Originally Posted By alisserae What credit cards are most commonly accepted in Japan? I'm assuming Visa and Mastercard are, what about American Express? We want to limit our spending to just one credit card & cash while we are abroad. Which card would be the most readily accepted? Many thanks!
Originally Posted By leemac alisserae in my experience Amex and Diners Club are reasonably widely taken these days (it really has changed over the last few years when JCB was about the only card taken - in fact TDR only started accepting Amex when TDS opened). However there are still a lot of smaller stores/restaurants that take cash only. Irrespective I wouldn't just take one credit card. Take at least one other in case you ever have a problem. I'd probably take VISA and Amex (but Mastercard is equally interchangeable).
Originally Posted By Mr X You rang? I can't really speak for Disney, as I generally just pay cash there, but as for around Tokyo I've found that many places do accept visa (I assume Lee is correct about Mastercard being interchangable in Japan, I know it is in America anyway). Don't know about Amex though, as I don't have one. However, I'm glad Lee asked me to chime in because I would like to mention this warning (Lee already hit on it, but I just wanna emphasise)... NOT all places accept credit cards, and even some "big" looking restaurants are cash only (I've been surprised on several occasions). As far as I know, all stores will take credit cards (at least the regular "chain" stores), and a good number of convenience stores too. But there are a lot of Mom and Pop places you might want to souvie shop from that wouldn't touch a credit card with a 10 foot pole. It's hit or miss. Bottom line, do NOT count on your credit card. Be prepared to carry a lot of cash. Find a good exchange rate, and get enough yen to take care of yourself for at least a full day or two just in case (at least until you can get to an ATM, which is also complicated in Japan as many of them are only open limited hours, and some only have Japanese touchscreens so you may have to ask for help). If worst comes to worse, you can always hit a convenience store and pay heavy fees for THEIR atm's (available 24 hours), but it shouldn't come to that as long as you have a good supply of cash. As opposed to many countries, it is much easier, more convenient, and quite safe to carry a lot of cash on vacation. And, if you have too much, you can always blow it on souvie shopping your last day in the country (Narita has some nice food items you can bring home to impress your friends and get rid of your last 30 bucks ;p). Sorry if that wasn't more helpful. I think in general you SHOULD be fine with a VISA or Amex around town (you did ask about "in Japan" though...if you are travelling to small towns or into the countryside you should DEFINITELY not count on your credit cards to cover expenses...I'm sure there are many hotels and ryokans that are cash only as well!). SuperDry has written about some of his experiences too, I guess paying for "small" items with a credit card is still considered strange in some places (I'll leave it to him to elaborate if he feels like chiming in).
Originally Posted By leemac Disney definitely take all of the major credit and charge cards. I remember it was always very annoying for WDI/WDP&R folks when they went to TDR as they couldn't use their Amex corporate cards before September 2001. OLC corporate cards have always been JCB.
Originally Posted By alisserae Thank you for such quick and helpful replies! I think our biggest reason for trying to stick with credit cards is not understanding the monetary system. But it's nice to know that even with a good amount of cash on hand we should be fairly safe.
Originally Posted By Mr X Not "fairly safe", completely safe. Crime is very rare in Japan statistically, and violent crime almost non-existent. You can feel free to carry hundreds of dollars (or yen equivalant) on your person in Japan. In fact, most people I know do just that (most everyone pays for stuff in cash). So, don't worry about the safety issue (of course, it is always smart to be careful!)...just figure out what is best for your plans. Are you planning to stay only in Tokyo? If so, then credit cards will probably be fine for the most part, just have some cash just in case. As for understanding the monetary system, this is a dumb and rudimentary way of doing it, but if you are coming from America just assume that 100 yen equals a dollar (in other words, add a decimal point...1000 yen equals 10 bucks). With the exchange rate being nearly 120 to the dollar these days, what "looks" like 10 bucks will actually be a bit cheaper, so you can't go wrong looking at it that way.
