I have a
1. Rakuten credit card and
2. Shinsei GAICA debit card connected to my Shinsei bank account.
Rakuten card works for all online purchases but it has 100k max and monthly 40-50k gets full easily because it’s used for monthly utilities bills.
Shinsei GAICA is really nice with how fast it can be charged from bank account completely free and instantly. But it’s a hit or miss (works in Japan most of the time but mostly denied outside Japan).
For example, I want to buy stuff from iHerb but it wouldn’t recognize GAICA. Now I have to go to konbini to pay like some uncivilized peasant. I’m thinking about getting a different debit card that works like GAICA(instant charge from bank account) and also works for most foreign online shops. What card should I get? (I’m okay with changing banks if that’s what it takes).
8 comments
I am able to use my UFJ debit card in iherb and other international sites.
Wise or Revolut.
most merchants outside Japan require 3d secure / mc securecode to use cards. gaica happens to not support it:
GAICAは、本人認証サービス（3Dセキュア）対象外のカードです。
Yucho debit card supports this and is funded from your bank account directly. only issue is actually getting one.
My other recommendation is d-card prepaid (you do need to load it, but you can load with cash or with another cc). It has 3D secure and I’ve used it internationally – mostly amazon.com, but also random ticket/etc booking sites.
I use gaica for PayPal and than use paypal for iherb
Sony Bank has an international Visa debit card.
I would just get a second credit card.
Once you’ve had one card for a while and paid it off on time monthly, your creditworthiness will go up and the next card will have a higher limit. It’s also always good to have a backup card on a second brand, since outages or shops only accepting one brand do happen (recently DMM made the news by dropping MasterCard… meanwhile Costco ONLY accepts MasterCard)
Have you tried calling Rakuten and requesting to have your limit raised?
I use JCB debit card. It came with my Mizuho bank account that I opened when I first came to Japan. It’s what I use with iherb and other sites that accept JCB.