r/JapanFinance • u/More-Doughnut-9151 • 4d ago

Personal Finance » Bank Accounts SMBC Prestia to Revolut transfers

Hi all

I’m new to Japan. I have recently opened an SMBC Prestia account and I also have a yen-denominated Revolut account. As far as I can tell, my Revolut account is held by the UK entity rather than a Japanese correspondent bank (I previously lived in the UK), so I don't think I can use a domestic transfer with a Japanese bank code, branch and account number. Nor is Revolut an option in the SMBC app for ‘domestic transfer’.

A few questions:

1. Has anyone moved yen from Prestia to Revolut? Did you have to send it as an international transfer (SWIFT), and what details did Revolut give you?
2. What did Prestia charge? Are there any fee-free options for yen-to-yen transfers?
3. Is this actually a sensible way of moving money or am I missing something ? The main purpose being to have funds with a slightly more customer friendly/ easy to use platform and also for currency conversion etc. I know I can hold foreign currency with Prestia but the rates are slightly worse.
4. Any issues with transfer limits or Prestia asking for the purpose of the transfer?

Thanks in advance!

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u/szabo_jp Wiki Contributor! 🎓 4d ago

I believe you are supposed to tell Revolut about moving to Japan and they will migrate your account to Revolut Japan. Then you can use the local transfer option.

Also Revolut should allow topping up with debit card, so that can work as well (though I'm not sure if they charge extra for foreign cards). My revolut also shows Google Pay as an option, so if you can add your Prestia card to that, that might be another option.

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u/tsian 20+ years in Japan 4d ago

Sorry, why do you even want to hold yen with revolut when they are already in your Prestia account?

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u/More-Doughnut-9151 4d ago

I’ve found that the Prestia app is pretty awful to use and Revolut usually has a better rate for Forex.

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u/Dafe8 3d ago

You'll need to close your UK revolut account and open new up one. If you don't, please don't complain when your funds get frozen etc. 

Anyway after you open a JP account you can transfer with regular JP bank transfer. Just note lot of revolut functions available in UK are not there in JP yet, but again, you break their terms of service if you do not close your UK account and open a JP one. And if your funds get frozen you are shit out of luck because you aren't supposed to be using UK account in the first place while living in Japan.

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u/Long_Proposal7790 3d ago
  1. I do it all the time. It’s a domestic transfer. 500,000 limit.