Cheapest Way to Get Cash When in Japan

ffhound on 03/06/2018 - 19:22
Last edited 03/06/2018 - 22:53 by 1 other user

Hi everyone

I shall be travelling to Japan in August.

In the past when travelling overseas I have found that one tends to lose out when changing money at money exchangers and with bank fees and such.

So what is the best OzBargain way to get access to cash when in Japan?

Also a supplementary question. I have an ING debit card which is a Visa card and apparently this has no fees when used overseas. Is this the best way to pay for goods bought in Japan or are there hidden pitfalls to using this card?

cheers Peter

Travel

Comments

  • [Deactivated] on 03/06/2018 - 19:36

    Cash is king in Japan. Citibank ATMs are the easiest option. Not sure about absolute best exchange rate.

    • altomic on 03/06/2018 - 19:47
      +1

      Cash is king anywhere.

      Japan has moved away from the cash society it once was 10 years ago and prior.

      most shops take credit cards now. some restaurant still only do cash.

      7/11 has ATMs. some post offices have ATMs for foreign cards as well.

      if you see an ATM and it has english instructions then it should take foreign cards.

      Cards with No Overseas Transaction Fees

  • Donaldhump on 03/06/2018 - 19:43

    ATM

  • globalmurphy on 03/06/2018 - 19:45

    I have a commbank travel card linked to my australian commbank account, can I use this card to take out money from japan ATMS without associated fees?

    • Your Friend on 05/06/2018 - 15:51
      +2

      travel card is awful, uses a horrid fx rate. Also since its not a real credit card it can’t be used as widely e.g. hotels as a deposit

  • ffhound on 03/06/2018 - 19:55

    Thanks for the replies. I understand well the options for getting cash - exchange cash at airport, use ATMs, debit cards, travellers cheques etc but which option puts the most money in your pocket rather than the middleman's pocket?

    • Caped Baldy on 03/06/2018 - 20:30

      ATMs far and away. There's been tons of these threads before. Just have a quick search for more background.

  • TimeWaster on 03/06/2018 - 19:58
    +3

    The ING Visa card is amazing in Japan. Most 7/11s will have ATMs, but they have a ~$2.50 charge for international cards (which should be refunded if you meet INGs criteria). Some ATMs will have a much larger transaction fee, so keep that in mind if you don't meet the criteria. Also be weary that some ATMs won't accept international cards at all (but 7/11 is a safe bet). Having said that, seeing as you have more than a month to go, I'd highly recommend making sure you keep up with the >$1000 monthly deposits and >5 monthly transactions to ensure you have access to the perks. While I was over in Japan for a ~2 week period, I racked up about $100 worth of ATM rebates - so I'd highly recommend ING, as having cash is essential for basically anywhere outside of Tokyo.

    Regarding exchange rates, I just googled up the XE rates on the days I travelled, and here's what I found: XE had a high of about 81.9JPY/AUD on the same day that ING was giving me 83.9JPY/AUD (of course, no local exchange was giving even close to the XE rate). And its not uncommon for the Visa exchange rates to be better than XE and the likes due to the volume trades they're able to make (I can confirm this through my experience in using the ING card in many countries).

    All in all - an ING Direct Visa card is basically the holy grail with travelling (assuming you have access to actual cash funds). Just make sure you keep up with the monthly requirements! (As an added benefit, you can transfer money across from your other Australian banks to top up your ING card and usually have the money in ~1 business day)

    A little tip: depending on your spending habits, make sure you keep about $100 worth of yen on you at all times to avoid some tricky situations.

    • jimbobaus on 04/06/2018 - 07:26

      In some cases in Japan the bank atm fee is rolled into the withdrawal and is not a seperate transaction (like some banks) which means the fee won’t be refunddd by ING/CITI as they won’t be able to identify it.
      It depends on the atm and you can’t always tell which banks combine the fee and which ones charge it separately.

  • K9Visuals on 03/06/2018 - 20:00

    7/11 ATM's with the Commbank Travel card is a no brainer! if you are taking out a nice chunk each time you won't even notice it, that's what I did. The fees don't add up if you take more than $200 AUD out each time, plus its better that way cause you will most likely beusing cash 80% of the time. Plus don't get scared to hold a lot of cash unless you're likely to lose it, cause no one steals in Japan it's completely different over there.

    • Tech5 on 03/06/2018 - 22:29
      +1

      Never use Travel cards. If you don't make the requirements for ING, even the citibank card is better. Free from basically all 7/11 ATMs

  • yoonibear on 04/06/2018 - 00:31

    When we were in Japan in May, we used the Citibank debit card. Every 30,000 yen we withdrew was about $355-$365 depending on the exchange.
    We found some ATM's didn't accept our card but the ones at 7/11 did. We just used cash everywhere we went, the only exception was paying things online in advance (before we left Australia) and when we paid the hotel.

    • 28kb on 03/10/2018 - 20:01

      Did you get charged a fee?

  • THX on 04/06/2018 - 23:47

    I've been to Japan for a few months the past 2 years. I really like using Citi Bank cards as 7/11 Bank atm's are very accessible and no fees, on top of that you'll get better rates than travel cards like commbank travel card which is an option i did consider but you would lose money if you dont use all of it and the rate wasn't as good.

  • rinnangan on 27/06/2018 - 12:23
    +1

    Sorry this is a late reply.
    But I thought I'd give my opinion too.

    Open a Bank Account with Citibank.
    Transfer funds from your account as needed to the Citibank Account (allow for 1-2 business days)
    Access over 64,000 7/11 ATM's Nation Wide in Japan!!
    Zero Fees. ATM's are all in English too!
    Enjoy Japan!

    This is what I did anyway :)

    • arctan on 09/07/2018 - 13:45

      Thanks for the tips mate. I'll do exactly what you just said.

  • Essy on 22/09/2018 - 13:20

    We use an 8 digit pin here in Australia. Will we be using this at the ATM in Japan or will only 4 digits be satisfactory. Thanks

    • arctan on 22/09/2018 - 14:35

      All my banks uses 4 digit pin to withdraw cash from ATM. Which bank uses 8 digit pin in Australia? Never heard of this.

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