and taking other fees on the chin might even be cheaper. Then potentially use TransferWise for the regular payments.

[Sybil]

Asking my UK bank just to do a normal international transfer (cost GBP25) and taking other fees on the chin might even be cheaper.

There are alternative UK-based currency brokers which offer services without fees and better exchange rates than banks. I have used https://www.currenciesdirect.com/en for a number of years. They get 5 stars on TrustPilot after thousands of reviews.

They also have a generous referral program - which benefits both parties.

I'm open to receiving PM's about their services.

[adamu]

They also have a generous referral program - which benefits both parties.

I'm open to receiving PM's about their services.

It would be better if you could share the information publicly, otherwise it sounds like you're just recommending them for the referral fee! I note you have to email them to get a quote.

[adamu]

If I want to send the equivalent of ¥10million I’m going to have to split it into more than 10 payments. Apart from looking very dodgy, it’s a big hassle.

Do any readers have any experience/recommendations for how to make regular, medium sized (e.g. GBP2,000 per month) payments from the UK to Japan?

These are two very different requirements. For regular payments, as you originally requested, the objective is to try to cut out the high minimum fees and loaded exchange rates. If you can find a better service than Transferwise, please post about it - but so far they seem to be the best option for this kind of transaction. For large one-off transactions, sticking with the traditional banks and paying the fee is probably simpler and safer (although if I personally had to do this I would definitely do some research, because it looks like a perfect opportunity for lots of middle-men to take a cut of your money on the way without you being able to do anything about it).

[Sybil]

They also have a generous referral program - which benefits both parties.

I'm open to receiving PM's about their services.

It would be better if you could share the information publicly, otherwise it sounds like you're just recommending them for the referral fee! I note you have to email them to get a quote.

I am open to questions. Currencies Direct are cheaper than banks (certainly my bank) and they efficient at what they do. I haven't used TransferWise so can't compare anything with them.


Disclaimer: Other currency transfer companies are available.

[RetireJapan]

We have a separate board for affiliate links, etc (at the bottom of the page). Maybe post the full details there? People will then be able to find it through this thread and by looking in there.

[kuma]

I've used TransferWise for GBP -> JPY and have been satisfied with the fees and the process. I've had at least one situation where I split a large transfer into smaller ones to avoid SWIFT (as Dabitto mentioned he also did). In that instance I was able to send the second batch seconds after the first (I think I selected 'repeat transfer' and maybe entered a verification code; can't remember precisely, but the point is that it was straightforward). So batching a large transfer is very simple, but individuals will have to decide whether it seems 'dodgy'.

[captainspoke]

I've used TransferWise for GBP -> JPY and have been satisfied with the fees and the process. I've had at least one situation where I split a large transfer into smaller ones to avoid SWIFT (as Dabitto mentioned he also did). In that instance I was able to send the second batch seconds after the first (I think I selected 'repeat transfer' and maybe entered a verification code; can't remember precisely, but the point is that it was straightforward). So batching a large transfer is very simple, but individuals will have to decide whether it seems 'dodgy'.

I realize you're dealing with system limits/thresholds, but is structuring ever a no-no outside of the US?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structuring

[novalis]

I want to make transfers from my UK bank to my Japanese bank. I want to swift savings, so they transfers would be fairly large. Does anyone have advice about doing this without incurring Japanese tax penalties? Thanks!