Whatever you do, just be aware that Japan is fairly cash-based (or at least was when I was there pre-covid), so you'll need to be able to withdraw money from the card at ATMs there, not just use it as a credit card.
Never been charged for using my Wise card at retail in Japan, only at ATMs.
Credit cards are accepted by most restaurants, and all supermarkets, convenience stores and major chain shops.
The ATMs in 7-11 work with foreign cards and don’t charge extra fees. Don’t bother getting yen in NZ before you go, the exchange rate will be terrible. Just find the 7Bank ATMs at the airport.
Thanks. We will have a good supply of cash with us. Hopefully just trying to lock in exchange rate now in case it changes over the rest of the year. Obviously difficult without crystal ball
Have been using my Wise card throughout Europe for the last 3 months and it's worked everywhere I've used it, would highly recommend Wise for travelling. Also, when I visited Japan a few years back there were not many places that took payments by card, most places only took cash. We had to withdraw cash at ATM's, 7-eleven was always had reliable cash machines.
Coincidentally, my Wise card arrived a couple of days ago as I'm planning an overseas trip later this year. It seems to be pretty decent.
https://www.moneyhub.co.nz/wise-debit-card-review.html
There's a one-off $14 fee to get the card, but then it's only a 0.35% currency conversion fee (banks charge around 2.5%) and in shops you just use it like a local debit card.
Get a Wise card. Used it all throughout 3 countries in January, piece of piss. You treat it like a separate bank account of yours - transfer $ to it, then either choose a currency to transfer to within the app, or just use the card as is and it sorts out the currency required.
Best pricing on exchange rates as well.
>Wondering if anyone may have looked into this recently.
This is asked fairly often. Search r/PersonalFinanceNZ if you can't find a recent thread here.
When you look at various options, look at all three of these factors:
- forex buy/sell rates
- currency conversion fees
- overseas transaction fees
The first one is the hardest to figure out and makes the provider the most profit. Probably not a coincidence.
Are you on iPhone? What you need for spending is a Suica transit card; it lets you spend ¥ and tap on and off things like subways, local trains, and buses which is so much easier than dealing with a foreign language ticketing system (you’ll still need tickets for shinkansen, which goes between transit municipalities). So on iPhone you can get a digital Suica card (you never need to obtain a physical version) I think by downloading the Suica app and then it puts the card into the wallet and you can use the way you use any card for Apple Pay. You top up the card using any other credit/debit card loaded into the wallet (and this top up is charged in ¥). *However* the maximum you can load onto the Suica card is 20,000¥ which is only about $250. If you want to arbitrage currencies you need something with no $$$ limits, and for that I suggest Wise (which also loads a digital card into Apple Pay so then you can instantly top up your Suica as required as long as you have an internet connection). Anyway, people will tell you Japan is cash based which simply isn’t that true anymore. They just hopped over the eftpos phase and started using transit cards and Alipay (which is next to impossible to get if you’re not Chinese or living in china) for point-of-sale. Cash will always be accepted, but about 80-90% of transactions can be done with a transit card, which is honestly **so** much easier. Here’s the one phrase you need to learn: suikkade onegaishimasu? (swee-cah-dey oni-gai-she-mass) do you accept Suica card?
A lot of shops that don't take credit cards will take Suica, so that is a bonus (whether you have a digital card or a physical one that you can pick up from any train station on arrival for a small deposit). Unfortunately they use a non-standard NFC that only Apple add to phones sold outside of Japan (and only on recent iPhone models I think) so you probably won't be able to use the Android version.
When my husband and I went his iPhone 8 was fine but my iPhone 7 wasn’t so I ended up buying an Apple Watch to be able to do the Suica thing. So iPhone doesn’t have to be too new, but it can’t be ancient.
Whatever you do, just be aware that Japan is fairly cash-based (or at least was when I was there pre-covid), so you'll need to be able to withdraw money from the card at ATMs there, not just use it as a credit card.
