Best way to Send money to Japan

[Matrix]

I realized from the pass week of experience, banks in Japan is very
stupid in handling international money transactions. Can someone tell
me how i can send money from US to JP to a existing credit card
account to pay off the credit card bills? The credit card company is
quite big in JP but the branches in US don't handle any "normal"
customers, only businesses. So I am trying to find out the best
cheapest safest way to accomplish this.

So far i have try wiring money from BofA to JP bank but Japanese
credit card company don't know the swift number(routing number) very
stupid. So what else can i do? Any help would be appricated!!! Thanks

[Eric Takabayashi]

Matrix wrote:

My Japanese credit card company automatically takes it out of my
designated Japanese bank account. It is simple enough to have money
wired there from the US, just a matter of telling the bank which bank
and account number. It will be a lot easier if you have someone on the
US end to do it for you.

My US credit card account, which is the one I almost always use, at
least when the dollar was strong, is paid from my US checking account.
The only issue there is receiving my statements and sending my payments
to them before the due date, lest they penalize me for "late" payment.
Citi used to send me statements late, so I switched to my home bank.

[Ken]

Matrix wrote:
[snip]

> So far i have try wiring money from BofA to JP bank but Japanese
> credit card company don't know the swift number(routing number) very
> stupid.

Er, a SWIFT BIC is quite different from an ABA Routing Number.
ABA stands for "American Bankers Association", and guess what,
their "routing numbers" are not used outside of the US...

Note also that *credit card companies* do NOT have SWIFT BICs.
*Banks* do. Furthermore, one should realize that credit card
balances are usually NOT settled with cross-border payments,
and hence SWIFT BICs do NOT come into play, and it's thus NOT
SURPRISING that the credit card customer representative you
called was quite puzzled when you asked him/her for a BIC.

To wire money to your credit card company's account, I suggest
you contact a US branch of the Japanese bank where that account
is held, and provide them with the in-Japan branch name and
account number. They should then be able to tell you which SWIFT
BIC -- e.g. SMBCJP?? for Mitsui Sumitomo, BOTKJP?? for Tokyo
Mitsubishi etc. -- to specify in your wire instructions.