I did my wire transfer to KGU for the homestay fees through my local HSBC branch. The wire transfer cost me $30, which is a very typical price for wiring funds, so I have no problem with that. Last week, Sean (program coordinator in Japan) emailed me and told me they only received 293,000yen when I sent 296,000yen. So I still owe them 3,000yen + 2,500 yen in bank fees O_O.... I thought there was a mistake somewhere and I emailed Sean about it. He told me the Japanese bank receiving the money may or may not charge a fee depending where it is sent from. Apparently sending from HSBC costs an additional 2500yen fee. Ok, how about the missing 3000yen?....Sean reconfirmed that he only received 293,000yen. That means something went wrong with HSBC when they sent it? Went to the bank and asked. HSBC confirms they sent 296,000yen O.O ...but "now" they tell me maybe along the way, a middle bank/financial institution took a fee of 3000yen, therefore when it arrives at the bank in Japan...3000yen is missing. HSBC said they did sent the requested amount and what happens in between is not their responsibility. Therefore, they won't give me or resend the 3000yen.
So, basically my total fees was $30 + 3000yen + 2500yen = about $80-$85. What!? Honestly, goodness...what a rip off. (Thiti had some problem too since we both sent from HSBC).
I am not satisfy with HSBC's service because if I had to pay additional fees along the way, they should've mention it. On the Japanese bank's part they may not know, but the middle instituition taking a fee...apparently they knew and never told me (so dishonest). Kind of feel ripped off, but nothing I can do about it. My HSBC branch doesn't even want to trace where the 3000yen went for me, but Thiti's branch is willing to do it. HSBC told her it takes 1 weeks, but 1 week passed and they said they need more time. I guess I will find out where the 3000yen really went through Thiti. Now, even my parents said not to go back to HSBC for wiring funds because they too had problems dealing with them previously.
So, for those of you that have to wire funds in the future...don't go to HSBC and for any bank that you go to, make sure to ask about "all" the fees that may occur.
I'll just have to pay Sean the remaining 5,500yen when I arrive.
Megu's Bday Party and Me being sick
16 years ago
2 comments:
Banks are so retarded. Similar thing happened to me, although less nefarious and more just ignorance.
I go to my bank, Scotiabank, and I tell the clerk that I want to do a wire transfer to a Japanese bank account. They look at me like I'm an alien from another planet, "What are you going to do there?!" (this exchanged was going on in French and she used "tu" when speaking to me, which is informal language [in case you don't remember that part ;)] so I was like, what the hell, I'm a customer, some politeness please) Well, first of all, it's none of your business, but anyways, I tell her I'm going to study. She says "Ah yeah? Anyways. We dont' know how to transfer to Japanese... whatever they use there. Lemme check."
So she starts checking, then she says "We can only transfer in American dollars and British pounds." So I'm like, "Well... There must be a way, I need to transfer this money." So she starts asking everybody around the office, eventually one of them says "Call New York" so they called New York, which I guess handles international wire transfers or something, since the HQ is actually in Toronto, anyways... She comes back for a second and she's like "How much did you want to transfer, and in what account?" so I give her the paper, she mutters something about not understanding any of the names, I raise a brow since it's just the Latin alphabet and it's a freaking BANK transfer and she works for the BANK, and I tell her that she needs to write the number on the form and that it needs to be 296,000 yen that arrrives there, so they should charge me whatever processing fees extra. She nods and goes off...
Comes back about half an hour later, that me and my dad had been waiting there. She tells me "Okay, we screwed up the first time, but let me put some money back in your account and try again." I ask her, being suspicious of her understanding me the first time, "Did you charge the extra fees, are there even any actually?" she says "It's all going to be taken care of." So we wait about 10 more minutes...
Finally, she comes back and hands me a receipt saying 296,000 yen have been deposited into KGU's bank account, it cost me a bit less, something like 2800$, and the clerk grumbles that it's the first time she's ever done something like this and hopes that's it. So after close to an hour we leave, thinking all is good.
I e-mail Sean telling him I sent the transfer and I need confirmation. Several days later, I get an e-mail from Sean saying "We just got your transfer, but it's missing 2,500 yen. We'll charge you when you get here."
Whatever happened to all that was taken care of?! But I'm thankful it's just 2,500 yen. 85$, that's a bit more... :/ Yay banking services...
Lol, I had the same problem when I went to my bank, Capital One Bank (HSBC is my parent's account) and they told me they only can do wire transfer in US$. The $ will be exchanged in Japan. But i didn't want that so I asked another bank and same thing happen. So I went with HSBC since they will send it in Yen and my parent have an account there. Big mistake though as you can see. X_x
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