The bank for my situation.

[Teacher101]

There are so many questions about "which bank" on this forum, it's almost more confusing than helpful.

So, I thought I would give as much detail about my situation as possible and see what people think. Please help me choose a bank!

First, I will be staying in Japan for the long term and have no debts in the home country, so I'm not going to be sending money to another country with any regularity. At most, I would transfer funds to my investment account once or twice a year and that's it.

There is a rather high probability that I will be moving within Japan one or more times, so I would prefer a larger national bank.

An online banking option would be nice, with features such as sending furikomi from my own PC. As such, I am also looking for a bank providing a relatively low furikomi rate.

I will be living in the Yokohama area and will open my bank account there. The closest bank branches to my actual residence will be Mitsui Sumitomo, UFJ, and Yuucho (post office). Other banks in the Yokohama area are of course an option if they are considerably better than these 3, but may not be as convenient.

Recommendations/advice please!

[davai.davai]

as much detail about my situation as possible

good but you forgot to mention your japanese ability.

If it's good, banks are all the same, my preference goes to IFJMitsu 'cause they treated me well from the very beginning, but as with many other aspects of life in Japan it is case by case, what will be yuor experience could be only guessed.
It doesn't matter where you live, the 1st "w" in "www" stands for "world" , ne

If not, Shinsei

[thenoie]

http://www.shinseibank.com/english/

[Welesley]

SMBC has good and easy to use internet banking. Also will give credit cards freely.

The post office should never,ever go bankrupt. That cannot be said of any other bank here.

Regional banks may offer more services. Lower rates etc.

What matters most in your choice?

Furokomi is standard at 210 and 540 depending on the amount transfered

[sekicho]

Originally Posted by Welesley

The post office should never,ever go bankrupt. That cannot be said of any other bank here.

Whether a bank is at risk of bankruptcy only matters if you plan on depositing many thousands of dollars there. For most reasonable amounts, deposit insurance will have you covered no matter what happens.

[zmcnulty]

Shinsei's online banking is absolutely terrible. The security is complete overkill, not actually secure, and a huge hassle. To login you need your branch code, account number, PIN, web banking password, and security card every single time. The interface and usability is also an artifact of the 1995 internet.

I signed up for ebank because it has all of the good features of Shinsei (free ATM withdraws, free furikomis, card that works at 7-11s/Yucho anytime) but the online banking is actually worth a damn. They also offer a Visa debit card...one of the only banks in Japan to offer that. It's online-only though so don't expect to find any branches.

[jj-peasuke]

My 5 cents...
if you are in kansai, go for mitsui sumitomo (more branches).
if you are in kanto, go for ufj... (more branches).

you can get your salary there.

once settled down... open either shinsei or city bank... they have english
online, and free withdrawals from some convinience stores... you can
exchange money online... enough really.

you will have at this point 2 debit cards, a lot of atm machines to get your
money out... at no cost.

don:t worry about credit cards... everytime i go to my branch they offer
me one... and i am low end costumer, so....

i don:t know... at the end, the best option is to open at account in the nearest
bank office close to your job (available within working hours..... )... I really
wouldn:t worry about the bank itself...

jj
http://peasuke.com

[Teacher101]

Thanks for the advice. For better or worse, I opened a postal savings account. It's the most convenient for where I happen to live, and finding a post office anywhere else in the country isn't difficult. For online stuff, my Japanese is sufficient so I should be all right. That doesn't mean I won't open another account somewhere else. I may use one place for savings, the other for expenses, daily use etc.

When I asked Japanese people they were all saying "Shinsei abunai" because they just reported that loss. Considering every other bank in the world is reporting losses, I take that "abunai" with a grain of salt...

[freeB]

Originally Posted by Teacher101

Thanks for the advice. For better or worse, I opened a postal savings account. It's the most convenient for where I happen to live, and finding a post office anywhere else in the country isn't difficult. For online stuff, my Japanese is sufficient so I should be all right. That doesn't mean I won't open another account somewhere else. I may use one place for savings, the other for expenses, daily use etc.

