Best Way In Japan To Change Japanese Yen to American Dollars

Someone was searching this on the website.. If you know please provide them answers.

The absolute WORST exchange rate I find is on base (Community Bank). It's an outrage & a scandal that they take advantage of service members by not giving the going rate of international exchange. I've said this in previous forums, but got no traction... Paying the official exchange rate has an automatic profit margin built-in for banks. That's why dollars-to-yen and yen-to-dollars are NOT reciprocal numbers; the banks make a profit in both directions. By giving less than the official rate, they are padding their profits on the backs of servicemembers who work hard for their paycheck. This is especially rough on those who live off base and have to change a lot of money each month.

Ok, rant over... The best rate I've found is by taking cash out at the ATM at 7/11. At least in Iwakuni, they have machines with a good English-language menus. I get the going rate which is 2-3 yen better than what you get onbase. 7/11 ATMs charge NO service fee, although your bank may charge a fee. My credit union in the States allows me two international transactions per month for free. I can take 50,000 yen per withdrawal per day. Even when my bank does charge a fee on the 3rd transaction, it's only like $3 which is still better than paying the usurious rates at Community Bank (their dismal exchange rate would cost me an extra $10-12 or so for each $500 changed).

When I'm traveling around Japan, I use my NFCU Visa check card a lot. Note that EVERY Visa credit/debit card has a 1% fee on international transactions charged by the Visa company. Target Visa charges 3%, of which 1% is the Visa fee and 2% is Target padding their profits. I shredded my Target card when I learned that. NFCU Visa check card is only 0.75% which means they are actually eating 0.25% of the fee charged by Visa. I admire that they do that for their customers. The NFCU card gives a good exchange rate, better than you would get on base or at a hotel.

When I was doing the housing briefing, the lady said for large amounts of money (like house deposits) the best way was get travelers checks and then go to the Japanese Post Office and exchange it for yen. I don't know how true that is, but that is what she was telling people to do.

Thai Guy, The NFCU rate- is that only with the Visa Check card or does a lone credit card have the same?

Tirani,
Thats exactly how my wife pays our rent each month. You have to pay the fee at the bank for using travelers checks, but with how much you have to withdraw for rent out here, you more than make it back with how much better of a yen rate you get with travelers checks, vice cash...

Posted By Tirani on 27 May 2010 02:54 PM

Thai Guy, The NFCU rate- is that only with the Visa Check card or does a lone credit card have the same?

Visa assesses a 1% fee on international transactions for any card with their logo on it (credit or debit).  There's no getting out of the 1% fee.  What they do for this fee is absorb the cost & risk of currency exchange.  When they bill your bank, it's already in dollars.  So if banks like Target Bank add to the fee, it's bogus. They do no extra work whatsoever in the transaction, so they are just adding 2% for fun & profit.  I refuse to do business with any institution that engages in such an unmitigated rip-off.  Target is not the only one; google "international transaction fee" to see what other cards charge (I just did so and found that Capital One has no international fee.  However, I suspect there is an annual fee so it would offset.  NFCU has no annual fee.)

NFCU actually picks up a part of that 1% fee even though they have no obligation to do so.  Thus, the cost to you is 0.75%.  Not to mention a decent exchange rate.  I have only an NFCU Visa Check Card, which is what they call their debit card; it has the Visa logo on it. I don't carry their credit card.  Ironically, the NFCU card with the word "debit" written on it is not a debit card at all; it's their CUCard which can only be used in ATMs.  I find it very confusing the way they organize their cards; I wish they could get it down to a single card for credit/debit/ATM like most/many other banks do.

EDIT: I just looked over my NFCU statement and see they are charging 1% now on international transactions. Not sure when that changed, still that's basically the lowest fee you'll find.

Posted By Hoff on 27 May 2010 03:29 PM

Thats exactly how my wife pays our rent each month. You have to pay the fee at the bank for using travelers checks, but with how much you have to withdraw for rent out here, you more than make it back with how much better of a yen rate you get with travelers checks, vice cash...

Agreed; that's what I did when I live in Yokosuka.  However, the rent in Iwakuni is so much less that I can get all the cash I need by ATM.  My newish 3LDK apartment is 82,000 yen including parking & basic cable, so two ATM withdrawals gives me all I need for rent and utilities for the month.  An apartment like this in Yoko would be 2-3 times that, in which case I would do the traveler's check thing.

We just moved onto base about a month ago. When I lived off base, I researched the heck of what to do.

Yes, the Japanese POst office had better rates. I tried to go in there once to talk to them, but there is a HUGE language barrier there. No one speaks a word of English, and my little bit of Japanese didn't help.

I found though that whenever I need to exchange $ that it was a better rate to take the cash to the exchange $$ stores off base. NFCU charges 1% for travelers checks. When I factored that into the transaction, it was either a wash or I still came out slightly ahead with cash at the exchange money $$ stores off base in Yoko.

Either way, I never wanted to go into the Japanese Post Office again to deal with that hassle! Community Bank has an AWFUL exchange rate 99% of the time. The Japanese Post Office and the Banks adjust their exchange rate at noon. If for some reason the exchange rate for $$ -> yen fluctuates a lot lower than Community Bank is sometimes the better deal because they don't readjust their rate during the day. This happened to me once, but that definitely is a rare occurrence!

