RetireJapan

Hi everyone, I would greatly appreciate any advice or pointers about the procedure for cashing a UK cheque through a Japanese bank account. Recently, Barclays unilaterally closed the current account I had with them for more than 35 years (that's another issue!!). Now I want to receive a tax refund. One option is to nominate a person in the UK with an account to receive the money and then transfer it n to me. The other option is that HMRC send me a cheque. I understand that it can be difficult to cash a cheque in Japan. Has anybody been through this process? Any help gratefully received!

Can't you open up a WISE account and have HMRC refund you to there?

eetc155 wrote: ↑Mon Dec 11, 2023 12:32 am Can't you open up a WISE account and have HMRC refund you to there?

That's a great idea. Open Wise in Japan, set up the UK virtual bank account, have HMRC send the money there

Thanks very much for these helpful suggestions. Is using a WISE account smooth?

novalis wrote: ↑Mon Dec 11, 2023 4:26 am Thanks very much for these helpful suggestions. Is using a WISE account smooth?

Very. I'm a huge fan. Really easy to do transfers, and the virtual accounts (with sort code and account number for the UK) work really well.

(if you like you can use this code to sign up. You'll get a free transfer, I get a small commission: https://wise.com/invite/dic/bens )

Sorry, for follow-up questions here, but would HMRC send to a WISE account? They said they wouldn't send to my normal Japanese account. I have a WISE account already but I've only used it for remitting money to the UK. What WISE account details would HMRC need to have to send? And where do I find these details. Again, sorry for 'dumb' questions.....

Thanks to everyone who answered my query. I'm in touch with WISE and the way forward is getting clearer. On this matter of using WISE for receiving money, does anyone have any experience of receiving UK pension payments regularly through WISE? Is this a better way to go than to get the pension paid into my normal Japanese bank account? Thanks!

novalis wrote: ↑Mon Dec 11, 2023 9:33 am Thanks to everyone who answered my query. I'm in touch with WISE and the way forward is getting clearer. On this matter of using WISE for receiving money, does anyone have any experience of receiving UK pension payments regularly through WISE? Is this a better way to go than to get the pension paid into my normal Japanese bank account? Thanks!

in this article about receiving pensions abroad.

https://wise.com/gb/blog/uk-state-pensi ... 20use%20UK
"You can use UK account details made available by Wise (without needing an actual UK bank account) to receive the money in GBP. "

Looks to me like Wise think their Wise account will work for this..

Not UK, but my US pension payments have just started, and they arrive by wire and already in yen. They are coming to my local bank, within a kilometer or so of home. No wire fees on arrival or intermediaries, and f/x rate is fine--seems like as good as I'd get at shinsei/sony with the best customer status. So maybe explore if UK does the same.

There was a meeting back in September or so in Tokyo of retiree expats--I'm too far away but it would have been nice to be there (and to pull actual retirees into this site). This might have been the kind of question that was tabled there--getting the UK pension direct deposited vs using Wise.