Originally Posted By SuperDry Mr X has pretty good advice, except that more people than you might think actually carry thousands of dollars on their persons in Japan. Everyone knows this, yet it's completely safe. ATMs can be problematic as in addition to the limited hours, many of them do not accept cards issued from outside Japan. Even if the machine displays a Visa/MasterCard logo, they may not take foreign cards. The ones at the Post Office accept PLUS system cards, which in practical terms means anything with a Visa logo on it. Regarding ATMs, some of them at the airport, the ones at TDR, and ones at Citibank branches in town accept foreign cards (the ones at Citibank are also open 24/7, so it's a good "last resort" if you need cash). I don't know about the ones in convenience stores as those have been around only a few years and I've never used one - if they take foreign cards, then that basically solves the problem, but if they don't, I would have cash on hand for at least a couple of days. I've been stuck several times without cash and no way to get it, and in a situation that didn't take credit cards. It's just a lot easier to have cash at least as a backup. Regarding credit cards, it's really changed just in the last few years. Many places now take them, although many that display the logos and technically have the ability to do so in practical terms don't really know how to do it if they're the type of business where locals always pay cash. I would guess that MasterCard/Visa are the most accepted, followed by American Express. As leemac said, Diners Club has very wide acceptance as well, but be advised that US-issued Diners Club cards are really MasterCards now, so you have to look for the MasterCard acceptance and not Diners Club acceptance when overseas. Discover of course doesn't work outside the US at all as far as I know. I would advise AGAINST bringing only one card for several reasons: sometimes the authorization network is not working for one card or another temporarily, sometimes after seeing a sudden burst of overseas charges your bank will shut off a card until they establish that it's really you using it, and so on. You can easily get in a situation where you're out of options if you have only one card. As far as understanding the monetary system, Mr X's advice of just moving the decimal point over two places is a good one. But your statement is curious - if you're not able to covert to dollar equivalent in your head, then using a credit card won't help - the charge is still going to be made in yen. If your concern is about counting and making change, it's not really that difficult. The paper and coin money is all identified with "regular" numbers, with the exception of the 5 yen coin (and you don't need to learn how to read "5 yen" in Japanese - if a coin does not have a "regular" number on it, then it's the 5 yen one). Divide the face value by 100, and that's about how much the coin or note is worth in US Dollars. Also, be aware that all posted prices are the total price, including any taxes or gratuities. You never, never, never need to worry about adding tax or leaving a tip in any situation. Travelers cheques are more of a pain in Japan than they are elsewhere, as many (most?) merchants won't take them. They are useful really only to cash in at the hotel or at a bank for yen, and not to buy things. Getting yen before arriving is a mistake in that it's going to be MUCH more costly to do in the US. Here's what I do and what I'd recommend to others: - Upon arrival at the airport, take cash out of the ATM from my checking account just like I do at home (except that it comes out in yen of course). - Use credit cards for major purchases such as hotel stays, stuff at TDR, or something from a chain store or department store, or an expensive restaurant. - Pay cash for everything else. Replenish cash as needed with ATM withdrawals, assuming you're in Tokyo or somewhere where foreign-card-accepting ATMs are convenient. - Have at least a couple hundred dollars of US currency on hand as a backup. If all else fails with my cards, then I can always go to a bank or my hotel's front desk in some cases to change money. For me, I might have an American Express, MasterCard, and my regular ATM card. I'm trusting enough that at least one will work that I don't worry about getting stuck. Others might be more cautious and less trusting of technology and bring their cash budget in dollar currency or traveler's cheques and change it as needed. That's almost certainly more than you wanted to know!
Originally Posted By alisserae Thank you all for advice! SD you hit it on the nose, I really don't want to be bothered with making change, hence the credit cards, with just a very small amount of cash. But with all the reading I've done, and advice I have recieved from helpful folks like yourself, I think I may have been worrying a bit too much. I have lots of other questions but rather than posting them all as I think of them, I'll start saving a list and just post when I think I'm done. Thank you fro your assistance, it's greatly appreciated!
