1st Time Travel to Japan - Regarding Macquarie ATM Withdrawls

MistaL on 16/04/2024 - 12:37

Hi friends,

I've done some search on the past topics , which some are old. There seem to be a bit confused as I found some conflicting information and just want to check this over with someone who is familiar and have went recently.

Based on what I've read, Macquarie Debit should be a good option for going there and withdrawing cash from the 7-11 ATMs

I just wanted to check a few things;

  1. Is there any maximum amount that can be withdrawn?
  2. On the ATM prompt, would you select credit or savings?
  3. I noted somewhere stating that there are fees to withdraw after hours, is this true?

Thank you in advance!

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Comments

  • T1OOO on 16/04/2024 - 12:56
    +1

    Is there any maximum amount that can be withdrawn?
    ^^ id say as much as the ATM can hold would be a hard limit!

  • jv on 16/04/2024 - 12:57
    +4

    1st time travel to Japan

    Good deal for time lords…

  • Brucet on 16/04/2024 - 13:20
    +1

    I will be in Japan this October,I exchange some Yen cash from Hai Ha exchange ( avoid fee from ATM ).Also I use revolut card for all my oversea trip.You can have a look on their Website Revolut..recommend.
    They offer good rate and no fee charge on week day.

    • eug on 16/04/2024 - 14:15
      +2

      Also I use revolut card for all my oversea trip.You can have a look on their Website Revolut..recommend.
      They offer good rate and no fee charge on week day.

      I looked into revolut after so many people recommended it, but it seems like a poor choice especially for Japan who still use cash quite a bit.

      Revolut fees
      - You can only withdraw AUD$350 a month for free, after that you get charged a 2% fee with a minimum fee of $1.50.
      - You can only convert AUD$2,000 a month to foreign currencies, anything above and you'll be charged a 0.5% fee.
      - You are charged exchange fees on weekends
      - If at the end of the trip you have JPY left over, you have to convert it back to AUD and be subject to the fees or limits above.

      Wise wasn't much different.

      The only benefit I can see is if you expect the exchange rate to get worse, you can lock it in. For my Japan trip a few months ago my friend locked in some JPY before the trip, but the rate improved during the trip so he ended up losing money, so YMMV.

      If it's mostly stable (like JPY seems to be at the moment), I feel it makes more sense to just use a normal international-txn-fee-free bank account like Macquarie or Ubank.

      • Shadowsfury on 16/04/2024 - 15:56

        I used Revolut on my Japan trip but was far from the only card I carried.

        I broadly used it to lock some exchange rates in before my trip so that certain costs could be locked in - the $2k/month resets on a certain date/time - so I converted $6k across 3 lots starting around a month before my trip (then one more time right before, and again during the trip). This is a slight gamble and the forex rate actually improved during mine so I was slightly worse off by hedging but I was still glad I did it. This also helps you avoid the weekend fee as you already have the JPY on hand so it deducts from that first, which was converted earlier.

        Didn't bother withdrawing money from it.

        What I did notice however was the forex rate was sometimes slightly worse than Visa/MC rates (and sometimes slightly better) - so I wouldn't solely use it for better rates. Maybe some other markets there'd be a bigger difference.

        • eug on 16/04/2024 - 16:43

          We went slightly above parity with JPY last week, I thought that would be a good time to use a card like Revolut. Maybe I should get one, or something similar, for the next time it gets that high, for future trips.

          Of course knowing my luck the moment I lock it in, it'll get even better the following week…

      • mbck on 16/04/2024 - 17:17
        +1

        100%

        I have no idea whats so good about revolut. If you want to have the ability to lock, use hsbc, you cna transfer into different currenckes to do this.

        But the yen has been worsening, so it's a gamble. Just exchange as and when you need it, less headache. Plus for 350 a month, that's just way too low to benefit from any changes in fx. Plus the effort of opening an account with them, only for you to need to bring another card.

        Revolut never made sense from my pov.

        • Shadowsfury on 17/04/2024 - 11:41

          HSBC rates are (slightly) worse than Revolut and the direct Visa/MC rates, but still miles ahead of any card charging 3% forex fee and travel cards.

          • mbck on 17/04/2024 - 15:25

            @Shadowsfury: I dont think a few percent (and i mean <0.05% maybe) difference so that you can cash out an equivalent 350aud, is worth the effort.

            I used the old citibank, and now nab. I've also got a macquarie and for all intents and purposes, they're both very close to each other.

  • andy19363 on 16/04/2024 - 13:20
    -1

    We did it

    1. Is there any maximum amount that can be withdrawn?
      Don't know, they often gave the option of drawing 1000y as 10 x 100y…. we generally did that

    2. On the ATM prompt, would you select credit or savings?
      Can't recall …. deffo not credit, (might have been cheque)

    3. I noted somewhere stating that there are fees to withdraw after hours, is this true?
      Never noticed that

    We mostly used credit card

    • cashless on 16/04/2024 - 13:36

      1000y as 10 x 100y

      Didn't know you could withdraw ¥100 coins from ATM

    • SurprisedEwe on 16/04/2024 - 14:03
      +1

      I had this card also and was in Japan last month. I'm pretty sure I pressed "savings", though the ATM indicated that you could use it without specifying at this step. I'll also say that I never experience the after hours withdrawl fee.

