Withdrawing cash when in Japan

Pkat3

hello all,

going to Japan for 2 weeks.

Going to take plenty of yen in cash but also planning to withdraw cash when in Japan itself.

Got a Post Office credit card and thinking of using this to withdraw cash. It's got a £3 or 2.5% withdrawl fee and also a 24.9% interest rate even if I pay off the interest at the end of the month. I'll probably take out a few hundred at a time (e.g. £500 which will equate to handing the Post Office ~£25). Seems a little high but it is one of the best buys and I am loathe to apply for a new credit card as I have 2 already.

Does this plan sound good or does anyone know of a debit card or travel money card that could be better more convenient?

Again I don't really want to apply for a new credit card.

Thanks!

NiftyDigits

It's a terrible plan. Taking loads of Yen is a bad idea, as is your CC idea.

Apart from anything else, it isn't that easy to find a Japanese ATM that works with foreign cards. Generally the ones at 7/11 are ok.

If you live in London, get along to Metro Bank(open today) and get a debit card within the hour.

Pkat3

From Scotland so no chance of a Metro card.

Don't have many options left!

NiftyDigits

Norwich & Peterborough Gold Light is equally good, but if you don't want to apply for another account, then a Prepaid Card is the next best thing.

Cash Passport Globe has no charges at all, other than shaving 1.49% off the Mastercard wholesale exchange rate.

Even cheaper is the Kalixa Card purchased via TopCashback(in order to get the initial card fee back) and funded via bank transfer, as long as you take the equivalent of £300 out each time.

dzug1

Pkat3 wrote: »

hello all,

going to Japan for 2 weeks.

Going to take plenty of yen in cash but also planning to withdraw cash when in Japan itself.

Got a Post Office credit card and thinking of using this to withdraw cash. It's got a £3 or 2.5% withdrawl fee and also a 24.9% interest rate even if I pay off the interest at the end of the month. I'll probably take out a few hundred at a time (e.g. £500 which will equate to handing the Post Office ~£25). Seems a little high but it is one of the best buys and I am loathe to apply for a new credit card as I have 2 already.

Does this plan sound good or does anyone know of a debit card or travel money card that could be better more convenient?

Again I don't really want to apply for a new credit card.

Thanks!

Taking out £500 at a time from an ATM is not often possible - either the machine or your bank will have a lower limit.

And remember that 24.9% is an ANNUAL rate - ie about 2% a month. Loads of posters on here fail to understand that - forgive me if it's obvious to you. It would make you brighter than the average newbie:D

And when you say it is handing the PO £25 - what do you think you are handing them when you buy cash from them?

I see while I've been typing this there's at least one other post givin advice so I'll leave it at that

Roland_Sausage

I agree with NiftyDigits about the ATMs. I went there a few years back and it was rare to find an ATM that worked with our cards.

I think in the whole 2 weeks, we found one ATM in a post office that we were able to use.

Luckily we didn't really need it as we took about £1k in cash (being very careful not to lose it of course).

Pkat3

Thanks for the recommendations. Much appreciated!

P.S. Yes I did realise that 24.9% annual amounts to just over 2% monthly!

NiftyDigits

Post Office 2.5% plus 2% monthly is relatively poor value, when 1.49% in total is so easily available.
Just make sure that your bank debit card does not charge for topping up Prepaid cards. Don't know the situation in Scotland.