Goレミット海外送金アプ‪リ‬ 4+

The expectation, when Shinsei Bank launched this app, was that Shinsei has got the act together.

But it seems like something has gone wrong in a big way. Usually the digitization makes the process faster, but here it has gone in the opposite way, totally.

The registration after downloading the app takes 2-3 weeks. Registering a beneficiary is supposed to take 2-3 months! There is a pre-defined limit (abysmally small) and if you want to change it, it takes another 3-4 weeks; and the process can start only after beneficiary registration!

The Helpdesk people seem as helpless as they can be. I can only imagine the reasons- either the internal operation team has made their processes super complicated or they have gone totally non-cooperative OR somebody at the top has decided that they want to shut down this business.

I mean who will want to wait for 4-5 months to transfer the money?

The only saving grace was that they were at least available to talk to, though without any use, in English, after a wait of 15-20 mins.

I will say this, if you want to make remittance, better look some place else. This will be pretty inefficient, frustrating and dumbfounded experience.

Note: Only if there was a zero star, I would have chosen that.

It’s possible there is a worse bank somewhere in the known universe, but I think it will be very hard to find.

If you are here for the Go-Remit App, my condolences.

You can enjoy a 3-week plus approval process just to register the app.

After that, expect a 1-2 month approval process to register a beneficiary (destination) bank.

If you need to send more than 1.2 mln yen (~$11k US), you can then expect to wait another month or two for a limit request change to be processed. Note this can only be started AFTER you completed the above step of registering both the app and a beneficiary bank.

Do you need help with the app? The average wait time for me for an English speaker was 30 minutes, and the help line is only open for 6 hours a day? 9am to 3pm.

All that done? You are now ready to make an overseas transfer! Congratulations. Just note that Shinsei offers no in-branch transfer services, and no ability to expedite this process, even for a fee. GO-REMIT is the ONLY way to transfer money internationally from Shinsei.

Welcome to Hell, where every branch is a Shinsei branch!

Firstly I am a happy Shinsei Bank customer. I have had great experiences at their bank during opening my account and whenever I needed to talk to them I have had great experiences and I value my banking relationship with them.

This remittances app - I have had a diametrically opposite experience. Where do I start - super crazy on boarding experience with 2/3 week turnaround times, physical letters that need to be mailed back every couple of months even though I am a vetted banking customer and last but not the least a LOW exchange rate. The very-hard-to-use app does not even rank in the negatives, so powerful are the other negatives.

This leads me to believe that they don’t want to do the remittance business - otherwise they can’t be so bad at it.