What are you doing to keep your SMBC Prestia Gold status?

[regular]

Dear all,

Current SMBC Prestia account holders who do not have minimum 3 million yen in wealth management balance (higher fee paying, I guess) with them by 29th September will lose the Gold status. So, what are you doing, if anything, to keep your SMBC Prestia Gold status?

poster Deep Blue mentioned not wanting to change yen to USD at 135 to put into FX deposit, that's even more painful now at 145. Another person mentioned about mutual funds having 3% or so load, so NG for RJ forum members.

So what is the consensus of this RJ forum? TokyoWart, Tkydon and many other silent posters, are you doing anything?

Thanks in advance.

[Deep Blue]

I did think about transferring some GBP from the UK but I’m getting 5.55% interest (and a new account paying 6.2% is available) so no way am I going to leave any GBP in whatever shitty rate Prestia offers. Gold benefits aren’t worth that much to me, just a few reduced fees on domestic transfers and ATM withdrawals I think. So plan to just let it lapse.

[Deep Blue]

Just checked and one can get 5.1% on USD for a 12 month time deposit at Prestia. If you have USD, that’s probably the least painful way to retain gold status for at least 12 months. Presumably this is before taxes etc.

Only 3.3% on GBP for the same tenor

[sutebayashi]

I completely closed my Prestia account in relation to this.

Haven’t wanted to use their services since doing so, so no big deal so far. Am thinking it is not worth the opportunity cost, for the benefits.

[TokyoWart]

Finally wound up putting ¥3 million in a US dollar based time deposit for 6 months at 6% interest. I'm not happy with the new requirement but I use the foreign exchange and transfer features of the Gold account too frequently to give it up.

[Deep Blue]

Interesting, the rates have dropped back since you opened your TD then. Now only 5.0% on 6m USD TD in my app.

What foreign exchange and transfer features of Gold are the ones you wouldn’t want to lose?

[TokyoWart]

Interesting, the rates have dropped back since you opened your TD then. Now only 5.0% on 6m USD TD in my app.

What foreign exchange and transfer features of Gold are the ones you wouldn’t want to lose?

You get an extra 1% if you call the office and make a transfer of at least 3 million yen to fund the foreign currency time deposit. We all received brochures about this special offer in the mail but they are easy to miss. If the amount is less than that or you try to do it online you don't get the extra 1% (which is one time only).

[Deep Blue]

Thanks! I do remember this now, I recall thinking it’s a bloody typical Japanese idea - do something the quick cheap and efficient way (online) and you get penalized by a worse rate than doing it the harder, inefficient and costly way.

[Cedric]

New conditions from Prestia are just terrible and requirement to keep gold is a Joke that more benefit them than their customers. Services have been on the downward trend for a while anyway so this is just the nail into the coffin.

If Prestia is not eager to do business (like many so it seems) fine moving to other alternatives

[Teflon]

I don't know why I have Prestia Gold status because I only use the account to pay the monthly mortgage. Yet somehow they gave me Prestia Gold status. Is that because I have a home loan with them? If so, will that be impacted by the upcoming changes? It's not a big deal for me but I do enjoy having my ATM fees refunded and free transfers, etc.

I was just in Europe a week ago and was trying to get by on credit cards alone. It worked up until the last few days when I was in the French countryside and the restaurant I was at didn't accept credit cards. There was only one ATM in the village and the ATM fee was €6! This felt like highway robbery to me but I had no choice since I needed to pay my bill. Anyway, I was very pleased when I later checked my Prestia account and noticed they had refunded me the full price of the €6 fee which was over 900 yen. Incredible!