Best Method for Regular Exchanges of Yen into USD

[Djeayzonne]

I send money from myself to myself every month from my yen account in Japan to my USD account here in the US.

Up until this point, I have just been doing a direct transfer between the banks.

I was starting to wonder if there is a better way to do this. Again, not a one-time thing, but every month.

Thanks

[choppingwood]

I have a contract where I am paid monthly in yen through Paypal. The yen are converted to Canadian dollars at Paypal. There is a transfer fee as well as the exchange rate, so it isn't cheap.  You can look up the rates for the fees on the Paypal website. They are set fees. It takes about two (occasionally three) days for the transfer to my Paypal account and then to my bank account.

I don't have any choice about how this is paid, so I've never compared it to a bank transfer. The admin fees are set in both, but the exchange rate isn't necessarily transparent on either.

[Djeayzonne]

The problem with Paypal is the Paypal fees regardless of exchange fees.

The way I do it currently is already much better than Paypal as it is a set fee regardless of amount.

I would highly suggest you get out of having to use Paypal unless you can invoice your clients for that percentage-based fee Paypal charges.

[patrickza]

Paypal fees are quite ludicrous, 2.75% if I remember right. I change from ZAR to USD quite often and use a company called exchange for free. They might not charge fees, but there is still a spread of around 1%. I go with them because my banks charge 2%.

I can exchange currencies at 0.1% and under through my interactive brokers account, but I have no way to withdraw or deposit in ZAR. This would work great for USD, EUR and GBP though as interactive have accounts in those countries. If they have one in Japan then you're all set, otherwise see if you can find another broker with accounts in both currencies.

[Djeayzonne]

Patrick,

Thanks for the info.
Could you give me some more detail on what you mean by an interactive broker account?

I would certainly like to look into that!

[mskyle]

Interactive Brokers is a discount trading platform. You can fund purchases of currencies or stocks/etfs/mutual funds directly in yen. https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/home.php

[Djeayzonne]

Thanks for the clarification.

So, yes, they even have a version of the website in Japanese.

Could you give me a quick bullet point list of what I need to do? Type of account(s) and type of trade I would need to execute?

[Filliteracy]

Could anyone using interactive brokers give more info on exchanging currencies? Even if the fees for exchanging sound low (.1%), is there then a fee to then transfer that money in/out of the brokerage and into a bank/ other account?

[dividendman]

Can you execute a Norbert's gambit between the NYSE and Nikkei?

[popbottlepirate]

Hey! finally one I can help with. It's been about five years since I've done it but I used Go Remit ( Go Lloyd's at the time) http://www.shinseibank.com/goremit/en/

I used it to send money home monthly from Japan to Canada. I think it was a flat fee then my bank charged me a fee to receive it as well. There might be cheaper options but this was quick, like two days.