I’m trying to get an account for my salary to be deposited, and both of these seem like the best choice. Obviously, there’s been a lot of posts on this over the years, but it seems like no one’s covered some basic things about the two
A little background, I’ve been in Japan (less than 3 months from Zairyu issuance), which means most banks won’t let me open an account. I have a Cert of Employment, so I should be able to circumvent that, but I still would prefer a bank with English support.
99% of my banking life will be online, so a basic SMBC is fine (their app has some English support). That rules out MUFG and some other banks. I also don’t want huge monthly fees (Prestia has 2200 if less than 200k foreign, 500k yen).
Thing you DON’T read is what i was told today, that Prestia gives you two accounts at generation: 1) A basic yen bank account. 2) A foreign “account” that can store foreign funds in. I’m assuming that lets you get paid in a foreign currency and have it deposited into that account, then convert it between the two as needed? Not fully understanding this… seems practical for me with my salary coming in US income.
Or should I just get a basic SMBC and call it a day? Does anyone know where the fees are listed? Their site doesn’t say much. Most things redirect to Prestia…
Does anyone have any insight? Should I just get Prestia and make sure I maintain 200k yen in USD? Or will SMBC suffice, low fees, also **what the hell is this Olive card all-in-one thing??**
10 comments
I have both. SMBC vanilla is better IMO. Quite often Prestia isn’t even in bank selection list for some vendors/services (like some credit cards for instance). Best to stick with kne of the big 3 for regular banking usage.
Prestia is just what Citibank became after it was bought out by SMBC. They aren’t connected in any way shape or form, other than the name. You can’t use Prestia ATMs with an SMBC card (without incurring fees, and vice versa)
If English support is important, Prestia is the best by far. The only bank that lets you even fill out forms in English. English speaking staff always available. Can’t beat it there.
And yeah their multimoney account lets you store any currency and their rates for conversion are better than most banks. Also easy access to things like term deposits. Just the other day I put my USD with Prestia into a 1 year term deposit at 4.7%, which is lower than the best US banks but still comparable. All done online in about 5 minutes
I have both, and they’re both good for different things.
Prestia is better if you need to deal with a lot of overseas assets and transfers. Easy to hold multiple currencies and wire transfers both in and out is easier.
I’ve found Prestia English service to be excellent. The only thing that bugs me is their card doesn’t work with Apple Pay. Then again, I don’t know if SMBCs does either
Prestia has great service and their multi-currency accounts are great. I have all of their fees waived so I can’t complain.
Note, if you are paid in USD, you are probably better leaving your money in your US bank until you need to transfer it into yen to your Japan account.
Plus for being able to use the SMBC ATM’s (including 7/11) for free.
The only downside is you cannot link to services like PayPay as they are a trust bank.
Note that Prestia’s ATM fees will also change from October. Currently, if you have a total (foreign+JPY) of at least 1M¥, transactions are free. In the new system, you need to have at least 3M¥ equivalent in foreign currencies, or other investment vehicles.
> I’m trying to get an account for my salary to be deposited, and both of these seem like the best choice. Obviously, there’s been a lot of posts on this over the years, but it seems like no one’s covered some basic things about the two
Why these two? They’re operating quite different segments. SMBC is a big four city bank, competing with MUFG/Mizuho/etc.. SMBC Prestia is an almost-netbank focused on English support, competing with Shinsei/Sony/Rakten. In the long term you’ll probably want one of each, but I don’t understand why you’ve picked out those.
> 99% of my banking life will be online, so a basic SMBC is fine (their app has some English support). That rules out MUFG and some other banks.
I haven’t heard of SMBC having better English support, and IME a Japanese-only but clean web UI (no text as images etc.) is easier to use than most Japanese banks’ efforts at English interfaces.
> Prestia has 2200 if less than 200k foreign, 500k yen
Yeah that’s a lot to pay, if you’re not going to meet that condition you don’t want Prestia.
> Thing you DON’T read is what i was told today, that Prestia gives you two accounts at generation: 1) A basic yen bank account. 2) A foreign “account” that can store foreign funds in. I’m assuming that lets you get paid in a foreign currency and have it deposited into that account, then convert it between the two as needed?
Plenty of banks offer foreign currency accounts, the only difference is Prestia opening it by default. IIRC their rates aren’t great so if you’re planning on getting paid a lot in USD you’d be better off going with Shinsei or Sony (depending if you can meet their status conditions).
> Or should I just get a basic SMBC and call it a day? Does anyone know where the fees are listed? Their site doesn’t say much. Most things redirect to Prestia…
Their site should have lists of their fees – of course only in Japanese.
> Does anyone have any insight? Should I just get Prestia and make sure I maintain 200k yen in USD? Or will SMBC suffice, low fees, also what the hell is this Olive card all-in-one thing??
I’ve had pretty bad experiences with SMBC. In branch they wouldn’t let me open an account and were pretty rude about it, and when I tried to apply for Olive their app didn’t work. Both Mizuho and MUFG staff were a lot more friendly and helpful, and either of those do much the same as SMBC as far as I know.
SMBC Prestia is a fine first bank account while you find your feet, especially if they have a branch near you – they’re pretty much the only bank with first-class English support in physical branches. They’re not the cheapest or the most widely accepted, but life is about tradeoffs. Eventually you’ll probably come across something where having an account at a big name city bank makes your life easier, but you can probably put that off for a while (until you’ve been here more than 6 months, if nothing else).
One thing to check is if your company has an arrangement with Prestia (or with another bank). Your company’s HR should be able to help.
My company has one with Prestia so they wave all fees as long as I’m still with the company.
SMBC is great, it’s not fully in English but it has enough to get by in my opinion if you need the English parts.