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Sending Money Home With Shinsei GoRemit

The Shinsei Bank GoRemit service is an easy alternative to the traditional banking service.

By 2 min read 9

One of the challenges with living in Japan is paying any bills that you may have back in your home country. Be it student loans or credit cards, transferring money back to your home county is not always easy.

The first option that many foreigners will look at is going to their regular bank and doing an international money transfer. While this is a reliable way to send money, it requires a high level of Japanese understanding to fill out all the required paperwork each time you want to make a transfer.

An easier alternative to the traditional banks is GoRemit by Shinsei Bank. GoRemit is an easy to use, money transfer service that you can use to transfer funds directly into your home account.

Setting up a GoRemit account* is done through their online application process. Once you’ve filled out the online application form you will need to send in copies of required ID such as residence card and a utility bill.

After 7-10 business days, you will receive their welcome pack with a ‘B-link number’ that is tied to your account. Transferring money can be done either online, at your local bank or at an ATM machine set up to do a “furikomi” transfer.

Unsure about your Japanese language level in making a bank transfer? Don’t worry because GoRemit has you covered. In your welcome pack is a letter written in English and Japanese that you can show to the bank teller and they will know exactly what you want to do.

shinsei_note

The money transfer service costs ¥2,000 per transaction. The transfer usually takes 1 – 3 business days. Please note that local banking practices at the beneficiary end may cause delays in some cases.

The Shinsei Bank GoRemit is an easy to use option for anyone working in Japan who wants to send a little (or a lot) of their hard earned yen back home.

For details about GoRemit, please check their website. www.shinseibank.com/powerflex/cam/cam_goremita_retail_e.html

*You do not need to open a bank account with Shinsei Bank in order to use the GoRemit service.

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  • Bruce Pascal says:

    This is ten years old… could you occasionally update this?

    Thank you..

  • Fox says:

    It is very simple actually. Just set up two paypal accounts. One in your home country and one in Japan. Add your corresponding back accounts for the country and your can send money back and forth for a very little fee. Adding your Japanese bank account to your Japan Paypal account requires sending them documentation but, once you are done its smooth transferring from there.

    • Bamboo_God says:

      Hey Fox,

      Would you be able to give an example of the total costs/fees associated with transferring money from bank to bank with Paypal. I’m definitely considering this as GoLloyds is no longer a thing and its replaced by GoRemit from Shinsei Bank.

  • Anthony Joh says:

    Yeah this is annoying as hell. You’ve got a dozen or so options in Japan but hit the English button and you’re suddenly stuck with only a few options.

  • Korin says:

    I tried this service recently and I am disappointed. I was very excited at first because it meant that I didn’t need to take time off from work to go to the post office to send money!
    The first time I sent money, I noticed that there was about 20 dollars missing from the invoice GoRemit sent me compared to my US bank’s input transaction. I thought that perhaps it was a first time activation fee or something and brushed it off. Then, it happened again this past time I used it. Another variation of 18 dollars. I made a phone call, and was told the money is first sent through CitiBank which charges 18 dollars to do their transaction and then it is sent to your final destination bank, adding on whatever fee they charge for a wire fee.
    I don’t remember the CitiBank transaction being mentioned in the service information at all (which let’s be honest, it could have been and I missed it) but that transaction fee makes this service much more expensive for me than using the Post Office, even though it IS indeed faster.

    TL:DR- This service has a fee of 18 USD that wasn’t made completely clear to me, making it cost more than my previous wire transactions.

    • slow_moon says:

      Thank you for letting us know(and sorry you got hit twice by the fee). I just checked their site and they mention it but don’t say how much:

      “The service fee is ¥2,000 and is not dependent on the amount you send. Yen-basis remittances
      are subject to an additional charge of 0.1% of the amount sent
      (minimum charge of ¥1,500).
      As with any international remittance, intermediary banks will deduct
      a fee. In addition, beneficiary banks in some countries may also levy a
      charge.”

      I may stick with the Post Office, too. I wanted to try GoRemit or something similar but the post office isn’t far and the staff are used to my monthly sending now so sometimes I’m out in a few minutes.

      I’ve confirmed that sending from the Post Office bears no hidden charges for me on top of their fee of ¥2,500. HSBC only charges me 5GBP(¥900) for the whole amount and I send home ¥100,000 each month.

      • Molly says:

        Do you mind me asking you the process of how to transfer money using your post office? I have a Japan Post Bank Account and everyone tells me that it’s too difficult to send money back home (USA), especially for someone with no Japanese language abilities.

        However, I noticed on the ATM at my post office there’s an English guide button that also has a button for remittances. I was wondering if this is to transfer money outside of Japan or just in Japan.

        • slow_moon says:

          Hi, Molly. Sorry for the late reply. I can’t speak for sending to the USA but I followed this guide:

          http://www.survivingnjapan.com/2012/06/how-to-transfer-money-to-and-from-japan.html

          Essentially, it boils down to this:

          1) Tell them you want to do the “kouza ate soukin” (I just say I want to send money to a bank abroad, “gaikoku no ginko ni okuritai”, and they give me the form). Tell them it’s for America.

          2) They’ll ask you how much you want to send. Tell them in Yen(e.g. Y100,000). They’ll tell you the fee is Y2,000(to the US) and ask if you want to include the fee in the payment(so you’d really be sending Y98,000) or pay separately (so you’d hand over Y102,000). You can ask them what the current rate is and they’ll print it out for you as well.

          3) Fill in the form. It’s in English so no worries. Just make sure you have your bank account’s SWIFT code and/or IBAN(one of them is your bank’s international code, the other is your bank account’s international code). I got my IBAN by logging in to my bank account online and I googled my bank’s SWIFT code.

          a) Make sure your sender name/address match your resident card or you’ll have to re-do the form(not fun!). You’ll have to write your full name and address near the bottom right corner.

          b) The part that is tricky is the reason for payment. If you write something in there they don’t understand then expect a phone call a few days later and a bit of a delay with your payment.

          Through trial and error, I’ve found the reason that never gets me a phone call is “card loan (holiday)”, written as “カードローン(りょこう)”. I’ve never had a call about that even though I write it almost every month(I guess they think I’m a jet-setter!). I have on occasion changed ‘holiday’ to something else, such as ‘refrigerator’, and had no problems. Most recently I wrote ‘furniture’ (in katakana) which got me a call asking what furniture meant. I told the lady it’s stuff like tables and cabinets and she understood and wrote the Japanese for furniture. I’ll just stick to holidays from now on!

          c) They will print a sheet out showing the amount you want to send in yen, followed by the amount in dollars that will be sent. They may show you a form that mentions your bank could charge you for receiving the money.

          d) Now, one cool thing they can do(for free) is to take your completed payment form and post you a pack of printed versions(max. 10). You simply take a printed form with you next time and only have to hand-write your name/address and the reason for the payment. Everything else is printed on the form already which makes subsequent trips much quicker!

          Sorry it’s so wordy but I hope this helps 🙂

          ——–

          I haven’t used the ATM to make any payments yet. As others have commented, it’s not available in the English section but I guess that’s to save hassle(staff would need to speak English to help out if you have a problem)

  • AJ says:

    Post office

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