Ranting about Yucho Bank’s poor approach to digitalization is a bit of a low hanging fruit, but their new smartphone app that they just launched to scan your renewed residence card is legit the worst piece of software I have ever used.
The UI design is non existent, and the card reader is straight up non functional on my device (Pixel phone), and if there’s any kind of problem you have to do everything from the start. Funniest thing, you still have to do the old process along this new step!
If you are renewing your Residence Card soon or are waiting for renewal, save yourself the frustration and go to your nearest Postal Office, the clerks there will sort it out for you in minutes (who, by the way, are themselves absolutely clueless about this new system).
Rant over.
11 comments
It is uniquely horrible.
PSA: stop using yucho and get a real bank.
I just did this on a website (QR-code on the letter they sent) without any problems…? They didn’t require use of any app. Granted this was 2-3 weeks ago.
I’ll have to be going through it in the next few weeks as well. Last year I could do it on the website. This year I’ll do it right after getting my new one. Then I’ll open an account with Sony bank.
Bro. I just went to yucho office today for this exact reason. I couldnt use their awful app and submitted my info old fashion way. And after that moved some of the money to sony bank. Planning to move all to sony.
And for sony i updated my info in 7 eleven atm.
A real pro tip is to bank with your local shinkin. Mine helped when multiple big banks blew me off, and if you plan to stay here long term then the relationship you’re building will really help when it comes to applying for any major loans.
Edit: Another plus, the shinkin app is super easy to use even if your Japanese is limited
Yucho was the best due to it being accessible everywhere – but since Japan has introduced tap and go etc that’s been less useful than say 5 years ago.
I still have never had issues with Yucho!
I just reactivated my Yucho account and went through so many documents just to let them reset my password. I’m lucky that the queue was short that afternoon.
I just went with the physical token instead
Though I think that will be deprecated in the future
Thank goodness I’ve had consecutive 5 year visas.
I had an absolute nightmare of a time trying to get Yucho’s new ID verification app to work on my foreign (rooted) phone. No fucking way I’m gonna PAY MONEY for a ‘token’ which could be potentially lost or broken at any given moment, just to use online banking in 2023. So I was determined to get this fucking app to work.
The app shat itself halfway through my verification process when it realised I had a rooted phone, and because my verification was incomplete, Yucho automatically essentially froze my account. I couldn’t make any transfers/withdrawals over 5 man (so I couldn’t pay my rent) or even log in to Yucho Direct until I rectified it. Removing this freeze had to be done with full hanko and gaijin card, in person at a branch.
As for getting the app to work. Predictably, trying to explain my issues to the Yucho staff themselves (in Japanese) was fucking futile; I was told initially over the phone that I would need to go into a branch. So again I went into a branch and tried to explain my problem. The guy there had no fucking idea about the upcoming implementation of the app, let alone my specific foreign keitai issue. So he told me to call the number that I had already called. Oh well, perhaps this guy was just dumb, I’ll go into a different branch on another day and speak to someone else. So I did that, and was again told to call the initial phone number. So I called them back, and again, was told that I would need to go into a branch. Etc.
Eventually after a LOT of nerdy Googling, I solved the issue myself: https://www.reddit.com/r/japanlife/comments/117twfi/using_the_yucho_ninshiki_application_on_a_rooted/
This bullshit, coupled with having to pay to deposit coins, and the recently-introduced ATM fees at Family Mart even though they are actual Yucho ATMs (they used to be free 24/7 with a Yucho card, now they have all sorts of after-hours fees), has just given me the absolute squirts. I really want to change banks, probably to one of the online banks, like Rakuten or Neobank. But literally all my shit is tied up in Yucho, it would just be a massive hassle to switch at this point.