Overseas remittance is generally transferred from Japan Post Bank (Yucho Ginko) and City Bank Such as UFJ, Mizuho. Lately, Internet banking, Paypal, Travelex which correspond with overseas remittence has come to the fore. Pre-paid card which is chargeable in your country and withdraw-able in Japan has been released recently.
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4 types of fees for overseas remittence from Japan
Bank remittance is quite general way you can come up with. When you remit money through Japanese bank, you should make sure the following 4 types of fess.
| Types of fees for remittence | Features |
|---|---|
| Remittance fee | This is the fee due to a remitter bank. This fee differs depending on the bank. The rage difference of remittence fee among banks will be several hundereds to several thousands so you should pay attention to it carefully. |
| Lifting charge | If there is no business alliance between a remitter bank and a receiver bank. Your money will be remitted to a receiver bank via a bank which ties up business alliance with a remitter bank. This lifting charge is incurred to this bank affiliated with a remitter bank. Basically this charge should be burdened by a recipient. Moreover, there are many cases where you don’t know whether a remitter bank will use an affiliated bank or not unless you remit money. |
| Foreign-exchange fee | For example, when you remit money which you save in a Japanese bank account as yen to the bank in the United States as dollar, the money coverted as Japanese currency needs to be exchanged into American currency. Then the remitter bank claims this fee to you. |
| Receiving fee | This is the fee due to a receiver bank. This fee is principally burdened by a recipient but in some cases, remitter is burdened. If you want to remit exact money that a recipient want, it is more convenient to make a recipient take the burden of this fee. |
Comparison of remittence fees of Japanese bank with overseas remittence service
As far as I looked, these 4 banks’ fees are much more cometitive than any other else.
| Banks | Place of procedure | Remittence fee | Foreign-exchange fee | Lifting charge | Receiving fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shinsei Bank | office | ¥4,000 | ¥0.5 | Recipient burden | |
| MSBC | Online | ¥3,500 | ¥1.6 | ¥2,500 | |
| Japan Post Bank | office | ¥2500 | ¥1.6 | Recipient burden | |
| Rakuten Bank | Online | ¥750 | ¥1.5 | ¥1,000 | Recipient burden |
SMBC
Receiving fee and Lifting charge are fixed at ¥2,500. You can set receiving fee and lifting charge for remitter burden. If you want to remit perfect amount of money that recipient claims, this bank is recommendable.
Remittence with Shinsei Bank
The biggest advantage is foreign exchange fee is very cheap. This advantage is very beneficial when the amount of remittence is quite big . The following is the comparison of foreign exchanges classified by the amount of remmitence. Naturally, the bigger the remmitance becomes, the more expensive that total fees become by the influence of foreign exchange fees.
| Rakuten Bank (1.5yen) | Shinsei Bank (0.5 yen) | Gap | |
|---|---|---|---|
| $100 | ¥150 | ¥50 | ¥100 |
| $1,000 | ¥1,500 | ¥500 | ¥1000 |
| $10,000 | ¥15,000 | ¥5,000 | ¥10,000 |
Rankten Bank and shinsei bank’s remittence are ¥750 and ¥4,000. There is a gap of |3250 between the both prices. However, in case that remittance amount get bigger, foreign-exchange fees will reverse to the gap. If you would like to remit a significant amount of money which is more than ¥400,000, you should select Shinsei bank.
Remittence with Japan Post Bank (Yucho Bank)
You can ask bank teller or also use online system to remit money. You don’t have to open bank account to remit so this remittence style is suitable for people who want to remit money as soon as possible.
Remittence with Rakuten Bank
Rakuten bank sets the most cheapest remittance fees. Lifting charge is fixed in 1000 yen which is the cheapest in the bank industry in Japan. One disadvantage is that lifting charge must be paid by a recipient. At any rate, this bank is the most advantageous for overseas remittence.
Peer-to-peer transaction through Japanese Paypal account is prohibited by Japanese law
Paypal has a function to remit money to foreign accounts but If your account has been opened to just remit your money to your country, it is hopeless that you can’t remit because Japanese government prohibits peer-to-peer transaction through Paypal account with law amendment.
Think the choice of Japanese international pre-paid card
The above way that remits through bank is quite standard but it costs you too much. Remittance transaction takes you generally a couple days to over a week in contrast to domestic transferring transaction that doesn’t make you wait a second.
It is pretty natural for overseas remittence that a recipient or you must have a bank account to receive money. However, for example, if a recipient is a resident of the country you remit money to, he/she of course has a domestic bank account in the country, but if you have a child who is studying abroad, you might think it’s really troublesome to newly open bank account for your child to receive money.
International prepaid card is capable of charging foreign currency from Japan through internet. Charged money can be withdrawn from ATM of the receiving country. Additionally, it enables you to buy something as a credit card.
It is not suitable for remitting to a business partner but its usage for sending an allowance to your son or daughter who is studying abroad is quite convenient.