      Also note that this card worked everywhere - restaurants, convenience stores, amusement parks, shops. It even worked for me on the SmartEx app to book my Shinkansen tickets (easily on the second time - see paragraph below) and also on the JR West webpage when I booked my Kansai-Hiroshima passes. Lots of people on Reddit seem to indicate that their overseas credit/debit cards don't work, but this worked where ever I tried.

      Lastly, I did have a slight panic when I first tried to book tickets on the SmartEx app while I was in Tokyo in that I received an email from Macquarie indicating that the account had been temporarily locked as they detected a $580 transaction (the cost of the 5 tickets for my family). I had to respond to the email "it was me" and the account was accessible the next morning. I think it was because I didn't have my phone on international roaming and didn't respond to the Net Code within the time frame on my first attempts. I turned on the roaming (and since I only received messages and didn't send any I was never charged) and was then able to get the Net Codes as needed.

    • Andrew0415 on 17/04/2024 - 09:03
      +2

      OP this is wrong. We have a Macquarie debit account and we're in Japan 3 weeks ago. You definitely pick credit. In fact, the Macquarie website specifically suggests it.

  • Shadowsfury on 16/04/2024 - 13:31

    Don't have macquarie card but withdrew with a couple of other debit cards of mine
    1) Maximum somewhat irrelevant if not enough in one transaction just do another - I usually did 30000 at a time usually which would last a few days at least, especially with card being used where possible

    2) I selected credit - and when the prompt came up for what currency made sure I picked yen rather than AUD

    3) Not sure on after hours fees but I withdrew at various hours and it was fine

  • MistaL on 16/04/2024 - 14:08

    Thanks everyone for the input

    I think 1 and 3 is sorted, but even here 2 has confusion..

    Someone noted definitely not credit, however someone else noted to select credit

    If we selected credit in Australia, I think it comes as a cash advance, but someone else advised if credit is selected, it uses the MC rates instead of bank rates?

    • star-ggg on 16/04/2024 - 14:19

      If one option dosen't work just try the other one. Ultimately to access your money the ATM goes through the MC network and you get MC conversion rates. "Bank rates" only apply in some countries on some ATMs which give you an option to let the ATM operator do the currency conversion for you.

    • meowmeowmeow on 16/04/2024 - 16:04
      +2

      Recently returned from Japan. Pretty sure we selected savings and it was fine. Cards works perfectly in the 7-11 ATMs.

      • MistaL on 16/04/2024 - 16:05

        Thanks for confirming

        • The-Real Team Doge on 17/04/2024 - 10:25

          There's also a button to skip, and I used to select credit all the time for my transactions at all the combinis (Family Mart, 7-11, Lawsons, etc.). Spent a year there, so perhaps everything just works. :) if not - give it another go at another ATM.

    • turbochris on 17/04/2024 - 07:53

      It's a debit card, there is no such thing as cash advance. Worked for me in JP selecting savings.

    • Shadowsfury on 17/04/2024 - 11:43

      Honestly I'm pretty sure the 7/11 machine even had a button to skip picking savings/credit/cheque if you weren't sure

      The transaction will fail if it doesn't work for what you selected anyway so you're probably overthinking it - just cancel the transaction and try again with a different option.

  • chinospot on 16/04/2024 - 14:09
    +1

    Been to Japan a few times, and use cash quite a lot (although less post covid) and exclusively used 7-11 ATM's (with ING card).
    1) Maximum per transaction was 10x10,000yen or approx 1k AUD. We always did the maximum, as the ATM fee (110 or 220yen) was per transaction. Also note to always select the Yen currency option and not the AUD as the 7-11 exchange rate is VERY poor.
    2) For the ING card we selected savings, and i'd assume you'd do the same with a Macquarie debit card.
    3) We got cash out early hours of the morning as recently as January this year. So unless rules have changed since then, there's no fees for "after hours" withdrawal (unless this is a Macquarie thing)

    Hope this helps.

    • MistaL on 16/04/2024 - 14:10

      Thanks for this, much appreciated

    • minty on 17/04/2024 - 00:41

      How has your designations changed (if it did) from one trip to another to another?

      I visited once quite a few years ago for 2 weeks and absolutely loved it and time just flew, did Tokyo (Shibuya, Shinjuku, Akihabara, Kawasaki, Shinagawa, etc), Kyoto, and Osaka, a fancy Onsen somewhere that I can't remember right now. The culture, and everything really, was beyond fascinating and it's right on the very top of my list for the next holiday.

      Would love to rent a car next time as to open the options to some lesser accessible towns, have you driven there by any chance?

