Hi everyone,
Wondering how I might be able to send funds to myself from my big chain US-based bank. I’m currently with a smaller bank in Japan that has fees for receiving international wire transfers. Is there any way to avoid fees when sending internationally? Maybe Venmo or something? Thanks!
5 comments
Sony bank.
Your best bet would be opening an account at a better Japanese bank – there are netbanks if you don’t have one near you (Sony Bank is currently even giving some cashback for any transfers in from overseas). For a moderate amount of money Wise or similar is also an option – they do the conversion themselves and do local transfers at both ends, so you’re not paying for an international transfer, but for a big transfer their percentage fees will be more than a wire transfer cost.
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Open a US Revolut account. They’ll send the card to Japan. You’ll be able to withdraw cash up to a generous limit per month for free, then deposit it to any domestic Japanese account.
Otherwise you’ll be given a couple free SWIFT transfers a month which most Japanese banks should not charge you to receive
Are you paying to send those transfers from the US?
If so, then for transfers under about 500,000yen you will be best served with a WISE account. Exactly where the cutoff is will depend on how much you are paying for the outbound transfer from your US account.
If your transfers are over 500,000yen then Sony Bank is your best option as they do not charge to receive incoming transfers and they have far, far, far better exchange rates than you will be getting from either your US bank or your small Japanese bank.
The /r/japanfinance Wiki has [a page](https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanFinance/wiki/index/handling/transfers/) about transfers. It’s focused on outbound transfers but the same basic things apply in both directions.