Currency Exchange Experience
 

Hi all.

Not sure if anyone still cares about information regarding currency exchange, but during my most recent trip to Japan, I exchanged USD for Yen through three different methods:

1) The currency exchange booth near my work place, which I exchanged for a few hundred dollars worth of USD, had the worst rate after service fee. I did not bother trying to order Yen through my bank (Bank of America), as the rate they quoted to me was terrible and would take time.
2) The currency exchange booth at Haneda Airport, operated by Mizuho Bank. The exchange rate is the market rate minus 3 Yen if you are buying Yen , so at the exchange rate at the time, it's about 1.5% service fee, give or take, so it was all right.
3) The debit card from Simple (online bank), using Japan Post ATM. The exchange rate is the market rate, but VISA takes 1% exchange fee; however, it is still the best rate during my trip. It does have the daily limit of $500 USD, so I could only withdraw about 50,000 Yen.

I know some debit cards such as the ones from Capital One 360 checking accounts don't even have VISA exchange fee, but I did not have accounts with them so I can't say for sure.

I did not try the local currency exchange booths in Japan (such as Daikokuya) but I will give it a try next time. Hope this helps.

Thanks for sharing! We are going to Japan next week and I think we'll be using our Visa debit to draw cash.

No problem! There are many little things you don't know until you try :P

You should check with the bank/issuer of your Visa debit card though just to make sure they don't charge foreign transaction fees or any other fees! Simple doesn't charge any fee on their side, but Visa does and I didn't find out until after I withdraw cash (I sort of expected it to happen, but you never know).

Reference for Japan Post ATMs: http://www.jp-bank.japanpost.jp/en/i...ias_index.html

Enjoy your trip!

Thanks! I have 1 card that doesn't charge ATM fee on their side plus no forex.

What did visa charge you? 1.5% exchange fee?

The other thing to note is that the daily withdrawal limit is for a day defined as midnight to midnight in your home time zone.

Midnight in Minneapolis, where my bank is based, is 2:00PM in Japan in the summer and 3:00PM in the winter, so while I'm in Japan, I can't make one large withdrawal in the morning Japan time and another in the evening Japan time. I have to wait till the next afternoon.

It was 1%. For example, one time I withdrew 50,000 yen for 418.xx USD and Visa took charged 4.18 USD.

And as ksandness said, beware the timezones. Although I just withdrew around the same time daily so I know 24 hours or so have passed between withdraws.

You said the secret word.
 

Hey pudgym29. I know about Daikokuya but never tried them before. I will try it along with ATM withdraw next time and report back =)

Heading to Japan next week, do you know if Daikokuya charges a service fee? The exchange rate on their website is great!

The rates on their website only applies to online orders, for which they charge 500 yen for delivery fee, no service fee involved; however, typically you have to pay fee when transfer money at the ATM so that's extra. I don't know about at shops. I couldn't find anything about the service fee on their website.

The rates at their shops can differ from the online ones, as big red letter says "下記レートは通信販売限定のレートとなります。店頭での両替レートとは異なりますので、直接各店舗までお 問い合わせください。", use it as a reference but not as an absolute.

BTW, since you are from SFO, you are traveling there over the Thanksgiving holidays? Because me too! LOL

Wow small world, what dates are you flying?

Guess we'll transfer some money at HND and then be on the lookout for Daikokuya during our trip.

Flying out of SFO right before the holidays and back after the holidays. The Daikokuya website lists the locations of the shops so you should be able to find one easily, or just use Google Maps and search the Tokyo area.

Now I am here in Tokyo, let me report the rates I am getting again.

Japan Post Bank: 122.48 (not including 1% VISA fee)
Daikokuya: 120.09 at shop / 120.74

So unless I need a large amount of cash in a day (more than 50,000 yen), I will probably stick to my ATM card.

We've been using Daikokuya for the last few days - and have been getting rates at 1-2% off of the true exchange rate, not as good as your Simple card, but since we don't get anything close to reasonable with the debit cards we have we've been happy to stick to Daikokuya. Thanks for the tip!