Hi all.
I'm going to Japan in about a week's time and I was just going to carry cash on me for the 3 weeks I am there. I plan on changing the money I'm taking with me from AUD to USD here (I have access to parity market rate - think XE.com value) and then changing the USD to JPY in Japan.
Where is the best place to change money in Japan? We land in Narita airport at about 9:30PM.
Is there a place a can get a loadable visa card?
Thanks
why would you not just withdraw money from an ATM using a citibank or bankwest platinum card?
Japan is not the cash society it was 10 years ago.
cash is good but it is now rare for cards not to be accepted (the opposite of 10 years ago)
auspost has a load and go travel visa card. it has No transaction fees for purchases or withdrawals (though the ATM vendor may charge a withdrawal fee- but in Japan I can't recall any services doing that)
One of my relatives works in the US (FIFO) and lives here. Whenever we travel, we tend to buy the USD off him at market value.
In my experience, we tend to lose less off a share via USD.
I'm with Commonwealth bank if that helps.
Look for Citibank ATMs around Tokyo and at Narita as the easiest option.
I would get some jpy here and then withdraw from ATMs as needed. 7 bank ATMs in 7-11 stores are pretty much everywhere. I left it too late to get a Citi card and used my ING card - ING charges a flat aud2.50 per withdrawal. In my two weeks in Japan I only had to withdraw twice.
Just got back from a great holiday in Japan courtesy of Ozbargain Jetstar deal booked about September. I found Travelex had pretty good exchange rates if the transaction was done online, several days before departure. When purchasing the Yen I opted to collect it from inside the international terminal at Cairns airport, which we had to go through enroute from Melbourne to Japan. It all went smoothly.
When we travelled in Japan, we were surprised to find the ATMs were surprisingly few and far between. Some people had trouble locating any and only found one in the hotel foyer in Nippori. This was just a few years ago. We took cash.
This is good advice. The Citibank ATMs are in convenient places but quite hidden and sometimes only accessible during business hours. Do make a map beforehand and things will be easy…finding an ATM in a hurry can be very hard.
Why do the exchange to USD first? I'll bet AUD is also accepted.
Too late to get yourself a Citi card unfortunately.