Some Canadians living overseas hit snag with international bank transfers

In our Speakers Corner report, a Canadian man who lives in Japan reached out to CityNews after having trouble accessing his own money.

After a successful teaching career in Nova Scotia, John Savage who is now retired, moved to Japan with his wife.

“I’ve been living overseas for over 20 years,” he said.

One thing Savage did not change in the move was his Canadian bank.

“I have been with RBC bank since the early 1980s and have had no issues until recently.”

For years, Savage has been able to transfer money from his RBC account, which contains his life savings and retirement funds, to his bank in Japan. He said that all changed back in March. 

“In Japan, any Canadian that lives here, is having trouble accessing our funds through an international transfer.”

The problem is the RBC app — which is used to send transfers and verify customer’s identity — is not yet available to download in Japan.

Savage was told he could use the website to transfer his money, but ran into problems doing that as well.

“For that, they require you to have a North American phone number in order for them to verify your identity,” he said. “I’ve been overseas for over 20 years. I don’t have a North American phone number and never will.”

Savage reached out multiple times to RBC customer service but still has no way of getting a hold of money he needs while in Japan.

“We depend on those funds for our living expenses. RBC said they’re working on it but you never get any concrete information on timelines or how close it is. So it’s been quite frustrating.”

He contacted Speakers Corner and we reached out to an RBC spokesperson to weigh in. They could not comment on his case, citing privacy issues, but said a representative would be in contact to help him.

“Protecting our clients’ financial information is among our highest priorities and 2-step verification provides an extra layer of security to our online and mobile banking experience,” the spokesperson said.

They went on to say while the RBC app is required to complete that verification, the app is not available to be downloaded in Japan at this time.

“We continue to explore opportunities to increase international availability of our app in the future,” the spokesperson said.

In their statement to Speakers Corner, RBC said customers in Japan can still use online banking to send up to $1,500 per day but when we asked Savage to try doing it that way, he still had problems.

“I have tried online banking numerous times and when you go to hit international transfer, it comes up that you need to have this app because they have to verify your identity,” Savage said.

He’s hopeful RBC will soon make the app available in Japan. Currently, it is up and running in 40 countries. Savage is also waiting to hear from a bank representative to help him solve the issue.

“I’m not here to slam RBC. I’m just saying they should be doing a better job. Luckily, I’m going back to Canada to visit in the fall, which means I can go to a bank and send money but I shouldn’t have to, not after being with RBC for 40 years.”

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