I was trying to withdraw money with my boa debit card
First I was able to insert my card and select the amount and everything and the transactions didn’t go through. Both mufg and 7/11. I got a message from my boa app asking if I recognize these transactions that didnt actually happen, and I said yes i did this. Then I went back to try again, now they dont even take my cards, saying that this card cannot be used. I tried mizuho, mufg and 7/11. All saying trying different cards. I need to pay my rent by tomorrow because i’m leaving to korea for a week for a family emergency. I’m not sure what to do, boa cs is keep telling me nothing is blocked or restricted on their end.
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9 comments
well, mizuho/mufg isn’t going to work in the first place. Try familymart/lawson ATMs as they might be a different atm network. I’m guessing your “boa card” whatever that is, is cirrus/plus card with the logo?
First off I’d calm down a bit. International banking is stressful, it’s best to be done in a calm manner because rash thinking can just make things worse.
Even if you end up late in paying your rent you almost certainly won’t be instantaneously evicted so the stakes are generally pretty low. If you can’t make anything work in time you can always let your landlord know what the issue is, that you are trying to get it resolved, and are fine paying whatever the penalty fee is. Most reasonable independent landlords will make an exception for a onetime problem with payment from a tenant who regularly pays their rent. If you happen to have more of a corporate landlord or management company they’ll probably be more familiar with payment problems and have set policies on how to deal with them.
Not knowing why all of the sudden your debit card isn’t working, I don’t have a good solution to your problem (other than try other non-bank ATM networks like others have said), but after this problem is resolved, I’d recommend taking the time to make sure you have at least 1 backup account with ~250,000 yen/$2k USD so you don’t feel the need to panic as much in the future.
Even though I responded yea on the app before, I have had bank block the card and had to call them, tell them where I was, and ask them to unblock/keep unblocked because I was in country x. Have you called them?
Are you sure you’re selecting the [credit] card option not the [debit] card option? Even if your card is a debit card you must select credit. Use a 7/11 and try again. If it fails, ring your o/s bank and get them to clear the card. It might have been blocked for suspicious usage.
I don’t know if this helps, but a long time ago when I’d come to Japan as a tourist, the only ATMs that would accept my foreign cards were the post office ATMs.
I have a US bank account that will only work through a 7-11 ATM, via the English menu. (I have no idea why…) There is an option to select a savings/checking account, which I don’t recall encountering when trying to withdraw via the Japanese menu.
Check your BOA app or website for an option that enables withdrawals in foreign countries. I am guessing this is the first time you are using your debit card outside US and your account is not enabled for foreign withdrawals.
Update: guys it worked!! I’m so happyðŸ˜
I went to yucho first and it didn’t work. So then I went to a family mart and it worked I had 100,000 yen withdrawn. But then after that it said I exceeded the daily maximum amount so I couldn’t withdraw anymore. I went to 7/11 to just make sure and it said the same thing no more for today. I’m gonna go again tmr and pay my rent I feel so relieved. Thanks everyone for the help!
Sometimes when you use the cash card to withdraw you need to invert the position, the chip in the card stay for your side, not inside the ATM… My PayPal card is this way, use the sim card for payment on kombini, and the reverse on ATM as cash card.