Foreign Exchange Fees

[maziwanka]

i'll be travelling to japan soon and i wanted to know some things:

i called my mastercard and they told me that they charge me a 3% fee on any currency conversions made (i.e. foreign purchases on my card in which mastercard has to change yen to dollars).

what does citibank charge for currency conversions (or any major bank for that matter)?

how much cash do you think i should take with me to japan? is the best place to get yen at the bank?

thanks....

perhaps more questions later

 

[suse920]

3% seems high

 

[AndrewR]

If it's 3% over the bank rate, that's not exceptionally bad, but you may want to find out what AMEX would charge (since they are heavily into travel related services). I know both my credit card (Chase) and my wife's credit card (some podunk bank) instituted a new exchange fee recently. Fortunately, we're leaving for the States in a month.

Your best bet for exchanging is going to be a Japanese bank, but I can't provide any help on using them since we have money services on base (military). Given the current trend with the dollar though, I'd probably bring traveler's checks in dollars, not yen (yen has dropped about 4% against the dollar in recent weeks), but keep an eye on the exchange rates before you leave. If there's some bad US economic news, that could reverse pretty quickly.

Do NOT count on ATMs working here for you (they rarely do with American accounts), and also don't count on places accepting credit cards (they usually do but not always, especially restaurants). Japan is still very much a cash economy, but it is changing, slowly. As for how much cash you need, that depends on how long you're staying, what kind of budget you have, and what you intend to do (stay in one city, travel by train, jump cities every day, etc.).

 

[xospec1alk]

There was ONE atm in shibuya that worked, and that was a citibank....its between the two Tokyu stores...(i think thats what they were called) i scoured all of friggin japan for them heheh.

I brought $500 cash with me, and took out some more later from that citibank hehe. I don't recall how much HSBC (which is the card i used) charged me, if at all. At most of the restuarants, at least for dinner when the bill was high, i used my CC. Amex/Visa.

 

[AndrewR]

Originally posted by: xospec1alk
There was ONE atm in shibuya that worked, and that was a citibank....its between the two Tokyu stores...(i think thats what they were called) i scoured all of friggin japan for them heheh.

I brought $500 cash with me, and took out some more later from that citibank hehe. I don't recall how much HSBC (which is the card i used) charged me, if at all. At most of the restuarants, at least for dinner when the bill was high, i used my CC. Amex/Visa.

Weird thing was here that I found an ATM that worked, don't recall which bank but it was NOT American, but then when I went back to try it again (it was about 1 year later), it didn't work! I was really miffed because I needed some cash at the time.

The problem with the bank fees on the credit card is that they don't typically break it out in terms of how much you pay for exchange and how much extra they charge. I just don't pay too much attention and hope I get a decent rate!

 

[maziwanka]

bump for work responses

 

[frankie38]

I have used my citibank atm card all over the world. no fees. they dispense local currency. atm gives you the best exchange rate. this was even better than the employee rate at the teller.

PS: make sure you have enough money to visit Roppongi.

 

[FlyLice]

3% for credit card is standard.

Try American express travelers cheques or that international traveler's cash card that AMEX advertises on TV.