RetireJapan

Noticed this:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/transfer ... 07078.html

Very interesting! Would like to see that.

I'm pretty happy with Shinsei Bank and using their debit card to get money overseas, but a lower-cost option from TW would be most welcome

Interesting. I use Transferwise quite a bit and I like their service and rates. If this makes it easier and cheaper to access my overseas cash while in Japan I will definitely sign up.

Maybe give some description of what is in the link without requiring to be clicked?

Money transfer company TransferWise said on Tuesday it is launching a low-cost "borderless" account and debit card in the first quarter of this year, in its latest bid to win customers by undercutting the foreign exchange fees charged by banks.

Users will be able to hold and convert 28 currencies at the real exchange rate with the account, TransferWise said.

Just tried signing up for it and it says "this service is not available in your country yet" so it looks like you can't sign up for it in Japan.

However, if and when it comes to Japan I'm definitely going to sign up. I haven't been able to open a current account in the UK as a non-resident, and this seems like a great alternative.

Just got his in my email from Transferwise:

Hello, we have some great news.

On March 15th, our fees on all transfers from JPY to USD are going down.

The new fee will be ¥100 + 0.55% of the amount you send. Here’s how this will affect your transfers:

Amount Old fee New fee Difference
¥1,000 ¥400 ¥106 ¥294 cheaper
¥10,000 ¥400. ¥155 ¥245 cheaper
¥50,000 ¥400.00 ¥375.00 ¥25 cheaper
¥100,000 ¥800.00 ¥650.00 ¥150 cheaper
¥250,000 ¥2,000.00 ¥1,475.00 ¥525 cheaper
¥500,000 ¥4,000.00 ¥2,850.00 ¥1150 cheaper
¥1,000,000 ¥8,000.00 ¥5,600.00 ¥2400 cheaper

Why are we changing our fees?

When we opened for business, we based our fees on how much we thought transfers would cost us to process.

Since then, we’ve gotten better at what we do, and our costs have gone down on many transfer amounts and routes. We’ve lowered our fees in those places, which means most of you will be able send money for even less.

To read more on why we’re changing our fees, read our blog post.
————

I didn’t include the blog post link, but his is good news.

Transferwise announced a cut in transfers fees from tomorrow for JPY to USD:

The new fee will be ¥100 + 0.55% of the amount sent:



More here: https://transferwise.us4.list-manage.co ... f428cbdc1a:

Edit: LOL, ninja'd!

I got this email for Singapore (seems they send you a personalized one based on your usage patterns):