How to transfer money from my US bank account into a JP one?

7 comments

1. This is a copy of your post for archive/search purposes.

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   **How to transfer money from my US bank account into a JP one?**

   Hi,

   I’m moving to Japan next month. I want to take some money from my bank account in the US ($20,000+) and deposit it into my JP bank account, which someone from my place of work will be helping me set up right away after I move. What’s the cheapest & overall best way to do this? Wire transfer once I get the new account set up? Take it out in USD as a cashier’s check and let them convert + deposit it there? Or for the actual changing of currency into JPY – should I somehow get that done here in the US, on my current bank’s end, or do I wait to do that Japan at the time of deposit/transfer… or how does this all work?

   tl;dr I am relocating to Japan very soon, how do I move a decently-sized sum of money from my current US bank account into a Japanese one, and get the best currency conversion rate and lowest fees (if any)?

   Thanks.

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2. Depends how “sketchy” you want to do it.

   Through your bank is probably best for an amount this large.

   Places like Wise are best for smaller amounts (still worth checking out though)

   Lowest fees (basically $0) is using a p2p service through Binance, but this scares quite a lot of people not familiar with these sites.

   Any of these options should work fairly well

3. Open an account at CapitalOne Bank or Schwab Brokerage before you leave US, use their ATM card to withdraw Yen from 7-11 ATMs in Japan, as you need. No ATM fee, no transaction fee, no foreign exchange fee, the best rate you can get than any other money transfer option listed in /r/JapanFinance wiki.

   Second option is to review the Wiki and search other threads in /r/JapanFinance subreddit, after arriving in Japan, open USD/foreign currency account with one of the banks, for example Shinsei, and do wire transfer from your US account to your foreign currency bank account in Japan. The international wire transfer fee charged by US bank is generally about $25-50. Transfer in USD and convert to Yen as you need.

4. Wise

5. Wise

6. [www.wise.com](https://www.wise.com) is used by much of the expat community for good reason. It will outperform bank exchange rates and it is much easier and more flexible. Order a Wise debit card and you can use your wise account to spend in JPY while you’re getting things set up.

7. Revolut