Going from Yen -> Dollars I would still use the Exchange Centers off base. When I made my first transaction there to pay rent, they gave me a coupon for a better exchange rate for Yen -> Dollars (sell). That came in handy when we had our security deposit and such that we got back from our landlord. We had a better rate than posted outside the store (which was a better posted rate than Community Bank) had.

Good luck!

If memory serves me, the AOB/ICR guy said window 5 at the big Post Office across from City Hall has an English speaking person. He said if you go up there, they'll just send all the American's to a certain window.

The directed me towards that window, but their version of a guy speaking English was a man having a sheet of paper with Japanese -> English translations on it. He would point to what he wanted to ask. It was crazy! It turns out that on that day, it would NOT have been a good deal anyway when I took into account the fee for the travelers check....

Maybe the person who spoke a little English was sick that day!

Oh boy, that does sound scary! LOL

If you ever have to change yen back to dollars, the best deal is sell it to someone on base. If the "official" rate is 92, you could sell it for 94 and you both come out ahead.

The best rate I've found is by taking cash out at the ATM at 7/11. At least in Iwakuni, they have machines with a good English-language menus. I get the going rate which is 2-3 yen better than what you get onbase. 7/11 ATMs charge NO service fee

Great info!

ThaiGuy, I have been using the Seven Eleven ATM's here in the Zama area and there is a 200 yen fee that is rolled up into the transaction. You pull out 10000 yen and the charge is 10200. It is a set amount, so not too bad if you are pulling out a large amount. I use a USAA ATM card that does not charge an ATM fee.

On that note, we were in Kyoto this summer and none of the 7 Eleven ATM's would take my USAA card. There was a sign in English near by that stated that as of Jan 2010 7 Eleven no longer honored foreign cards. I guess that was just the Kyoto area.

The best rate I have found is the Japanese Post Office, with no ATM fee, and they are usually 2-4 yen higher than Community Bank. It varies.

For me, the best rate is through Shinsei Bank. They loaned me money to buy a house here in Japan. They give me the platinum rate since I have a home loan with them. I have a Yen account and a dollar account there. I transfer as much as I can save in dollars from NFCU since they charge a flat rate of $25 for any wire transfer. I then change dollars online to Yen. I imagine, but don't know for sure, that anyone can open an account at Shinsei and get a better rate. Here are their exchange rates:
http://sre.shinseibank.com/Interest...te_EN.aspx

Posted By Zama Guy on 27 Oct 2010 10:19 AM
ThaiGuy, I have been using the Seven Eleven ATM's here in the Zama area and there is a 200 yen fee that is rolled up into the transaction. You pull out 10000 yen and the charge is 10200. 

Negatory, good buddy.  Maybe it depends on your bank. As you can see in the attached receipt, there is no 200 yen fee when I withdraw.  Furthermore, my credit union charges no fee for my first 2 withdrawals each month. Although the ATM pre-set withdrawals only go up to 50,000 yen, you can see that I withdrew 80,000 in a single transaction by manually entering the amount at the ATM.

I've done this in Iwakuni, Sasebo, Fukuoka, Kyoto & Yokosuka (7/11 in the Honcho).

Besides that, 7/11 gives a good exchange rate, about 2 yen higher than Community Bank which at today's rates gives me a 2.5% advantage.  There is a 1% international fee cuz my card has a Visa logo; I can't find any way around that. But all things considered, my method of currency exchange is better than anything else I've read about on JB.

Posted By IkegoMom on 27 Oct 2010 11:18 AM
The best rate I have found is the Japanese Post Office, with no ATM fee, and they are usually 2-4 yen higher than Community Bank. It varies.

Yo mom, how do you exchange money in the PO?  Do you need traveler's checks, or will they take cash?  Do you know if all post offices do this, or just the larger ones?  I'm intrigued.

Negatory, good buddy.  Maybe it depends on your bank. As you can see in the attached receipt, there is no 200 yen fee when I withdraw. 

Alright, you win.

http://www.sevenbank.co.jp/intlcard/index2.html

This is posted at the bottom of their website, so I guess it pretty much depends on your card.

Do you wonder if your bank or credit cards can be used in ATMs in Japan?
You can withdraw money with your cards by day and by night at more than 16,000 ATMs installed in Seven-Eleven Stores all over Japan.
Please use our ATMs during your stay in Japan.

I bank with Ally bank

http://www.sevenbank.co.jp/intlcard/index2.html

This is posted at the bottom of their website, so I guess it pretty much depends on your card.

Do you wonder if your bank or credit cards can be used in ATMs in Japan?
You can withdraw money with your cards by day and by night at more than 16,000 ATMs installed in Seven-Eleven Stores all over Japan.
Please use our ATMs during your stay in Japan.

I bank with Ally bank

BTW, although I use the 7-11 ATM exclusively to withdraw yen, there are parts of Japan with no 7-11 stores. My wife & I went to Shikoku Island and I didn't bring much yen with me; figured I'd just get it at 7-11. Guess what? I couldn't find any! I found out later the corporate HQ for Lawson was in the area and they had pretty much all the konbini. I was really stuck but luckily I remembered a discussion from JB.com about this and was able to get yen at a post office just before they closed for the weekend. It saved our bacon.