When I asked Japanese people they were all saying "Shinsei abunai" because they just reported that loss. Considering every other bank in the world is reporting losses, I take that "abunai" with a grain of salt...

Moving to Japan also in a couple months and since it seems you have already done the legwork of moving your finances to Japan, I have a few questions for you. If you don't mind.

Probably going with the Postal Savings account also. If I read your first post under this thread right you said you are not in Japan yet. Did you open the account from another country than Japan?

Will you simply be or did you wire most of your money to the account?

What about fee's?

Realize these are pretty basic questions but I'm just looking for a little info before talking to any banks. My wife is from Japan but doesn't seem to know too much about the specifics. I'd rather find out what I can before being talked into such and such bank.

thanks in advance

[kotoha]

Postal savings is a better choice than it used to be... until recently you could not transfer money from a postal savings account to another bank (essential if you want to buy anything from an online auction, etc), but now you can. The ATMs close at night, and you have fewer options as far as convenience store ATMs (cant use them at night either) etc.... so you may want to also open a Sumitomo or UFJ account TOO sometime in the future. I have accounts at 3 banks... UFJ, post office, and a local bank. Use them all for different things!

freeB, the first time I came here I brought travellers checks.... BIG mistake. Really, unless you have tens of thousands of dollars in cash, it was SUCH A PAIN to find a BANK that would exchange them... forget about actually using them at a store. I think this may also be BETTER now but even with a big bank like UFJ, some of the branches exchange travellers checks, and some don't. The second time (I left and came back), I just brought a lot of cash, converted it into yen before I came... got big bills and split it up, wore a money belt under my clothes on the plane, stuck some of it in my laptop case, some of it in my checked luggage, etc. It all got here okay and went straight into the bank with no problem. I closed my account in the States before coming here though, if you have an account and a family member you'd trust to wire the money, you could at least look into the fees.... but they're usually quite high. If you dont have a TON of cash.... I'd just bring carefully concealed cash again, personally.

Most if not all banks will require an address in Japan and an ID (gaijin card is better than passport, if they will even take your passport at all), so it's better to wait until you get here to open an account. I don't know about Shinsei or Citibank, never used either one... but AFAIK none of the JAPANESE banks at least will let you open an account without a domestic address and ID.

[freeB]

kotoha, thanks for the reply

Say one were to be bringing tens of thousands of dollars in cash over. Would you still recommend the travellers checks? There would still be a 10,000 dollar limit before duties though right? Probably won't be taking the stashing route. We were considering wiring money to my wifes' parents account in Japan before moving over. She is a resident.
My reasoning for this is the exchange rates. Just trying to time it right. I have a slight fear in a major devaluation of the US dollar if hyperinflation were to kick in. SOL in that case.

[sekicho]

Originally Posted by freeB

kotoha, thanks for the reply

Say one were to be bringing tens of thousands of dollars in cash over. Would you still recommend the travellers checks? There would still be a 10,000 dollar limit before duties though right? Probably won't be taking the stashing route. We were considering wiring money to my wifes' parents account in Japan before moving over. She is a resident.
My reasoning for this is the exchange rates. Just trying to time it right. I have a slight fear in a major devaluation of the US dollar if hyperinflation were to kick in. SOL in that case.

If you wire USD into a Shinsei account, the money will be booked as USD (Shinsei accounts are multi-currency), and you can exchange it to yen within the account at any time (they take a spread of about a yen, which is as good a spread as you'll get anywhere). Most banks which offer multi-currency accounts do things this way.

[freeB]

Originally Posted by sekicho

If you wire USD into a Shinsei account, the money will be booked as USD (Shinsei accounts are multi-currency), and you can exchange it to yen within the account at any time (they take a spread of about a yen, which is as good a spread as you'll get anywhere). Most banks which offer multi-currency accounts do things this way.

Thanks, looking into the Shinsei account right now.

[Teacher101]

Hey freeB,

Actually, I`m already in Japan and I`m moving from a local prefectural bank to the yuucho bank.

