Re: [tlug] [OT: recent legal changes for paypal in Japan?]

[Sach Jobb <sach@example.com>]

I have used PayPal for our business for a while now and have met with
PayPal in Japan in person on a couple of occasions.

> Withdraw Funds:     Free for ¥50,000 JPY or more, ¥250 JPY for ¥49,999

This might be business only but once I registered my credit card with
them they removed all fees and restrictions on withdrawing to our
bank. We are transferring to SMBC and it typically takes 3 to 5
business days. PayPal told me however that some banks, especially the
minor ones or the ones further out into the country side that have
never heard of PayPal sometimes get confused and reject the transfer.
That must be fun.

> JPY or less to bank accounts in Japan
> Receive Funds:     2.9% + ¥40 JPY to 3.6% + ¥40 JPY
> Multiple currency transactions:     Exchange rate includes a 2.5% fee

In terms of the rate on credit card transactions, it's 3.6% and 40JPY
a transaction for Japan (this varies by country). If you make on
average over 1,000,000JPY/month then you can apply for the lower
rates. If you go over 1,500,000 (or something like that) you have to
get underwritten by PayPal otherwise they won't allow you to accept
any more transactions for that month.

However, inter-paypal transactions are free and instantaneous, which
IMHO makes it extremely convenient for receiving and sending funds to
people in other countries. Yes, there is a bit of a charge on currency
conversion but most of the time that's it.

> Paypal would therefor only be advantageous in sending/receiving amounts
> of less than 50,000 to 100,000 yen (depending on which bank service you
> compared it to).

At that amount it might be worth it to go to the bank, before 15:00 on
business days, fill out the ridiculous long paper form, by hand, and
then sit around for them to manually check it. Sometimes, especially
while waiting around in banks, I try to calculate what percentage of
the Japanese bank work force could be replaced by a JavaScript
library.

> So do you strictly use Paypal for small transactions, or did I miss
> something that made Paypal more advantageous in other scenarios?

Indeed it really depends on how you are using it.

Cheers,
Sach