I’m not happy with Jpost bank. They don’t offer any english customer support and denied me a debit card even though I’ve lived in japan for 4 years already. I believe it’s time for me to switch to a different banking service.
Does anyone have a bank that offers really good customer support in english, or one that makes it easy to get a debit card? That’s all that really matters to me at this time.
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I don’t have a recommendation but I will say MUFG is bad, the reception lady was super racist and said foreigners cannot open an account there.
Don’t use debit cards, use credit cards instead.
A good bank for credit cards is SMBC
You can do everything online, head to their website.
PayPay Ginko will give you a debit card. Signing up for an account was a bit of a hassle for me but once I provided all of the documentation they needed I finally got an account. IDK if they have English language support, though.
Haven’t heard anything good about any of the big banks on here.
Most people here recommend online banks.
Personally I use SBI Net Bank, their app and service is good in my experience but it is in Japanese.
I have seen people recommend Sony bank but I have never used it.
Sony Bank.
* 2 in 1 cash card (ATM & Visa Debit)
* Easy Application Process in English
* PURELY online
* Several fee-waived withdrawals (both big bank and conbini ATMs) and bank transfers per month (scales depending on your savings amount)
* Can support multiply currencies.
Edited for misspell.
4 years and you don’t speak Japanese?
I don’t think your bank is the problem…
Shinsei used to be the go-to bank, but recently they’ve rolled back some of the services that made them great.
Rakuten Bank, Sony Bank, SBI Bank, GMO Aozora all reasonable online bank options.
I would also recommend trying out one of your local banks – Bank of Yokohama, Fukuoka, 77 bank, Chiba Bank, Saitama Resona, Yamanashi Chuo, Tokyo Star etc. A bit disappointing that you don’t speak much Japanese after four years, but I’ve found some of these smaller, local banks to be far better in terms of customer service, with solid online banking options as well.
I got my SMBC account and debit card last month through the app (It’s a separated app only for account opening. It’s in Japanese. But I don’t know if it has English version). The card was mailed to my place. I haven’t gone to the branch, so I don’t know about customer support. The debit card supports iD and I use it everyday without problems. The bank app is in English.
Edit: I have Shinsei bank account too but most of the services (utilities, mobile) do not support direct debit for this bank. That’s why I got SMBC.
I recently opened a 7-eleven bank account with a debit card and that was really easy to get and they have (I think, I haven’t needed to use it) good English support. Plus 7-eleven’s are everywhere so their ATM’s are very accessible!
WTF? You couldn’t even get a DEBIT card???
You can keep the bank I guess and just order the rakuten card.
SBI Shinsei or SMBC
Prestia. Everything in English.
I’m with Shinsei, it’s mostly fine- free withdrawals at 7-11 and the ATM at the supermarket near me, prepaid debit card, English internet banking. Can’t use it for paying for services like my phone so I set up a JP Bank account just for that. I couldn’t make a withdrawal in Okinawa at Lawson with my Shinsei card but that was years ago so no idea if it works now.
Oh and my gaica card doesn’t work with patreon or Google. The latter I just buy prepaid cards for, but haven’t figured out a way around the former yet. I guess I’ll have to cave in and get a Rakuten card or whatever…
Rakuten are decent and will give a card to anyone with a pulse in my experience, but they don’t really have any English support. I’d recommend them, but mainly if you’re already in the Rakuten ecosystem and would use the points.
With Rakuten you always have the option of just getting the credit card and linking it to your JP bank too.
Otherwise, I hear Sony Bank are good. My fiancee uses and recommends SBI, but I think they’re only in Japanese too.