Hi, hope this topic is okay.
I needed to transfer a large amount of money from my Canadian bank to Japan for a big purchase in Japan. I found the cheapest option was a wire transfer through Xe, which had a fee of approximately 0.5% (a hidden fee through a reduced conversion rate from CAD -> JPY. Better than Wise at the moment, whose fee is around 1.2%)
I obviously should have verified this beforehand, but it didn’t occur to me that JP Post Yucho can’t receive JPY through international remittance. The only way to receive international remittance into JP Yucho is through USD or EUR through the intermediary bank Deutsche Bank (see this [JP Yucho Bank article](https://www.jp-bank.japanpost.jp/en/djp/en_djp_index.html) for details on international remittance).
So, I’ve remitted my money from my Canadian account to JPY through Xe. My money is currently sitting with Xe in JPY, as it failed to be put into my JP Yucho Account.
These seem to be my only options:
1) Cancel the transaction. Total fee: 1.2% (CAD -> JPY 0.5%, JPY -> CAD 0.5%. Total fee 1.2% because CAD strengthened against JPY since the initial conversion). My money is still stuck in Canada with this option.
2) Have XE convert JPY -> USD and send to Deutsche Bank to receive it in my JP Yucho Account. Total fee: \~4+%. (CAD -> JPY 0.5%, JPY -> USD 0.5%, USD -> JPY 3+%). This option obviously sucks–losing 4% on a large sum is brutal.
3) Receive the money in JPY in Japan. Total fee: 0.5% (already paid CAD -> JPY). My only option for this seems to be getting a friend to transfer the money to, and then having them transfer it domestically to my JP Yucho account. I don’t even know if this is legal, but I can’t think of why it would be bad apart from just being a shitty thing to have to ask a friend to do.
Am I missing something? Are there any other options? I don’t think I can open another bank account since I’ve been in Japan for less than 6 months and I don’t have an employer here.
I really don’t want to ask a friend for help if I can avoid it cause I hate involving friends in money stuff. Any advice would be much appreciated!
by AGoodWobble