Originally Posted By gurgitoy2 You might also want to call your credit card companies before your trip and tell them where you are going and for how long. That way, you won't have to worry about them putting a hold on your card because they think somebody got your card. I've learned my lesson on that one, and now I do that on all my trips and I have no troubles.
Originally Posted By Mr X >>>Have at least a couple hundred dollars of US currency on hand as a backup. If all else fails with my cards, then I can always go to a bank or my hotel's front desk in some cases to change money.<<< Good advice. Have you ever been in a hotel that wouldn't change US dollars? All the hotel front desks I've gone to change money. However, I imagine the exchange rate at a bank would be slightly better. >>>I think I may have been worrying a bit too much<<< If you are worrying about safety, you probably needn't worry at all. As for making change, one kinda neat thing about Japan is that most cash registers have a calculator sitting nearby, and cashiers will grab the calculator and type out the amount you owe (almost out of habit!) if you look foreign. This saves the agravation of trying to understand how much they are asking for, and then you can just hand them a bill. Cash is always the easiest way in Japan, that's for sure. Also, you don't need to "count your change" in Japan. I've only had one or two cases of wrong change here, they are pretty careful about that. BUT, here's another bit of advise, make sure you DO spend any coins that you don't want to keep as souveniers, because it's difficult to impossible to exchange coins in most places (and, the change in your pocket WILL add up, as Japanese coins go up to 5 bucks and the smallest bill is a 10). So, if you're buying lunch or something in Japan, check how much you have in coins...the change in your pocket can quickly add up to 20 bucks or so!
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< Have you ever been in a hotel that wouldn't change US dollars? >>> Not at ones I've stayed at, but I usually stay at hotels that are set up for foreign guests. It would not surprise me to find some business hotel somewhere that's not set up to do it. What made me mention it at all is that I seem to remember seeing a plaque on the wall near the front desk at some hotels that say something like "Licensed Foreign Currency Exchange" which I took to mean that the hotel needed a special license to perform this function. If this is the case, then I'm sure that there would be some hotels that didn't have the license. Also, some hotels impose a daily limit on how much you can change, and restrict their services to registered guests. <<< All the hotel front desks I've gone to change money. However, I imagine the exchange rate at a bank would be slightly better. >>> Probably true. One thing that I didn't mention before is that at a bank, the exchange rate is slightly better if you have travelers cheques rather than cash. This is the opposite of most countries where it's better to have cash. At least this all used to be the case - perhaps it's changed in the last few years. For people coming from the US, one thing that many people don't know about travelers cheques is that they can be treated as a regular check if endorsed properly. So, if you buy more travelers cheques than you think you'll need "just in case" and have some left over when you get back, you can just sign the secondary signature line on the face, make them payable to yourself, endorse them on the back, and deposit them into your checking account, regardless of where they were purchased (as long as they were purchased in the US, are US dollar denominated, and have the MICR numbers at the bottom of them similar to a regular check). You don't have to return them to where you bought them. They go through the banking system just like a regular check. This is why they are almost universally accepted in the US: the merchant doesn't need a special account with the traveler's cheque vendor - they just deposit them into their business checking account. But you can use this yourself if you find yourself with leftovers once you get back.
