[tlug] RE: Tlug Digest, Vol 14, Issue 6

[<burlingk@??>]

> ------------------------------
> 
> Message: 6
> Date: Mon, 05 Feb 2007 17:42:25 -0700
> From: "David J Iannucci" <jlinux@??>
> Subject: [tlug] OT: receiving money by Paypal in Japan
> To: tlug@??
> Message-ID: <1170722545.25067.1173076775@??>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1"
> 
> Please excuse another OT post, but I really need this info and I think
> this group has the best chance of being able to deliver. If 
> you are the
> sort of person who thinks these threads should be conducted 
> offline and
> summarized, then email me directly. If you believe good info should be
> shared on the list, then share on the list :-)
> 
> Q: Has anyone received money from overseas via Paypal?  What I would
>    like to know is whether your *bank* charged you a fee to "download"
>    the yen from Paypal to your local account (this is presuming it was
>    converted to yen by Paypal - no exchange is required at 
> this point).
>    Was it a bank account or yuubin chokin (postal account)?  How much
>    did they charge, or was it free (as it is in the US :-)
> 
> I'm going to be taking a trip to Japan soon with some friends 
> and trying
> to find the most economical way to exchange money.  This seems like a
> good bet, because Paypal's spread is only 2.5%, while banks over here
> seem to charge around 4%.
> 
> Thanks a lot,
> Dave

What part of the world are you from?
My bank account is drawn on an American credit union.  My ATM card is a check card.

My preffered way of getting cash is to go to a Post Office and use the ATM there.  I am not sure if the post office charges a fee, but the fee that visa charges is only 1% for overseas non-dollar transactions.  Beyond that, you should only have to pay whatever fee your bank charges for ATM transactions.

As for the PayPal thing, I have not  yet established a Japanese bank account, so I haven't had to deal with it yet.  I know that paypal handles currencies just fine (My Skype account is still set to Euros, which was still the default at the time that I set it up.), but I don't know about the bank.