Transfering Money

[Seb]

I did a search on this topic on the forum but didn't find much so I thought it would be good to have a topic about this.

Transfering money to a foreign bank account;
What service do you use? What are the best and cheapest options?
So far the only option I have tried is to go straight to my bank which costed me around 5000 yen just for the transaction, I cannot recommend this approach.

Please share.

[job]

Yubinkyoku + Mom/Dad. A little slow. Possibly insecure (nondescript envelopes and no insurance). And possibly a little slow. But, charges tend to be very low with just giving Mom and Dad a catch up call the price of service usually.

[me_in_japan]

I dont transfer money back to the UK very often. tbh, what I should be doing is looking for a high-interest account that I can open from any country, and shoveling my cash in there, but anyhoo...

when I do send money back, I use Lloyds TSB. You set up an account with them here in japan, and then whenever you send money to that account (by means of a furikomi), it is automatically bounced into whichever international account you have designated (i.e. your account in Sweden or wherever). It costs 2000yen per transaction, regardless of how much you are sending, at least it did last time I sent cash back, about 2 years ago.

hope that helps

ps sorry I dont have a link, but if you search for "lloyds tsb japan international transfer" on google, you should get something to get you started.

[Primarch]

I use the Post Office. If you go to your local branch and tell them you want to transfer money overseas, they will give you a form to fill out. You will need the address and bank codes of your account and they will handle the rest. It costs 2500 yen per transfer and the max you can send is 500,000 yen I think.

The only thing I dont like about it is that you have to write down what you will use the money for which I find a bit intrusive.

@M_i_J As for high interest accounts, I set up an ISA last time I was in the UK. I think the rate was something like 5.5%-6%, though it could have dropped now given the current state of the UK economy.

[Colonel Voss]

I use Lloyd's to send my money. You set up an account with them and then wire the money to your Lloyds account and they will send it to your bank account in your home country. Pretty dang quick, day or two at most.

[Konrad]

Or the latest option........only in Japan would 7-11 provide better financial services than the banks. UFGMitsubishiSumitoConglomoration our motto, "Hey, you gave us the money. It's ours now!"
http://injapan.gaijinpot.com/2011/07/11 ... r-service/

[Seb]

Cool, thanks everyone for the info!

[Spevna]

I use the Post Office. If you go to your local branch and tell them you want to transfer money overseas, they will give you a form to fill out. You will need the address and bank codes of your account and they will handle the rest. It costs 2500 yen per transfer and the max you can send is 500,000 yen I think.

The only thing I dont like about it is that you have to write down what you will use the money for which I find a bit intrusive.

@M_i_J As for high interest accounts, I set up an ISA last time I was in the UK. I think the rate was something like 5.5%-6%, though it could have dropped now given the current state of the UK economy.

Lloyds Offshore banking are offering 4.5% per year for 5 years fixed term guaranteed.