Complimentary overseas remittance via Go Remit

[sutebayashi]

If you need to have a status with a bank to qualify for the low cost transfers, that itself is a big cost.

In the old days I would couple Citibank now Prestia with a forex broker for the currency conversion and that was great, but then I gave up my status with Prestia and closed my account since I don’t do international transfers often enough for it to pay for itself.

I was looking to go that route last year when I had some money to send inbound, but found Wise to be perfectly satisfactory in terms of the cost - I could see the market rate I get with my forex broker for comparison, and had no troubles with the transfers involved.

But as for giving up my gold status with Prestia, I think I had it for a goodly while before they sent me a letter or something telling me I was going to lose it. I promptly visited a branch and closed the account - they tried to convince me not to but my mind was made up.

If I see a need in future to use a bank account I will probably just open one when the time comes, but I suspect the market competition will drive costs lower.

[ChapInTokyo]

This is somewhat off topic, but I am in an interesting situation at Sony Bank with regard to my "Club S" status.

As at many other Japanese banks, Sony has a customer status recognition programme where customers who hold a certain amount of yen in accounts such as mutual fund accounts or USD MMF accounts which generate fees for the bank are given a certain number of "free" remittances and preferential foreign exchange rates etc per month.

The thing is, I was somewhat disappointed in Sony Bank's service and had started moving my funds out of the bank late last year so that I was expecting to be stripped of my 'Platinum' status at the end of last year (October 31 being the last 'qualifying date' on which I had the requsite balance in a qualifying Sony Bank service).

The funny thing is, they kept on giving me 'Platinum' status in January, which seemed a bit strange. It will be interesting if I keep getting this status in February as well, in which case it might be a sign that as the BOJ's short term interest rates have started to rise, banks are maybe able to provide preferential services to customers who simply want to keep their money in yen current accounts.

Well, who knows? It may of course simply be an oversight, and they might just as easily strip me of my priviledges come tomorrow...

UPDATE: It’s Feb 1 and the Platinum status seems to have stuck for the time being even though I’ve only used their current account services starting last November.

I was ready to close my account there but with the wafer thin 0.04 yen commission for JPY-USD conversions, 3 free oversea remittances per month, as well as the 2% cash back on debit card use, I think that Sony remains a strong contender for sending money abroad along with SBI Shinsei.