Originally Posted By SuperDry Here's an article from today's newspaper in Japan (in English) that gives some insight as to how cash oriented Japan is: <a href="http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/news/20060325p2a00m0na013000c.html" target="_blank">http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/ national/news/20060325p2a00m0na013000c.html</a> The jist of the story is that banks in Japan have had to lower the daily ATM withdrawal limits to cut down on fraud. But the size of the limits is simply astounding by US standards (I'll convert to approximate US dollars to make my point obvious): - Mizuho Bank (the largest in Japan) recently cut their daily limit from $50,000 down to $5,000. - "We've had some people complain that it's inconvenient when they can only withdraw $5,000 a day, but we've explained the matter to them and obtained their understanding," a bank representative said, commenting on the decision. Maybe 10 years ago I saw the limit at a Citibank ATM in Tokyo was $30,000 a day. Can you imagine walking up to an ATM, putting your card in, and having $30,000 in cash spit out? And the largest bill in general circulation in Japan is $100, so that would be quite a stack, wouldn't it? So, why would anyone need to take that much cash out of the bank? Well, let's say you have your eye on that $5000 big screen TV and decide to buy it. In Japan, it would not at all be unheard of to go to your bank and get $5000 in cash and take it to the store and buy the TV. People do it all the time. Until just the last few years, many people in Japan didn't have credit cards, and there's really no such thing as a personal check. So, that leaves cash and wire transfers as ways to pay for things. So, put what Mr X said in context with the above and the fact that everyone in Japan knows that people carry lots of cash, and in some cases, a great deal: <<< Not "fairly safe", completely safe. Crime is very rare in Japan statistically, and violent crime almost non-existent. >>> Your chances of getting robbed or killed for your money in Japan is about as close to zero as it could be. The little violent crime that there is is mostly focused around family or lovers' quarrels, or disputes involving organized crime. The chances of you being robbed or the victim of random violence are exceedingly small, so it's the one place in the world that you really don't need to take the "standard precautions" that are recommended for tourists against robbery, or even in your home town for that matter. I would worry much more about simply losing my money than having it taken from me. Now of course, people visiting Japan from the US will be constrainted by whatever their bank's daily withdrawal limit is, which is often $300 or $500, but in an emergency, you could get much more than that off a credit card if you know the PIN and have a larger cash advance limit.
Originally Posted By Mr X Wow...50 grand huh!? I remember being astounded when I went to withdraw a large amount for the first time...I believe I needed something like 2000 bucks to pay bills and do some electronics shopping, so I ASSUMED I would not be able to get it all at once. Walked into citibank figuring I'd be able to get only the standard 300 bucks or so as in America, but punched in 200000 yen just to see exactly what the limit was. When the machine spit out the 2 grand, I just sat there for a minute wondering if I'd made a big mistake...really didn't want to carry so much cash (even today, an amount like that makes me uncomfortable for the reason my friend said, how bad would it suck if you just happened to lose it!).
Originally Posted By SuperDry Regarding changing money in Japan, I just completed some more research. The results are pretty much in line with what I expected, but the variance is surprising. There are lots of ways for an American to pay for things in Japan, including credit cards and cash obtained in a variety of ways. Changing money between currencies always involves some sort of fee, but the amount of this fee can vary wildly depending on how and where you do it. What you have to be careful is that currency exchange usually does not have a clearly-stated fee, but rather the commission is built into the exchange rate. So it can kind of sneak up on you, especially if you don't know what it should be. When I say "fee" below, I include any stated service charge as well as the commission that's built into the exchange rate. I looked at a few ways to change money, and here's what I found: Best: Get US Dollar travelers checks before you go, then exchange them upon arrival at Narita airport. Fee: 0.8% Okay: Use a credit card to charge purchases. Most Visa/MC's are 3%, while a few are 1%. Amex is 2%. Or, bring cash and change it at Narita airport: 2.5% fee. Not so good: Change dollars into yen at hotel front desk. The Hotel Mira Costa charges 3.4%, limited to $500/day, and limited to hotel guests. Bad: Arrange to get yen through bank in the US before departure: 4-6% Terrible: Change at the airport in the US before departure: 9% I always knew that Narita airport and banks in Japan in general were good, and that travelers checks were better, and that US airports were bad, but it's night-and-day. The one thing that surprised me was that bringing cash and exchanging at Narita is actually worse than just charging to Amex or some MC/Visa cards, plus you get the float (and the miles to use for your next trip ). The one thing I've not been able to run down is what the rate is to withdraw cash from a checking account using an ATM card. For Wells Fargo, it looks like they charge you just the Interbank rate (i.e. the neutral rate) plus a $5 fee. Since they have a $500 daily limit, that's effectively a 1% fee, which is one of the better options if you can rely on it and $500/day is enough for you (keeping in mind that many accounts are still at $300/day). This last item (ATM withdrawal from US checking account) is the one I'm not certain on, but I'll run it down the next time I'm there and will report back. Keep in mind that this is likely to be completely different than using a Visa/MC-branded Check Card and using it for purchases - even though money comes right out of your checking account, they're going to charge you the 1-3% forex fee.