When I moved to Japan initially, I ordered currency from my bank in the states so I would have immediate spending money. The rate was far better than if I`d changed it at the airport. I only brought cash to change, no checks, and I just did it at my regional bank after I had set up an account. It was a pretty fair rate, much better than I would have expected for a smallish bank. Since then I`ve transferred money to japan via wire transfer. My bank in the US is one of the cheapest for doing this, and the rate has been fair.

Per the advice of several people (both on GP and elsewhere) I will open another bank account in addition to the post office one. I`m beginning to think that I`ll keep the yuucho account as my savings, and set up my bill payments and salary payments through whatever alternate bank I decide on. Being a yahoojp auction junky, I`m happy to hear that a postal account is no longer a problem for furikomi!

BTW, this is my secret if you need cash upon arrival or before departure at Narita:

Ignore the currency exchange counters on the main level. Instead, find the post office (I think its 3rd floor of terminal 2, if memory serves). They give you the same rate that they`d give you anywhere else in the country, rather than jacked up airport prices.

[kotoha]

Originally Posted by freeB

kotoha, thanks for the reply

Say one were to be bringing tens of thousands of dollars in cash over. Would you still recommend the travellers checks? There would still be a 10,000 dollar limit before duties though right? Probably won't be taking the stashing route. We were considering wiring money to my wifes' parents account in Japan before moving over. She is a resident.
My reasoning for this is the exchange rates. Just trying to time it right. I have a slight fear in a major devaluation of the US dollar if hyperinflation were to kick in. SOL in that case.

Sorry this is late, but it looks like other people who know more than I do have already given you some suggestions.

Actually I DONT recommend travellers checks... as I said, it was very hard to find a bank that would take them, even though I got them in yen denominations. This was in 2001 though, it may be easier to find somewhere now. You do get a slightly better exchange rate than with cash though, so if you ARE bringing lots of money it may be worth it to at least calculate the difference and weigh that against the possible difficulty you might have in finding a bank to take them (you WILL be able to find one, it just might not be the closest bank to your home or office, and as I said dont expect to be able to spend them at most stores, maybe the big department stores (???) but no local shops or restaurants etc, a lot of local places dont even take credit cards)

DONT bring personal checks or bank checks. I think Citibank will TAKE them but the fees are supposedly worse than a wire transfer... no personal experience there though.... also can't use checks for shopping.

I'm not the one to ask about bringing lots of money though. I came here straight out of college with a summers' worth of minimum wage and a couple of suitcases to my name.

EDIT: Oh yes, and where you will be living or working will affect your decision somewhat! If your home and/or office will be in the middle of Tokyo's business district, you'll have access to Shinsei or Citibank if that's the route you choose. I live about 30 minutes from Ikebukuro by train... and definitely neither of those banks within at least four or five train stations... wouldn't be surprised if Ikebukuro was the closest access to either one. So for me UFJ is as "international" as it gets (you can use their ATM cards abroad and in some branches they do foreign exchange, its actually not bad for the tiny amount of overseas travel I do), and I also have the postal account and local bank's account... they all have their good and bad points, most Japanese people have accounts at more than one bank too, my husband has at least four!

[freeB]

Thanks for the replies. With unpredictable exchange rates I want to get our money into Japan as soon as possible so that we`ll be ready to exchange if the dollar starts tanking compared to the yen. For this reason I think we will be wiring money to my wife`s families Postal account. Pretty comparable to Shinsei as far as spreads and fees from what I gather.

[Teacher101]

Ok.... Opened a UFJ Mitsubishi account today too.

Final 3 words on Japan Post bank account = Waste of Time.

They can't accept direct deposit from my work, so I need another account for that. There was a snafu with transferring money to pay for my apartment that needed ironing out. I gather that the money deposit/debit system at JapanPost is problematic in general. And it took 30 minutes to change my address.

30 minutes, sitting in the post office. The guy didn't help any other customers in that time, it just took 30 minutes to change my address.

UFJ had my account opened and cashcard issued in 10 minutes. In, out, done.

[pathoz]

Can anybody tell me the rates that the Postal bank charges if I wire money from my Canadian bank account? Also, does the PO website indicate the exchange rate it offers? I've been trying to find it but no luck so far...

Thanks!