Marc Brunet Aug 4, 2014:

Thank you Port City. I agree entirely with your first point.
I welcome your 2nd point as very good news: one less distinction to keep in mind.

Port City Aug 1, 2014:

口座振替 is the same as 自動引き落とし(direct debit), and is totally different from 振替 (what you call "自己口座間振替").
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/口座自動振替

I don't see any difference between 口座振替 and 口座振替え. Tokyo Metropolitan Government uses the word 口座振替 for automatic rate payment.
http://www.tax.metro.tokyo.jp/shomei/02-b17.pdf

Marc Brunet Jul 31, 2014:

what about 振替 and 振替え? Just picked up a distinction relevant to the above that might be of interest, here.
There are 2 forms of 口座＋振替 terms, differentiated by the presence/absence　of　a final　「え｣:
- 口座振替 (Direct Debit〕 is a banking term;
- 口座振替え　is a fiscal term used in rates payment collection. It refers to a form of account holder-authorised direct debit for the settlement by instalments of big amounts like annual land rates for instance;
- this concept does not apply to income tax collection (the PAYE (Pay As You Earn) system used in several Western countries) as it works differently: the amounts are not 'instalments', may vary, and are indirectly collected by the employer withholding the appropriate tax from the employee's earnings (源泉課税徴収.)

Marc Brunet Jul 31, 2014:

振替 and 振込 revisited (2/2) What did? A lot of course. The banking sector modernised amazingly and mushroomed. People have moved from ‘pass book’ to multiple online bank accounts of various types . On line Inter-bank and international fund transfers are available to millions individuals: 振込. However, 振替 has survived in a modern form: Direct Debit, which appeared as soon as progress made the ‘pass book’ a thing of the past. It serves the same needs as in the past, while relieving financial institutions from a nightmarish load of manual servitude .
Strictly speaking says iFinance, quoted by Sally, the Japanese term for ‘direct debit’ is : 口座振替. Well, let’s take careful note of this tip, and not assume this as the correspondent of the Menu entry : “ transfer between my accounts” , which should be…. ??? (I won’t risk it off hand. Will leave this honour to a kind native speaker. All I could offer is 自己口座間振替. What a clunker! Correction please!... :-) )
[PS: in 1st block missing bit that did not display (due to html error of mine) is:
(whether or not these were held by the same individual/entity, BTW.)

Marc Brunet Jul 31, 2014:

振替 and 振込 revisited (1/2) The difference between 振替 and 振込 stems from the fact that each term was adopted at different times when available fund transfer means were different and involved distinct transaction patterns and networks. Even though the earlier term (振替) has evolved over time, it is still associated with the following connotations : periodical payments (whether made by or ‘to’ the account holder, BTW), public service entities, households paying their bills and taxes; ‘simple book transaction’ type transfer executable within the institution hosting the accounts involved (<i.whether or not these were held by the same individual/entity, BTW.). So the Postal Saving Service of the 1950s was THE hub that allowed these millions of cash transfers to take place, by debiting/crediting the ‘passbook’ that housewives presented at the counter with their cash to top up their balance. What a bane for postal clerks! Things had to change. (Cont’d next block)