RetireJapan

Hi, I'm new to using Wise.

I was recently helping my Japanese spouse sign up for an account. She want to send a large sum of inheritance money (10 million) to her brother in the US. So far it's been a real headache trying to do that through Yucho. They wanted all kinds of documentation to show family relationship and source of the money in her account before authorizing. They also say it may take up one month to authorize the transaction. To top it off, once authorized, she can only send half the amount (500万円) at a time.

However, Wise account keeps saying your county does not allow sending more than 100万円 at a time. I called Wise customer service and there explanation was that her Wise account was not yet fully setup. Also, they said, we need to transfer 100万円 at a time to her Wise account until your reach 10 million then attempt to transfer through Wise overseas.

Is this how it works? Can someone with experience using Wise to send large amount of money from Japan give me there detailed step-by-step process?

Appreciate any help.

You need to contact wise customer service and push them to put you onto the “type 1 beta trial” - once that’s done all restrictions will be lifted and you can transfer up to 150 milllion yen in one go. As mentioned above I transferred around 100 million recently via wise in one go recently.

I’ve been a wise user/customer for years tho, so not sure if they are letting new clients onto this Beta…. But worth a try. Be tenacious.

Thanks for the quick reply Smalldog!

I will contact them again. Meantime, can you share how exactly you get the money into the Wise account for transferring and what service charges you pay to move the money from your bank to Wise. Are you able move all the money at one time or are you restricted to moving 100万円 to your Wise account at a time like I was told by Wise customer service..

Sorry for the ignorant Qs.

Smalldog,

We decided to delete the Wise account. Wise customer service is incredibly incompetent. They can't even tell us how to link my wife's Japanese bank account. Can't answer basic Qs. This was my second call to customer service and neither agent knew how to advise us or help us set up a transfer.

Perhaps Wise works for others but not a service we want to deal with. Guess will have t wait until my SBI Shinsei account is set up to do large transfers. I also have a Prestia account we recently opened as well.

The other weak link in what OP describes is Japan Post. Luckily, I've never had an account with them.

I set up Wise a month ago. At first is was a pain and I had questions, but the chat function (live person) could answer them.
Was able to send ¥50,000 and ¥5,000 (via Mizuho) to Europe quickly and for around ¥150 in fees each time.

I forsee our Prestia Digital Gold account being closed in the future...no way they can compete with Wise.