RetireJapan

Hi folks

What is the cheapest way using wise.com to move savings from UK to Japan? In Japan I have a bank account and a Post Office account. Is either better in terms of fees?

The staff at wise.com are not very forthcoming with info. I thought they would want people to use their service.

If I use my JP Post Office account as destination, do I have to ask them to allow my transfer? (I read this somewhere.)

Thanks

Wise is usually the best bet for amounts under 1million.

Over 1 million standard Remit services tend to be better.

I would suggest you signup for Wise and try it once with a smaller amount.

The process works this way

Bank Abroad ------> Wise. Wise ----------> Bank in Japan.

You need to register both accounts and confirm the relevant tax info.

What Haystack said.

Wise is very easy to set up transfers to new people, or to move smaller amounts internationally. The transfer to your PO account will be a domestic one from Wise's Japanese account, so no need to notify them.

Haystack wrote: ↑Wed Feb 09, 2022 6:24 am Wise is usually the best bet for amounts under 1 million.

Over 1 million standard Remit services tend to be better.

I would suggest you signup for Wise and try it once with a smaller amount.

The process works this way

Bank Abroad ------> Wise. Wise ----------> Bank in Japan.

You need to register both accounts and confirm the relevant tax info.

Hi Haystack

Thanks for the reply.

I have already signed up for Wise, transferred some money (500 gbp) into my Wise account, and am now trying to transfer to my PO account.

RetireJapan wrote: ↑Wed Feb 09, 2022 6:50 am The transfer to your PO account will be a domestic one from Wise's Japanese account, so no need to notify them.

Thanks RetireJapan
Do you happen to know if the fees are lower transferring to a Post Office account or e.g. SMBC account?

hoofishtick wrote: ↑Thu Feb 10, 2022 2:02 am

RetireJapan wrote: ↑Wed Feb 09, 2022 6:50 am The transfer to your PO account will be a domestic one from Wise's Japanese account, so no need to notify them.

Thanks RetireJapan
Do you happen to know if the fees are lower transferring to a Post Office account or e.g. SMBC account?

The fees are only on Wise`s end not Yucho`s. All domestic accounts should be the same. I am unaware of accounts that charge for domestic deposits.....

I transferred 4000CAD.

Fee 1 - 74 cent deposit fee (Loading fee)
Fee 2 - $29.04 transfer fee. (Deposit/exchange fee).

Pretty decent overall.

hoofishtick wrote: ↑Wed Feb 09, 2022 5:53 am Hi folks

What is the cheapest way using wise.com to move savings from UK to Japan? In Japan I have a bank account and a Post Office account. Is either better in terms of fees?

The staff at wise.com are not very forthcoming with info. I thought they would want people to use their service.

If I use my JP Post Office account as destination, do I have to ask them to allow my transfer? (I read this somewhere.)

Thanks

I was wondering how you set this up while living in Japan?

I already have a WISE Japanese account for me to send money to the UK.but now I want to BRING money to Japan? If I set one up with my UK bank, I would end up having two accounts. A UK account and a JP account.

I've sent money from the UK to my JP post office account, but Japanese post office wouldn't accept pounds,
so the UK bank had to convert everything into dollars, then transfer it to Japan.

So it looks like I can only have one WISE account, and I won't be able to transfer money from the UK to Japan.. Bummer!
Has anyone have two accounts? one here and one their native country?

Bubblegun wrote: ↑Thu Feb 10, 2022 3:34 pm So it looks like I can only have one WISE account, and I won't be able to transfer money from the UK to Japan.. Bummer!
Has anyone have two accounts? one here and one their native country?

You create a virtual UK bank account in your JP Wise account, then send the money there from your UK bank. Once it is in the Wise account you can convert to yen and send it to your Japanese bank.

I opened an account with my UK bank as my 1st bank. Sent the money to my Wise account, converted it to Yen and now am attempting to transfer it to my Post Office account. It hasn't errored this time (I didn't have my name in katakana before) so I presume it's gone through.

So pretty much as @RetireJapan said.

Just to update. The money transferred this time. The costs to transfer 500 UKP from my UK account were:
1.89 GBP to convert the money from BGP to JPY (Rate 154.496)
To transfer the money from Wise to Post Office should have cost 200 yen, but they kindly paid that. (1st time transaction?)
So I appear to be set up now.