6 years ago I went to Japan and I took out money of my debit card by pinning out the cash at random 7/11’s.
However, since online payment apps exist now like LINE Pay, I wonder if it’s cheaper to just use that? I don’t know if I have to pay extra for each payment, because I never used this method of payment.
Because when I pinned out the money of my debit card in the past, I had to pay a few euros extra for taking money out of the bank in a foreign country each time.
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Mobile payments are free for user. just like most CC transactions (some CCs has annual membership fee). the merchants usually pay the transaction fee.
but when you charge the mobile payment you either going to use cash or via CC or bank transfer. I’m not sure if foreign CC allowed.
It depends on the bank/card provider, and how you withdraw.
For me, I never had to pay any fee for withdrawing from ATMs. But some cards will have fees. Even if your card doesn’t have fees, you might have to pay some if you don’t choose “no currency conversion”. If you don’t select this, the ATM will process the currency conversion, and often add a fee.
Check with your bank/card provider to see if they have any fees for payments/withdrawals abroad.
Really it depends on the exchange rate. If you pull a bunch of cash when exchange rate is highest, that will be the cheapest.
Do you earn a wage here in yen? If so, could you not use that first and then go into foreign savings? Could save you on transaction and exchange fees.
I used to top up the Suica on my iPhone with credit card and spend that way but they’ve blocked most foreign credit cards/debit cards from being able to top up using Apple Pay.
For me the conversion ends up cheaper for using the credit card rather than withdrawing in yen. Pretty much only ever have to use paper money to charge my Suica, either way.