You have how many bank accounts?!

[Dr.Strangelove]

Hi team,

I am in the process of setting up my bank accounts to have a more automated and streamlined system.

Previously, everything was a jumbled mess in one or two accounts and I had no idea what was where.

Now we have separate bank accounts for the following.
1. House and city tax
2. Emergency savings
3. Monthly spending money
4. Main bank account (pays mortgage/credits cards)
5. Long term savings (holidays/new sofa/house repairs)
6. 1 account for each daughters savings
7. Growth account (payments for investing iDeco/NISA)

We find it easy to account for where all our money is going each month and to easily check how much we have available for each item.

Am I missing something out?
Any advice on how to automate transactions?
We use a variety of banks but mostly SMBC.
How have you found online accounts like Rakuten?
I am willing to spend more time on organizing the system so it’s smoother in the future:)

Thanks for you time

[adamu]

Any advice on how to automate transactions?

This is probably not the advice you wanted.

I used to do that too, but now I use a budget app to take care of the categorisation, and keep money where it makes the most sense regardless of what it's for. Some examples:

• Keeps the bank balance high so usually become eligible for free bank transfers / ATM withdrawals etc.
• Credit card transactions deduct from the budget category at time of spending rather than being a bill to be paid off each month.
• Do most spending through Line Pay card to take advantage of 2% cashback on all spending.

Rather than looking at various bank balances, you just look at the budget app. The advantage is that you can just look in one place, and if you need to reassign money (or assign new income), it's just an accounting task, you don't have to coordinate multiple institutions, forms, and opening hours.

I find it much easier to manage it via software, rather than physical accounts.

[DragonAsh]

I would second adamu here. I'd say having one bank account for day-to-day transactions and stuff, and a second bank account that is for your emergency fund (and thus basically never touched) would be sufficient. Too many bank accounts just wastes time moving stuff around. As adamu noted, a lot more efficient to manage things via software, either with a proper budget set up to manage your money and track things via Excel or digital app (Money Forward etc).

[Tony]

While I don't have quite as many accounts as you, I follow a similar method. I have various bank accounts for various purposes.

For me, there is a big psychological reason for separating everything, if my money is all in one account, I'm more than likely to dip into my savings if I have easy access to it in the same account that I get daily spending money from. For me, my salary goes into my Shinsei account, which has a regular savings account and a 2 week term deposit account. The 2 week term deposit account holds my emergency fund, which gives me a higher status with Shinsei, so I can just do my transfers online for free.

When my salary comes in, it takes me 2 minutes to transfer the money to other accounts, then what's left in the account is my spending money for the month, which I try to keep as low as possible then save the remainder.

Edit: Also when my spending money is in it's own account, I find it easier to not spend as much, as I want to save, and I can easily gauge how much is left as the balance get's closer to 0, then I can actively work to save just a little bit more, be in 2000 yen or 20000 yen.

[fools_gold]

How have you found online accounts like Rakuten?

I've had no problems with online banking. I think in general they offer more goodies like free transfers and higher long-term savings rates than regular banks.

Nowadays I do most of my regular banking with Rakuten. It works best if you're already into the Rakuten ecosystem. For example, you get Rakuten points for transactions and if you link it with a Rakuten Securities account you get 0.1% interest on all your deposits. This is nearly as good as their 1 year fixed-term deposit rate (0.12%).

Otherwise they are so-so. Their free debit card is JCB (Visa costs ￥1,000 more), and they limit ATM transactions depending on how much you have deposited with them. You get one per month as standard though it increases to an astounding 7 if you deposit 3 million yen with them!

Depending on your situation there may be better online options out there.

[RetireJapan]

I'm a huge fan of Shinsei bank. Reasonable online interface, no charge to use ATMs, and they refund ATM fees abroad.

Having said that, I don't have as many bank accounts. I have:

1. Main account for cash/bills/credit cards
2. Second account (had to open this to get mortgage). Mortgage comes out of this but I put a little extra in each month so it is also my emergency fund.
3. UK account for cash/bills/credit cards

Er, that's it. My wife has three accounts: one main personal, one for her business, and one with Rakuten for credit cards and emergency fund.

I find the most useful thing is to have rules for what happens to money coming in (ie this much per month gets invested here, this much goes in here, etc.). Once that is all done I don't worry too much about the remainder.

[captainspoke]

One kid's uni wanted an acct with MUFJ to deduct tuition from, so she set one up, not my wife or me. Then I'd fund that with transfers from shinsei.

Years ago when we had an apt., there was some local bank or credit union that the landlord used--I paid the rent there every month...

Apart from the two acts I've had for years, I set up a post office acct a few months before I retired, thinking it might be convenient. Since then, I haven't touched it, zero transactions/changes in the last 15-16 months.

[Dr.Strangelove]

Thank you all for taking the time to reply and share your experiences.

I will have a closer look at Rakuten and Shinsei banks.
Line pay looks interesting too.

Happy banking!

[adamu]

Line pay looks interesting too.

Just a heads up that they announced the current 2% cashback scheme will be ended at the end of May. There's a replacement lined up but the details have not been announced yet. http://official-blog.line.me/ja/archives/74986499.html

[nanaya]

I've been using (bic camera) view card suica for almost everything for a while now. Not quite 2% cashback as line card but at 1.5% (for autocharging suica), it's still higher than usual credit card. Also slightly more convenient.

I found this blog a few months ago when researching credit cards and today I checked he posted a post on alternatives for line pay: https://matsunosuke.jp/line-pay-card-deterioration/

(also contains quite a lot of other interesting information. I'd regularly read it if my Japanese is a bit better)