<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by bysa003:
cheapest way is to use a debit card.
Then you are not charged 3% for cash advance.
You cannot add non-US person to be authorized user for a debit card as she/he must have a US SSN or tax-id number.</font>
Yikes! So, your "solution" suggests doing something which totally breaks the conditions of use of the card, opening someone up to almost unlimited liability if the card gets stolen, etc. That's really insane. ... and totally unnecessary, so let's clear up some misinformation here:
I
am a secondary cardholder of a US credit union debit card and have no SSN or tax number, so it is not impossible.
Whether you will be charged 1%, 3%, some other percentage or a fixed charge for cash withdrawals overseas is not dependant upon whether it's a debit or credit card, but upon
the particular issuing financial institution's whim.
To go back to the original topic, Japan is another country in which you'll see lots of VISA logos on ATMs that will not accept cards issued outside Japan. I believe that VISA should make these banks either conform to the usual obligations of serving cardholders or remove the VISA logos.