To wire money to other countries:
http://www.lloydstsb.co.jp/index.php
Lloyds TSB Bank plc, Tokyo branch
Akasaka Twin Towers, New Tower 5F
2-11-7 Akasaka
Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-0052

They handle about 10 currencies and the wire fee is a flate Y2000 regardless of amount. The biggest advantage is that you can do it without going to their office from just about any ATM.

Well, actually it is not just Y2000 yen because the intermediary banks have fees and possibly your final destination bank will also charge you somthing! I had to wire money from the USA to Japan this summer and first I got a very poor exchange rate by the bank in the USA in exchange for "no wire fee" and then the amount I sent had Y2500 fee deducted from it so my payment was Y2500 short. And of course my bank in the USA couldn't warn me about that in advance. So annoying!

I agree with you Natasha. That extra fee at the receiving end is really annoying, and I don't think your bank will tell you that they are charging you for just receiving the money unless you ask. The bank I used to use didn't tell me about the fee, so I was paying $20 every 1-2 months for nearly 3 years! Yes, I know, it's mostly my fault for not paying attention to the bank statements... My current bank doesn't charge fees for receiving the wire transferred money, so some checking into won't hurt.

Dear Mono, Which bank are you using that doesn't charge to receive a wire? The thing that bothered me is that first I was made to feel like I was getting a good deal at the sending bank because they were "waiving the wire fee" but then I found out that the exchange rate was a bit too much in their favor! I changed USD to 800,000 yen at 114 when the TTS in Tokyo was 120.25. The way I figure it here is that TTS and TTB are always 1 yen on either side of the market, so the market was at about 119.25 on that day. That means that my USA bank (Wachovia) was charging about 5 yen to the dollar above the market!

I'm using Kansas-Missouri based bank called Capitol Federal Savings. I doubt they have a brach office in NC area, but try their on-line services. They don't charge outrageous amount of money for boxes of checkbooks, like the one I used to use. I don't have any complaints to make about them so far.
http://www.capfed.com/main.html

There is at least one authorized Western Union International Money Transfer Agent in Japan.
Suruga Bank - toll free telephone: 0210-882-515
http://www.surugabank.co.jp/surugabank/english/index.html
Western Union can transfer money in minutes.
But I think you must have the transfer line set up in advance on this end, and I don't know what the fee is that they are charging on this end. I haven't actually tried it myself yet.

I've received money several times from the Western Union agent at Suruga Bank.

It's free to receive money on this end and you don't need to set up a transfer line in advance. You do need to know the approximate amount of money that you will be receiving and, ideally, you will have the sender's 'secret code', though I've never had this and haven't had any troubles (as long as I could tell them the sender's name and city).

Note that this office closes at 3pm sharp and is usually very crowded. It's a tiny office that is tucked in _behind_ the main bank; get a map for directions as it can be difficult to find on your first trip. Be prepared for a bit of a wait.

Another way in which to receive money is to use www.bidpay.com. On this site, you can use your credit card to buy a Western Union Money Order. They mail the paper money order for you (mailing to Japan is $5) as well. This service is set up for online auctions, but it can be used for private payments if you just make up an 'auction item number'. I've never cashed one of these money orders here though. I save them up and then cash them on trips abroad.

Good luck!

Also most post office ATMs in Japan (if not all) support transactions with Cirrus network cards - and they have English menus. Available during post office hours. So if your bank card back home belongs to the Cirrus network, this might work for you for transferring money to Japan.

A viable option for transferring money is, in my opinion ikobo. They send you a visa ATM card you can use to withdraw money regardless of your location. As long as there is a visa ATM nearby, then you've got money. :)
Just a suggestion.

Is there an upper limit to the amount of money that can be transferred via the post office money order from Japan to the Sates?

Is there an upper limit to the amount of money that can be transferred via the post office money order from Japan to the Sates?

