Yes it was really easy to set up this virtual account.imaginatorium wrote: ↑Tue Feb 15, 2022 6:20 pm Haystack said:1. You deposit Pounds into Wise`s UK account.
2. Wise credits you for these pounds in their system.
...
But did you say it was easy to set up? Normally setting up the sterling account is messy, involving transferring funds in and taking funny photographs.
I already transferred money from Japan to the Uk, so that system was on my phone.
The link give to me by retire Japan, took me to the page to start, wise recognized I’d already had a Japanese account, it then asked me to choose my bank in the UK.
Then they did the work.
I logged in to send the £19 and used my debit card. The money then went to my pound account. With the wise uk account details.
Then I went to my uk digital bank, and set up a direct transfer from my UK bank account to the WISE uk account.
So the money sits in the UK. I suppose when I want to convert it to yen, the money won’t physically move. The WISE UK account and the WISE Japan account will talk and just say do some crafty money/information switch. I suppose this is one advantage of a global banking company.
One extra thing I’ve made sure to keep is any documents from the companies dealing with money in the UK as I’m sure the Japan tax office will want to ask where it came from. So at least I can show it was my savings from my life insurance.