Someone in Japan finally agreed to help you pay for your concert tickets at a Japan convenience store (コンビニ such as FamilyMart / Lawson / 7 Eleven) but they might request for you to pay them in advance. Assuming it is someone you trust and you want to proceed, what are the various ways to transfer money from your country to them in Japan?

• Bank Transfer
  • Requires them to provide you with their bank account details and full name. From my experience, unless they are already somewhat close to you, they would not be willing to pass you their bank account details. In addition, typically bank transfer costs would be higher either via the fees or the exchange rate.

• Wise (formerly TransferWise)
  • The money transfer is relatively fast (usually within 15 minutes from my experience other than your first transfer)
  • If you install it with my referral link (https://wise.com/invite/ecac/d121f910), you can get a free debit card or a free transaction up to SGD$900
  • Exchange rates are more reasonable compared to bank transfers and fees are relatively low and transparent (shown clearly before you transfer any funds)
  • You can also refer other people in future and earn up to SGD$100 each time 3 of your referred friends successfully makes the necessary spending (without time limit)

• Revolut / PayPal are also possible methods
  • Transfers are also relatively fast
  • However, if the person in Japan is using a PayPal business accounts, they would get charged quite high fees for every transaction and hence is less likely to use it
  • Referral Programmes are available too so next time you can also refer other people to join to earn money. However, currently I see that both of these have a short time limit so if your referred friends don’t immediately use it after installing, then it would be void

If you encounter problems with these, feel free to contact me at paymentrequest@xalici.com