It's a limit of USD700 per money order issued, so if you need a USD1350 money order, they would give you one for USD700 and the other for USD650. (Note that your charges are based on the yen amount being transferred-- 500 yen for the first JPY100,000, then another 500 yen for the next JPY100,000, or something like that.) They do a more thorough check on you if you are trying to send more than JPY1,000,000 at a time to a single recipient and I am not sure that you can buy one for more than JPY2,000,000 anymore. My (entirely unconfirmed) best guess is that the "upper limit" is probably 2 million JPY, which is down from 5 million when the government tightened the money laundering rules about 5 years ago.

hello

anybody here tried sending money from australia? my family tried western union but it cost too much :-( how bout any bank transfers? any suggestions would be much appreciated

Hello,

You can try Go Lloyds in japan, their fees are reasonable and probably the cheapest of the banks in Japan.
https://www.golloyds.com/en/index.php

Another one which I have tried and worked very well is MoneyBookers
http://www.moneybookers.com/

Cost is minimal, but you have to register your email address. Note that to transfer from your own account overseas to your account in Japan, you only need one email address. Works like a charm !
Gilles

Has anyone got new information regarding transferring money to the USA? I heard that the post office has now started charging the same as the banks for what was used to be a reasonable Y500 charge for an international money order (in various currencies but basically up to $700 USD).

I was reading here: http://greggman.com/edit/editheadlines/2004-03-25.htm#comment33
but maybe someone has something new to add?

Is there a bank that if you have an account you can get free traveler's checks (like at many Credit Unions in the USA)?

For international transfers, I have been using a service called MoneyBookers and I am very pleased with it. The setup is a bit tedious, but I guess they need to make sure the money is licit. Once setup, it is plain easy, even to send money to friends or relatives without knowing their bank details, since you notify them by email and they decide which bank account it goes to.
Here are the rates/comparison from their website : https://www.moneybookers.com/app/?rid=1516489

Duration
-Bank transfer : 2-5 days,
-Cheque : 3-12 days,
-Moneybookers : REAL-TIME

Cost - domestic transfer
-Bank transfer : up to Euro 5.00,
-Cheque : up to Euro 5.00 + postage,
-Moneybookers : 1% but maximum Euro 0.50

Cost - international transfer
-Bank transfer : up to Euro 30,
-Cheque : up to Euro 30 + postage,
-Moneybookers : 1% but maximum Euro 0.50

Required details
-Bank transfer : Name, account number, bank name, sort code and/or SWIFT/IBAN,
-Cheque : Name and postal address,
-Moneybookers : ONLY EMAIL

Security
FSA regulated

I hope it helps.

Hi Gilles Gaury,
I noticed that they have a program for referrals at moneybooker. So I was wondering if you's like me to put in your email address whatever they ask for?

I'm trying to work out the details on having my money in yen and what it will cost to transfer it to the USA in dollars, and what sort of exchange rates they use. Have you analyzed the rates? Are they the same tts rates that Japanese banks all use?

Thanks, Cornelia

Hello Cornelia,

I have used them regularly, switching from Lloyds TSB service. The rates they use are quite reasonable. I have made a review for a specific transfer of which I give you the results.
I transfered 10 euros to Skype on the 16th July. Moneybookers charged me 1708.72yen. It makes for a rate of 170.87 yen per euro.
Historically the interbank rate was at 168.115 (See http://www.oanda.com/convert/classic) or 2.7 points above the bank rates. No other charges were made.
For sake of comparison, the Lloyds rate today is 167.18 (same at MTUFJ and 166.31 at Mizuho) and the interbank rate is 165.234. Meaning 1.946 or about two points above the interbank rate. They also charge JPY2,000. The bank transfer fees in Japan (to load the account) would be the same for MoneyBookers (JPY630 for transfers above 30,000).

I had transfered 100,152.86 yen before to pay 700 euros, and the exchange rate difference was JPY1,036 from the bank rate on 19th May 2006 + 72 yen of fees. All together, it costed me 1,108yen to make the tranfer. No fees on the receiving end.
If I keep the 2 points difference from Lloyds for the same transfer, I would have had to pay close to (JPY101,000 + JPY2,000) JPY3,000 for the transfer fee.

I hope it helps.

