For some inexplicable reason my school, Waseda, wants me to pay for next semester’s tuition with physical cash. I previously paid online, as you would at any other school in the world, but apparently now that I’m in Japan they want me to pay with cash. The tuition is roughly 500,000 yen, which normally isn’t that much, but I have no idea how I’m supposed to physically get half a million yen. I had to go to campus to get a slip of paper with some payment and routing info on it that I’m supposed to take to a bank along with the cash.
I tried going to a bank and asking if I could somehow pay with a card through them, but they said I needed a debit card from them or cash. My monthly credit card spending limit is over the USD equivalent of 500,000 yen, but I use it to pay for basically everything else including my rent, so I don’t want it to eat up a giant chunk of my limit. I also don’t want to accidentally trigger any flags on my card by trying to withdraw 50,000 yen 10 times from an ATM, which is the only way I know of getting physical yen.
This is one of the absolute worst parts of living here, so many things are incredibly inefficient and archaic but one time tourists will continue to rant about how futuristic and advanced Japan is. Also, tons of people I know from school are gone for the entire duration of spring break, what the hell are they supposed to do when they’re not physically in Japan to pay?
Edit: I remembered that 7-Eleven’s ATMs have a way higher per use withdrawal limit of 100,000 yen so I bit the bullet and went to one and just made 5 withdrawals. Apparently they have a daily withdrawal limit of 500,000 yen for individual cards so that was extremely close, but I always could have gone back the next day if I needed 600k or something. Again my problem isn’t with the Japanese bank, I understand that they couldn’t do anything, it’s with the fact that my school wants students to pay for tuition with physical cash.
Edit again. It’s not a bank transfer. My university literally told me this.
by Educational_Bet_7472