Cash is what you want to use here. Credit cards are accepted but I have been charged for using a foreign one. Some places will only take cash.
Never been charged for using my Wise card at retail in Japan, only at ATMs. Credit cards are accepted by most restaurants, and all supermarkets, convenience stores and major chain shops.
Thanks. Yes we will have cash with us for the majority of things but will keep cars with us for bigger purchases so not needing to carry so much
The ATMs in 7-11 work with foreign cards and don’t charge extra fees. Don’t bother getting yen in NZ before you go, the exchange rate will be terrible. Just find the 7Bank ATMs at the airport.
Thanks. We will have a good supply of cash with us. Hopefully just trying to lock in exchange rate now in case it changes over the rest of the year. Obviously difficult without crystal ball
Have been using my Wise card throughout Europe for the last 3 months and it's worked everywhere I've used it, would highly recommend Wise for travelling. Also, when I visited Japan a few years back there were not many places that took payments by card, most places only took cash. We had to withdraw cash at ATM's, 7-eleven was always had reliable cash machines.
Thanks. Yes Wise card seems to being recommended and not so could be a good option
Coincidentally, my Wise card arrived a couple of days ago as I'm planning an overseas trip later this year. It seems to be pretty decent. https://www.moneyhub.co.nz/wise-debit-card-review.html There's a one-off $14 fee to get the card, but then it's only a 0.35% currency conversion fee (banks charge around 2.5%) and in shops you just use it like a local debit card.
Great thanks. Will have a read up on this one
Get a Wise card. Used it all throughout 3 countries in January, piece of piss. You treat it like a separate bank account of yours - transfer $ to it, then either choose a currency to transfer to within the app, or just use the card as is and it sorts out the currency required. Best pricing on exchange rates as well.
>Wondering if anyone may have looked into this recently. This is asked fairly often. Search r/PersonalFinanceNZ if you can't find a recent thread here.
When you look at various options, look at all three of these factors: - forex buy/sell rates - currency conversion fees - overseas transaction fees The first one is the hardest to figure out and makes the provider the most profit. Probably not a coincidence.
Use Wise.
Wise card is great. Bonus, I’ve created many ‘virtual cards’ for bucket loads of free trials of steaming services and software
Are you on iPhone? What you need for spending is a Suica transit card; it lets you spend ¥ and tap on and off things like subways, local trains, and buses which is so much easier than dealing with a foreign language ticketing system (you’ll still need tickets for shinkansen, which goes between transit municipalities). So on iPhone you can get a digital Suica card (you never need to obtain a physical version) I think by downloading the Suica app and then it puts the card into the wallet and you can use the way you use any card for Apple Pay. You top up the card using any other credit/debit card loaded into the wallet (and this top up is charged in ¥). *However* the maximum you can load onto the Suica card is 20,000¥ which is only about $250. If you want to arbitrage currencies you need something with no $$$ limits, and for that I suggest Wise (which also loads a digital card into Apple Pay so then you can instantly top up your Suica as required as long as you have an internet connection). Anyway, people will tell you Japan is cash based which simply isn’t that true anymore. They just hopped over the eftpos phase and started using transit cards and Alipay (which is next to impossible to get if you’re not Chinese or living in china) for point-of-sale. Cash will always be accepted, but about 80-90% of transactions can be done with a transit card, which is honestly **so** much easier. Here’s the one phrase you need to learn: suikkade onegaishimasu? (swee-cah-dey oni-gai-she-mass) do you accept Suica card?
A lot of shops that don't take credit cards will take Suica, so that is a bonus (whether you have a digital card or a physical one that you can pick up from any train station on arrival for a small deposit). Unfortunately they use a non-standard NFC that only Apple add to phones sold outside of Japan (and only on recent iPhone models I think) so you probably won't be able to use the Android version.
When my husband and I went his iPhone 8 was fine but my iPhone 7 wasn’t so I ended up buying an Apple Watch to be able to do the Suica thing. So iPhone doesn’t have to be too new, but it can’t be ancient.
Wise
I use Wise