Gilles

The other problem now is to find a bank account here in Japan that has only romaji in the name. Most of the banks have a katakana rendition that is in fact more official than the romaji rendition. But it seems that Moneybookers application form does not allow katakana. In any case, even if they did, I would get all bogged down in whether to use hankaku or the double byte katakana that my English Mac OS X provides for.

Did you do it with your Japanese bank?

If I can get this to work, I think it will save me a lot of money in transfer fees! I'm excited about it.

Thanks for all your help. C.

Well, yes but only maybe. I have registered both my Japanese CitiBank and my European bank accounts. However when tranfering overseas, MoneyBookers is asking you to make a transfer to their denominated bank account in Japan (Sumitomo Mitsui Bank). This means that you do not need to register a Japanese bank account if you cannot write in katakana. Simply go to an ATM and upload the funds to that denomimated MoneyBookers (Sumitomo Mitsui Bank) account. This is very similar to the GoLLoyds system where you need to send them the money first to a Japanese denominated GoLLoyds bank account. After a couple of days, this money will show into your MoneyBookers account online.
From there you can transfer it anywhere you want !

At 17:09 07/11/01 -0700, you wrote:
>>Well, yes but only maybe. I have registered both my Japanese CitiBank and my European bank accounts. However when tranfering overseas, MoneyBookers is asking you to make a transfer to their denominated bank account in Japan (Sumitomo Mitsui Bank). This means that you do not need to register a Japanese bank account if you cannot write in katakana.<<

I'm late to this discussion, and what I have to say may be irrelevant depending on the sums involved, but this year is my son's senior year in a US college, and I've been paying the tuition through bank transfers for the past four years. I started out the first year by starting a CitiBank account, thinking it would be easier/cheaper that way, but it turned out to be much more trouble than it was worth, having to keep a minimum sum in the account, yada yada.
I also sent one or two payments via postal account, but I've now settled on using my ordinary Mizuho bank since that's where our main funds are. I've forgotten the exact cost, but I think it's about 4,500 yen to send the semiannual payments of USD $12,000+. Since I only have to do this twice a year, I think the most important thing for me is to keep the forms I used the previous time so I can just copy the information over the next time.

Re: MONEYMOVERS.com
I've registered my SMBC account with them because it looks like my name is all in romaji in all places on that account. And it just so happens that it is their bank also (into which you transfer money).

One has to go through all the registration menus before one finally learns that their bank is SMBC, etc. In fact it's actually:
Bibit Payments, K.K.
Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation
Branch: Tokyo Daiichi (which is not a physical branch, you can't actually go there and make a transfer into their account from there) #931

So, inside Tokyo anyway, the transfer from SMBC account to another SMBC account (Osaka SMBC is apparently different because they have a different SWIFT code), the transfer fee is Y105. If I could go to Tokyo Daiichi branch and make the transfer it would be zero fee, but I can't because it doesn't actually exist as a regular branch.

If I could transfer using their web site it would also be a zero transfer fee. But then I get bogged down in the Kanji again.

Also, I can choose to "remember" the transfer information on my SMBC cash card so that I can do another transfer in the future more easily (with less assistance from the bank staff ;-)

Now I have to wait for 2-3 days for the money to actually show up at moneymovers.com. Since the conversion page is based in Euro, I wonder if they will do a double conversion (from Yen to Euro and then finally to USD) like banks like to do for all sorts of legal reasons.

"For transactions involving a currency conversion, we use the daily reference rates as published by the European Central Bank. However, 1.75% will be added to the interbank rate wherever there is an exchange of currency. This is not a hidden charge but a protection against the volatility and risk associated with FX markets."

The daily reference rates can be seen here:
http://www.ecb.int/stats/exchange/eurofxref/html/index.en.html
Deposit fee is free from moneybookers point of view, but you may have to pay a fee at your point of origination (which in my case today was Y105).
Then:
Withdrawal fee is Y290.
Payment fee is 1% plus 1.75% if there is a conversion to another currency. I assume it is 1.75% of the originating currency.

In a couple of days I hope to do my first Moneymovers transaction and I'll tally up all the costs and the time it took from start to finish, and let you all know how it went!