Originally Posted By paulyahoo I'm still confused with a lot of zeros when paying in yen. Especially with 1000 and 10000 bills. Dividing by 100 doesn't help much.
Originally Posted By Mr X I personally don't divide, I just add a decimal point after the first 2 zeros...is that easier? Steve, I had no idea Narita was so GOOD...is that only for U.S. currency? I felt kind of cheated changing money there (both coming and going) for HK dollars.
Originally Posted By Faith Interesting, SuperDry. But don't you also need to consider the exchange rate? I'd think that a lower fee may not always be the best option if it also comes with a less favorable exchange rate. I personally like credit cards and ATM cards for the convenience.
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< But don't you also need to consider the exchange rate? I'd think that a lower fee may not always be the best option if it also comes with a less favorable exchange rate. >>> As I said above, everything I listed included both any fixed service charges and any commission built into the exchange rate. I expressed it as a percentage of the amount exchanged for comparison's sake. In no case was it ever disclosed that there was an x% fee - it was simply built into how the stated exchange rate differed from the true rate on that day. In fact, many people are not even aware that there is a commission built into a currency exchange, let alone that it can be substantial, which is what makes the whole thing so insidious. In fact, the only example I gave that had any fixed component was the American airport, which charged a flat $4.95 fee PLUS an exchange rate with an 8.5% commission built in! I assumed a $1000 exchange to arrive at my 9% total fee in the example above. I would guess that most people that don't travel internationally a lot and use these booths at US airports think they're paying only $4.95 for the exchange. Imagine someone going to Japan for a couple of weeks with $3000 cash and wants to exchange it in America just so that they don't have to deal with it in Japan. If they do it at the US airport before departure instead of waiting until they get off the plane in Tokyo, they just lost $235. I think that's a substantial amount to lose off of a $3000 exchange. And as if that's not insulting enough, the exchange booth will often tell people to "exchange as much as you can NOW, since it's only a $4.95 fee no matter how much you change and we'll change any leftover money back to dollars for free when you get back." They did it to me once. Talk about a scam, or rather an unsuspecting tourist fleecing. <<< I personally like credit cards and ATM cards for the convenience. >>> That's what I do and what I recommend. Although I'm giving up a bit from the most optimum way, I'm far too lazy to get travelers checks beforehand and then mess with it at the airport, fill out the form, and so on. I was surprised that if you're not willing to go the travelers check route, there's really no benefit to bringing cash and then changing it. It's funny, Japan is so expensive in a lot of ways, but some things that travelers use are downright cheap compared to the US. Currency exchange is one. Another thing that's cheap are telephone calls from a hotel room. When I was there in January, my calling card was breaking up while I was on a conference call back to the US, and it was important enough that I just had to switch to dialing direct from my room at the Mira Costa for the last 20 minutes. I was expecting it to cost a fortune (but I wasn't paying ) and I know that such a call from a US hotel to Japan would be in the $100 - $150 range. Total cost at the Mira Costa to call back to the US for 20 minutes? $7. I've found similar reasonableness to be the norm at hotels in Japan, regardless of how expensive the room is. I have to wonder how many unsuspecting businesspeople from Japan that are visiting the US end up with a huge phone bill the first time before they realize what the deal is.
Originally Posted By Mr X >>>and we'll change any leftover money back to dollars for free when you get back<<< I assume THAT exchange also comes with an 8.5% commission? If so, they should be sued for lying about the words "for free". I suppose it's up to us to do our research (as SuperDry did...thanks!) or else just lump it when we get the raw end of a deal.
