Currency Exchange Australia or Japan?

celiotte on 17/06/2017 - 02:52

Hi,

Unfortunately I was a little slow with figuring out my finances for Japan and its too late to apply for a Citi card so… I'm thinking of using cash and I was wondering if it was better to change money here in Canberra or wait till I'm in Japan.

I've done a bit of reading around and there seems to be mixed responses. The whirlpool knowledge base seems to indicate Australia might be better?

I'll probably need about 2000 AUD changed for my trip and I do have a 28 degrees card for EFTPOS transactions.

Side question: What SIM/pocket wifi for 2 would be good? I've seen suggestions for Sakura and some say to just do it at the airport…

Either way, hoping for some suggestions and all input will be appreciated !!!

Thank you guys

Travel

Comments

  • KaTst3R on 17/06/2017 - 03:57
    +2

    The cash forex rate in Australia is horrible but it is much worse in Japan. Definitely DO NOT exchange in Japan.

    • Blackfyre on 17/06/2017 - 09:44

      Just came back from Japan a week ago, currency exchanges for AUD-JPY at 73-75 at best (Citi rates was 82).

      Hope this gives a little indication of what OP can do.

      P.S. Bring a coin purse.

  • toomuchdogfur on 17/06/2017 - 07:17

    When I went to Japan earlier this year I used a local forex place which had much better rates than anything I saw in Japan. Unfortunately I was travelling from the USA so I don't know what Aussie forex places are good.

    As for mobile internet, I will add in another vote for Sakura Mobile - prices are good, but more importantly they use the NTT Docomo network instead of "Y Mobile" or whatever else the others use (think Telstra vs Vodafone) so coverage is superior. I can attest that they worked well everywhere I went, which included some islands and frequent bullet train travel. I got the mobile hotspot and it only gave me a low battery warning once, after a 14 hour day, but bring a extra battery as well just in case.

  • Pumpkin_rrr on 17/06/2017 - 07:44

    You'd need to have some to start with, so definitely get some before you fly, for taxi/train/bus, food, and even SIM cards! We are very surprised with the level of cash used. We load our Qantas cash card and the rate is not bad.

    We find dealing with Japanese money is quite annoying. They have many types of coins from 1 to 500 yen and it's driving me nuts! Goods are priced before tax so we often come back with lots of small notes. So strongly suggest you get a Passmo card (for Tokyo) which is widely accepted, esp convenience store.

    For Sim we used Docomo.Got a 10G one and still have heaps left after 2 weeks.

  • Wiede on 17/06/2017 - 10:15
    +1

    Just returned from my 4th trip to japan and here are some tips regarding money

    1. Do not exchange aud to yen in Japan, especially tokyo. Rates were horrendous for AUD. Weirdly enough rates were not bad for usd to yen in japan.

    2. Stay away from travel money card, my cba travel money card gave me a crapy rates (78 per aud) which was worse than if I just use my cba platinum card (84 per aud) and just paying the international fees (will bring the rates down to 82 per aud when i was in japan last month, better than 78)

    3. Best way is to shop around your local money changer in australia than bring just enough cash and use your cc as backup.

    4. In regards to coins and suica balance if you dont have jr pass, you can get rid of them all in the airport after custom to buy foods and goods as they have those coin counter thing and can take split payments.

    Have fun

  • jackofspade on 17/06/2017 - 12:02

    Better to exchange in Australia. UAE Exchange is pretty good and does have a branch in Canberra. The rate is usually xe.com rate minus 2%.

  • rambutann on 17/06/2017 - 16:13
    +1

    Citibank plus is by far the best option. Just withdraw cash over there.

  • ATangk on 20/06/2017 - 15:10

    How long is this 2000AUD for?

  • eckoflyte on 24/07/2017 - 19:21

    agree with @rambutann above. citibank plus account is by far the best rate. It uses the visa rate which tracks fairly close to the spot market rate. The offer spread is much smaller than any forex shop. You put AUD into your citi account, then withdraw at any Citibank Japan ATM or Japan Post Office ATM in yen and it will be converted at the current visa rate - the withdrawals are also free of charge from both of those ATMs. I've been to Japan about 7 times and my partner is Japanese, I've done my homework.

    You can compare yourself the visa rate and the spot market rate.

    https://www.visa.com.au/travel-with-visa/exchange-rate-calcu…

    http://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=AUD&to=JPY&view=2Y

    • bayc0n on 27/07/2017 - 23:47

      don't they use mastercard now?

  • SirFlibbled on 26/07/2017 - 10:23

    Are you flying with Singapore airlines? If so, grab a Starhub SIM in singapore. It roams in Japan and is heaps cheaper. That's my plan when I go in Dec (I'm staying a few days in Singapore too which helps in my case).

    • MoMoney on 27/07/2017 - 12:40

      Thanks for the tip! I'm doing the same thing in a month (Japan, and then a couple of days in Singapore on the way back). I pretty much only want to use this card for data; so the fact I can use this in Singapore as well as Japan is a huge bonus.

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