There are three rates. The mid-rates at which banks (and your credit card company) actually trade currency with one another, the TTS/TTB rates (used for telegraphic transfer (i.e. wire) transactions which are each one yen on either side of the mid-rate, and the Cash Selling/Buying rates which are 3 yen on either side of the mid rate. In all likelihood when your bank says the "current" rate, they're talking about the cash rates or the TT rates.

Thank you everyone - I appreciate the assistance

I think what I will do is take travelers checks (in dollars) and exchange them for yen when we hit Narita.

Does anyone have a bank/exchange that they prefer?

dcman2

I cashed T/C at bank and post office just to see how it works. Pretty much the same. Fill out a form, sign the cheques. Wait 15-20 minutes. Number called and collect the cash. So there is some improvement from 30 years ago.

At the airport, you save the wait time and you deal with 1 clerk.

Rates are pretty much the same between different banks at the airport.

Exchange rates at Narita Airport: http://www.narita-airport.or.jp/exchange_e/index.html

Actually, if you arrive during normal business hours, the post office bank tends to give the best rates in Japan. It's in the commercial/store part of the airport, not obvious like the other bank-run exchange places.

There is absolutely no reason to use traveller's checks anymore. ATM all the way. I have had absolutely no problem recently using my Citibank ATM card (which is MasterCard branded) at 7-11 ATMs.

So I finally got to talk to someone on the phone at my bank and got her to admit what they do with exchanges. They use their own rate, which at my guess is 3 to 4 points lower than the current rate(I was useing XE.com) So the rate(when I was on the phone) was $1 = 98Y and she told me their's was $1 = 94Y. But I do not know if that was today's or yesterday's rate, mine was todays and yesterday's was $1 = 97Y. Plus the $7.50 tranaction fee. Does that seem to be reasonable? Do you think I should exchange money at the airport in Japan?

It also boils down to how much you plan on spending ahead of time. Why bother carrying around all that cash unless you need it? You're going to end up with spare change likely, and then will have to find a way to spend it or keep it around (which may not be a bad thing if you want to keep it as a souvenir).

Most places these days will let you swipe your CC, and if it's one of Chase's $95+ tier cards, an AMEX Platinum, or even one of BofA's cash rewards card, you won't incur transaction fees, and the rate is very close to the closing spot price.
e.g. with AMEX Plat, had a transaction posted 2/23 this year for 2980 JPY, effective rate was 93.125 ($32). Closing spot rate on 2/22 was 93.4.

Note: Citigold waives the foreign transaction fee, but still charges a non-Citibank ATM fee for withdrawing at...you guessed it, Citibank ATMs in Japan. :rolleyes:

Another thread on this...... Capital One has no fee CC and no fee ATM. Use both all the time in Japan. The exchange rate is interbank so no forex fees either. USD/JPY is quite volatile lately so you might see discrepancies vs. spot. Not sure when they fix it.

You can get the same with Chase but need to get an annual fee type CC.

Your bank would have to be awful to have higher ATM fees than using travelers cheques. Time to change bank!

Awful. Is this for an ATM withdrawal?? Criminal. Change bank.

Capital One is the best and good national branch coverage. Sometimes local banks offer good rates and no ATM fee as well. I had one in Boston but it was acquired in the mid-2000s.

Just like I said on the last thread on this topic, these okish rates for TC are misleading because of the following footnote:

The US/C buy rate is for traveler's checks issued by the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ.
Rates will be different for traveler's checks issued by other operators - inquire at the counter for details.

And right above that it says:

"Sell" = rate applicable when customer purchases T/C or foreign cash using JPY.
"Buy" = rate applicable when converting T/C or foreign cash back to JPY.

So if I understand this correctly, the rate is the same for all TC issuers when buying yen, but you need to have MUFJ TCs in order to get the best rate for buying foreign currency.

[Edited to add] This is supported by http://www.bk.mufg.jp/gdocs/kinri/li...tvl_check.html (Japanese website) which shows a very slightly better rate for using MUFJ TCs but only when exchanging yen-denominated TCs for foreign currency.

[Edited again to add] Actually, I misread that. It appears from the MUFJ website that you get a slightly better rate for using MUFJ TCs to buy yen but the difference in the rate is only around 0.1%.

Are many restaurants these days changing their tune for plastic? Heck, even Konami has proxy cards these days that charge your [Japan-local] credit card when you run low on arcade game credits.

This last trip was the first time I arrived at NRT with < 500 yen left, and I had withdrawn only once, 14 days prior from the NRT ATMs. I don't think I can recommend using cash anymore, except maybe before going to restaurants. Of course, if you head into the inaka that might be another story...

I use much less than 10,000 yen in cash per month, probably.

I now use a CC for almost all purchases including <$1 at convenience stores.

No that is for a cash exchange for US into Yen.

I got myself an unlocked Japanese smartphone and Mobile Suica. Accepts most foreign credit cards for Suica reloads for a fixed 1k yen annually. I think it's worth it to significantly extend the effective acceptance rate of my credit cards (though everything codes as whatever Suica reloads count as- when they show up on my online banking it's always as "transport-railroads" or something like that- I tried to see if it was travel for 2x on the CSP but it wouldn't accept that credit card). Just don't try to link it to a Bluebird or other prepaid/debit card for reloads; two badly-timed loss of signal incidents led to thousands of yen tied up in holds with nothing to show for it. The holds took a week to release.

Seconded on the "never exchange cash". The worst rate I saw was at an automatic bill exchanger at the Aeon Mall in Narita yesterday- 88 yen per US$.

On the topic of ATM cards, though, if you can get a UnionPay card, get one. I always keep some money in my Chinese bank account because of significantly higher ATM acceptance.