Japanese Yen - Cash

[byron.lumley]

I will be travelling with the Qantas Pay Card. However, Japan has always been more cash friendly & prior to leaving I would love to have a chunk of Yen in cash.

What's the best options for buying foreign currency (cash) in Australia. Any suggestions, anything I should look out for.

 

[Pushka]

I will be travelling with the Qantas Pay Card. However, Japan has always been more cash friendly & prior to leaving I would love to have a chunk of Yen in cash.

What's the best options for buying foreign currency (cash) in Australia. Any suggestions, anything I should look out for.

We got the Wise card and preloaded with yen when the exchange rate was excellent and will visit an ATM on arrival at the airport. We used to get cash here but the exchange rate and fees are crazy. We also loaded up the Suica travel card in Apple Wallet and preloaded that with cash to use on the train system and supermarkets.

 

[HappyFlyerFamily]

On a different tangent, if you have a Mastercard debit card, there would be no ATM-operator fee when withdrawing at 7-Bank ATMs inside 7-Eleven stores. (From memory there was only very limited exceptions at airports).

Visa debit cards at 7-Eleven stores usually got a 110 yen fee or 220 yen fee (about 1%) depending on how much you withdrew.

Of course, the actual exchange rate is determine by your bank - quite a few debit cards use the Mastercard/Visa daily rate.

So something to compare if you are looking at Australian currency store exchange options.

If you are in Sydney, there is a store (Eclipse) near Chinatown giving about 93.57 yen today (so about 3% difference) - XE.com is showing 96.49 right now.

 

[trendwhore]

When I go there (a few times a year) I usually use ATM to get cash out using a card with no fees (bankwest currently). Then you can just load the cash onto train card and use that like a normal bank card. Many places in Japan do not accept touch payment but usually credit cards are no issue.

However always good to carry a bit of cash with you anyway just in case as there are still many places that are cash only.

 

[Himeno]

I've always just gotten cash overseas from ATMs as needed. In Japan look for the 7andi Bank (7-11) or Japan Post Bank (post office) ATMs. There are some outside the 7-11 stores or post offices.

Card use in Japan is much more widespread now then it was pre covid. Many places got card processing devices such as Square during covid. It's close to 80% acceptance of IC bank card or IC travel card now. Before covid, it was closer to 50%.