Re: [tlug] Receiving money internationally

[Benjamin Kowarsch <trijezdci@example.com>]

On Tue, 30 Aug 2022 at 07:42, Raymond Wan <rwan.kyoto@example.com> wrote:

... one other option is for them to mail a cheque (I guess
"bank draft" is a more correct term?) drawn from a Japanese bank.
i.e., if they are in the UK, they go to their bank to write a cheque
out to you, but the money is actually paid by (assured by?) a bank in
Japan.  They then mail it to you via normal post and you cash it in at
any bank in Japan.  I haven't done this with Japan (sorry!)

I doubt you would recommend this if you had actually tried this in Japan.

Years ago, I asked about this at two Japanese banks where I have accounts and they both recommended against it outright. It was extremely expensive. There was a handling fee which was about 2000 JPY and then there was a transaction fee as a percentage of the amount to be cleared which was significantly higher than for wire transfers and the minimum transaction fee was 6000 or 8000 JPY. And I was told that it would take longer than any other form of money transfer. This was several years ago but I cannot imagine that the terms would have become more favourable since. I'd rather suspect the opposite.