      I do remember the train there being a bloody pain in the ass, every line was a separate purchase and there was no one card for them all (unless that's changed? not the bullet train, the normie suburban ones I mean).

      Would love to hear how your structured your subsequent trips :)

      • eug on 17/04/2024 - 11:39

        I do remember the train there being a bloody pain in the ass, every line was a separate purchase and there was no one card for them all (unless that's changed? not the bullet train, the normie suburban ones I mean).

        You can use an IC card like a Suica or Toica or similar and just tap it at the gates. Different train companies make their own card but they all work on each other's lines. You can buy them from machines that are usually next to ticket machines. It was launched in 2001.

        There was a Suica card shortage in Tokyo (only) last year but you could buy a tourist-only Welcome Suica card from the airport. I think the shortage is over now though.

      • chinospot on 17/04/2024 - 12:21

        When planning our trips, we have always tried to add a new major city to our plans each time we have gone. Tokyo and Osaka are always staples for us, as there is so much to do in and around them, that we never run out of activities. We have since ticked off Fukuoka, Kobe and Kyoto on our first trip, Sendai and surrounding rural areas on our second and Sapporo (highly recommended) and Nagoya on our third.

        Driving in Japan i think is a great option, but more in niche circumstances. You need more time if you want to go driving in rural areas. You can certainly experience some more unique places, but if you are going for less than 4 weeks, I'd say you could make better use of your time.

        Trains have obviously changed, as they have the IC card system which is basically one card that works for all trains, and a heap of stores too. You just top it up with cash and tap and go. You can still buy individual train tickets, but there is no reason to as it's infinitely more convenient using the IC card and the same price. If you are an iPhone person, you can even have suica on your phone and tap and go like you would any debit/credit card.

        How we structure our trips is usually around taking advantage of the JR pass. As of last year the cost has increased dramatically, so using this strategy will be a little trickier if you like to spend more time in one location.

        Our last trip we took we stayed Tokyo for 12 days, bullet train to Osaka for 9 days, flew to Hokkaido for xmas for 6 days, then activated the JR pass (7 days) and took 2 days bullet training through Sendai and back to Tokyo. Took day trips to both Osaka and Nagoya to take advantage of the last of our JR pass, and spent a further 2 weeks in Tokyo before leaving. We always find starting and ending in Tokyo works out great, as it allows you to revisit the spots you loved the first time round, while also allowing some time to visit those you didn't have time for.

        • Shadowsfury on 17/04/2024 - 15:49

          Some regional passes still worked out for our trip last month - used the Kansai Wide Area Pass and Tohoku Area ones

          But yes hard to make the main 7/14/21 day pass work nowadays.

  • elusive on 16/04/2024 - 14:13
    +1

    Was there just a couple weeks ago, @chinospot's comment matches my experience exactly with a NAB (formerly Citibank) debit card. Select savings, and then in the final step it'll prompt you for JPY or AUD at the bottom, make sure to select JPY to use your card/bank's rates.

    Just for clarity, the fee is 110 yen for up to 10k (in lots of 10x 1k), or 220 yen for up to 100k (in lots of 10x 10k). So the most fee-efficient approach is to withdraw 10x 10k - there's plenty of ways you can break that down to 1k notes.

  • MistaL on 16/04/2024 - 14:36

    Savings it is then! Thanks everyone

    • eug on 16/04/2024 - 14:41
      +2

      And don't forget to use your bank's conversion rate as mentioned above! Never accept their AUD conversion. The same applies to credit card terminals when paying for things.

      • MistaL on 16/04/2024 - 14:42

        Thanks for the reminder :)

  • payless69 on 16/04/2024 - 17:18
    +2

    Never ignore redundancy!
    Fees are the lower nuisance compared to being left dry.

  • mattrmelb on 17/04/2024 - 09:04
    -1

    Open an UP bank account - zero bank fees & uses the master card conversion rate - always select to pay in Yen. Use 7/11 bank to withdraw as they have have no fees to get cash out. Enjoy the holiday!

  • Hector on 17/04/2024 - 09:50

    Suica card on iPhone for the win.

  • 12Sydney34 on 17/04/2024 - 10:55

    Was in Japan earlier and used my Macquarie debit card.
    ATM in 7-11
    Minimum amount was 10,000 yen
    ATM fee 100yen
    I press Savings to withdraw from my savings account

  • His_Holiness on 18/04/2024 - 18:42

    I was in Japan in February this year. Used my Macquarie card to withdraw Yen when I was there. Although I tried to stick with the 7Bank ATM I also used others and only got hit with an ATM surcharge once. Hit "credit" everytime.

    Also FYI I didn't use cash anywhere nearly as often as I thought I would. Cash was primarily used to top up the IC Cards. Otherwise I used my credit card at most places. From bigger retailers, konibinis and even food trucks/food stalls, Japan is now very card friendly and most places accepted card. There was even a coffee van at Lake Kawaguchio that was cashless and card only!

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