RetireJapan

So I am trying to apply for an SMBC Olive account/card via the app so I can do the クレカ積立 for my SBI account and earn gazillions of points or something.

First time round the application was rejected because the name I gave did not match the name on my zairyu card. I suspect because I assumed it's a credit card so only provided first and last names, omitting the cursed middle name.

Anyway tried again, and while it accepts the katakana version of all names, the romaji fields are limited to a total of 17 characters between them. The instructions did say to abbreviate as necessary, so I ended up putting:

[TOSHIKA] [CLUELESS M]

but re-reading the instructions (I screenshotted the relevant bits of the form for reference this time), I suspect they may have wanted:

[T] [CLUELESS MIDDLEN]

as they say:

ローマ字（姓）、ローマ字（名）は合計17文字以下で入力してください。17文字を超過する場合は、省略たお名前をご入力ください。
（例：ローマ字（姓）：W / ローマ字（名）：TAROU）

so I'm wondering if anyone else ran into this issue and what they did.

Hopefully they'll accept it this time and the application will go through to the point where they reject me on grounds of being a slightly shifty-looking foreigner.

Following painful, but very recent experience with two colleagues: Visit a branch and have them sort it out. Bring 1-2hs though.
The helpful green (Olive) ladies are capable of doing the relevant magic in most directions!

I tried converting to Olive online too, but it was a rabbit hole…

I wonder if it might be easier to open a fresh account from scratch, than try to convert my existing stuff over. I have a One’s Card that their online guidance said I have to cancel in order to proceed, I recall…

No middle name issue struck so far… if I never convert I wonder what will happen. It’s not really my main bank now anyway.

Telebroker wrote: ↑Wed Mar 06, 2024 2:41 pm Following painful, but very recent experience with two colleagues: Visit a branch and have them sort it out. Bring 1-2hs though.
The helpful green (Olive) ladies are capable of doing the relevant magic in most directions!

So... after another try or two, it turned out that on the form where it has 姓 and 名, you need to enter your name in romaji. But by that time, it was less than 3 months until my ZRC expiry, so no-go. After obtaining a shiny fresh ZRC (hopefully my last before PR), it was prompty rejected with:

当行では外国為替及び外国貿易法に基づき、居住性の判定をしておりますが、ご提示いただいたご本人さま確認書類（在留カード）では、判断ができないため誠に恐れ入りますが店頭にてお手続きください。

so I marched along to my local branch and it turns out this is bank-speak for "we need to see your old ZRC which you've only uploaded 3 times already so we can be sure you've been here more than 6 months", and did I have my old ZRC with me? Of course not. I did have my passport, which proved I had last entered Japan about 5 months and 29 days ago, which was of no help, but in a flash of inspiration I whipped out my 保険証, issued in 令和3, which after more back-and-forth proved acceptable.

While I was waiting for an Olive Lady to become free, they helpfully pointed me to a website where I could enter my details via my phone, which I duly did, and presume they were faxed somewhere to be shredded, because I ended up going through the same process on the Official Olive Tablet, so not sure what that was all about.

Minor digression: I work for a company which is 100% legitimate, but because it's 2024 does not have an actual physical office or a phone number, which has historically been a PITA when entering one's employer details, but the Olive Lady suggested I just enter my own phone number.

Anyway next day (a Saturday) I received an email which enabled me to login to my shiny new account, and put 10,000 yen in it to check it works and also because somehow points or something. A week or so later, I get an email saying they'll send me my card, which arrives a couple of days later, which looks very much like it's the credit card (16 digit Visa number and all that, and some other text leading me to reach that conclusion), so I spend some time faffing around trying to connect it to my SBI account for the tsumitate points thing, except the telephone verifcation kept refusing me, and after poking about it turns out that's the debit card number and the credit card is still 審査中. Finally, late Friday afternoon, two weeks after my visit to the branch, I get confirmation that they believe I am a reasonably bona-fide individual and probably not likely to max the credit card out then skip the country, and yay I have the credit card approval.

Oh yes, and the app/website show my name as [TOSHIKA] [CLUELESS MIDDL] in half-width katakana, so I'm sure that will be totally find and not cause any weird issues in the future.

Haha, I can totally relate to the middle name struggle, CluelessToshika! Thanks for sharing your experience with SMBC Olive. I'm glad you finally got your account set up, albeit with some hiccups along the way.

I'm curious, did you end up using the romaji version of your name with the middle name abbreviated as [T] [CLUELESS MIDDLEN] in the end? And how's the credit card working out for you now that you've got it?

Also, Telebroker's advice to visit a branch and have them sort it out is solid gold. Sometimes, it's just easier to deal with these issues in person.

I recently opened a Nisa with SBI, so am wondering whether to get an Olive card for the "gazillions of points". However, once they've roped in enough people they'll likely do the old bait and switch and drastically cut the points allocation.

On the middle name issue, I ran into the same problem with my bank name not matching the weird name SBI allocated me. I called their very helpful 0120 number, and after some discussion of the options, noted down their furikomi details. So now I'm doing transfers to their account from my bank's ATMs. It's only a minor inconvenience, and the few hundred yen it will cost a year is negligible in the context of millions being transferred, and far better than faffing around trying to get the name issue sorted, IMHO.

I just applied for the Olive account by going into my local branch, no problems with the middle name, although I already have an account with them. I did have to take a photo of my residency card seven times before the bank clerk said it was acceptable. She even had a special card that that she held above to make sure there was no shine from the lights when I took the photo. I think she had done this a few times before...

I tried to 'convert' an old SMBC account to Olive a few months ago. All online. Haven't heard anything from them. They seem to be backed up.

I actually started my Nisa "journey" intending to go with Rakuten. During the application process a message appeared saying there was an irregularity, but its nature was not revealed. Tried again, same thing happened. Unhelpful. At which point, I decided to try SBI instead. The fact that, unlike Rakuten, they have a free-dial number where you can speak to an actual human is a huge point in their favour.

Max wrote: ↑Sat Aug 17, 2024 8:53 am On the middle name issue, I ran into the same problem with my bank name not matching the weird name SBI allocated me. I called their very helpful 0120 number, and after some discussion of the options, noted down their furikomi details. So now I'm doing transfers to their account from my bank's ATMs. It's only a minor inconvenience, and the few hundred yen it will cost a year is negligible in the context of millions being transferred, and far better than faffing around trying to get the name issue sorted, IMHO.

One thing to be careful about is that you may not be able to withdraw funds if your bank name doesn't match.

Best to sort that out before you need the money.