Buying yen

[rpierce000]

Does anyone have a good source of bulk international exchange? I usually buy yen in 10,000 to 25,000 USD chunks, but the rates are outrageous. Does anyone know of a discount method? Right now I am paying near 2 yen per dollar!

 

Bob

[Guest JRF-1935]

Bob

  You might try  President Osama - or else a real estate agent in Brooklyn who will sell you the "Bridge" also 

Rich C

[spacecadet]

Does anyone have a good source of bulk international exchange? I usually buy yen in 10,000 to 25,000 USD chunks, but the rates are outrageous. Does anyone know of a discount method? Right now I am paying near 2 yen per dollar!

 

There's no real way around this that I know of.  I just switched to AMEX FX International Payments for transferring funds for my business, and they're used to handling million dollar transfers - it's the whole point of that subsidiary.  It's all they do.  Still, they're charging close to 2 yen per dollar on the exchange.  It's a little better than my bank, but not much better.  I guess if you were converting huge amounts of money, it'd make it more worthwhile - and they obviously set their rates to be competitive.  For me, I use them because their flat fees for wiring money are very low compared to banks (and I get membership rewards points!).

 

If you buy yen at a Japanese bank, it's a little cheaper than doing it outside of Japan.  I think UFJ bank charges us more like 1 yen per dollar.  So up to now, we've done that most often and we might still do it for large transfers.  The problem there is that you a) need an account in Japan (which we have but you may not) and b) you still need to wire them the dollars and pay the flat fee for that, *plus* the 1500 yen flat fee UFJ charges on top of the exchange rate skimming they do.

 

If you find a cheaper way to exchange dollars to yen, I would love to hear about it.  Every method that I know of charges either 1 yen per dollar and a bunch of flat fees, or 2-3 yen with fewer flat fees.  I haven't found any free lunches.