Hi all, I'm travelling to Japan late Dec. I'm wanting to apply for a debit card so I can withdraw cash at the local 7-11 ATM. Anyone here used either card before? Which one would you recommend? Many thanks!
ATM Fee-Free Withdrawal in Japan: Macquarie or Up Bank?
Himesama21 on 20/11/2023 - 21:00
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Bankwest platinum debit card
Note this is debit card. The credit card does charge ATM withdrawal fees.
Use them (Debit & Credit Cards from Bankwest) through my 15 days trip through Tokyo, Kyoto, Takayama, Nagano and back to Tokyo back in September.
The credit card got used heaps more than the debit card. It was surprising on how many merchants are accepting CC in those areas.
I have cash on me at all time (around 30 thousands yen), but mainly use my credit card throughout my trip.
One important note, you can only do a 100 dollars (10.000 yen) per withdrawal. I had to to google this when my withdrawals failed for bigger amounts in 7/11 conbini in Tokyo.
@burningrage: 10,000 yen per withdrawal. Maybe it was specific to Bankwest Debit Card. I tried 50,000 and 30,000. The ATM gave out an error message to both amounts.
@burningrage: You maybe able to do 3x $100 withdrawals. I haven't done so myself because I had been using my CC more and just have the yen as backup in my pocket.
Ubank
OP gave ONLY 2 choices, I got negged!
Just got back from Japan a couple of weeks ago, used Macquarie at 7/11 to withdraw cash, no fees, all good.
what option did you choose on pushing money out ?
Savings? Credit ? chque?
There's an option to skip the choice entirely, just did that. When it asks about Exchange Rate, choose the JPY option not the AUD option as this is always better.
That sounds like the best move. I used my UBank card which has no international fees, but because it's VISA (rather than Mastercard), 7-11 charged ¥110 per ¥10,000 withdrawal.
Been living here for 8 months and didn’t realise it was just a VISA thing!
Wait so if a Mastercard is used the atm won't charge ¥110 per ¥10,000?
@1TapMan: That's what the above comment made it sound like. Unfortunately I only brought my VISA HSBC card with me. I'll bring back a MasterCard to confirm.
Also just came back 2 weeks ago. No fees with 7/11 on Macquarie. User cheque as that equates to transaction account from memory.
Did you withdraw more than 10,000yen each time? Seems like bankwest has a limit of 10,000 per withdrawal.
Hard choice:
Hansel or Gretel?I used MACQ in Japan, found the rate very good and even better when you tap your card to pay in the local currency.
You will still need some cash though, which I withdrew from 7-11's for free, NOT EVERYWHERE in Japan is tap your card, a lot still cash so you need both. I also had 0 issues using the travelling notification with MACQ and them not trying any funny stuff when I was there in regards to stopping my card or texting my Australian number.
How much were you able to get from 7 eleven ATM per withdrawal?
Whatever I chose, I usually just went 50,000 yen though and used a combo of tap my card and cash. I think you can get more than that, or do two withdrawals
Thanks! Someone above said Bankwest has limit of 10,000 yen per withdrawal so sounds like Macquarie is the way to go then!
@CodeXD: Yeah it worked faultlessly for a month on Jap machines, rates were good, you can notify online you're going to Asia better experience than Citibank, rates always checked out when I googled checked them
I used Macquarie in Japan worked fine
Bit late, but went Japan for 3 weeks Nov - Dec, used my Up bank debit card to withdraw from 7/11 ATMs only (didn’t try other convenience stores or ATMs) and it worked flawlessly.
When I checked my transaction on my Up app, then converted JPY I withdrew to AUD, it was pretty much the same.
Edit: no ATM fees charged by 7/11 when done within “normal” operating hours, 8am to 8pm I think? Withdrew once outside of these hours and I was charged like a few hundred yen, nothing crazy.
do you need to buy any JPY and deposit into a macquarie debit bank account before being able to withdraw JPY?
or simply having AUD then withdrawing JPY is fine (Macq bank to convert from AUD to JPY)
You keep aud in Macquarie debit card…and it gives you JPY in Japan
I would use the Macquarie one