I’ll be a uni student in Japan starting October. In light of how much the JPY has depreciated recently, I decided to exchange and store yen in a Wise account until I have a Japanese bank account set up.
I’m planning to close my local bank account before the move but I realized I may not be able to get a debit card as soon as I get to Japan.
So my question is: if I get the Wise card here in Europe, would I still be able to pay on most Japanese sites with it once in Japan, and would the fee-free ATM withdrawal limits for use abroad still apply?
5 comments
Wrong thinking. Get a credit card with zero foreign transaction fees instead.
I am using it until I open a bank account here and it works really well. I converted my money (EUR) to Yen and the exchange rate is one of the best I’ve ever seen. They do charge you a fee but it is very small. I pay with it here and they don’t charge anything if you pay with JPY.
I have also withdrawn cash in 7 eleven and the fee from 7 eleven’s ATM is 110¥ for every 10,000¥.
To cover what hasn’t already been covered:
Yes, Japan is a foreign country where the fee-free withdrawal limits still apply. You’ll need to take into account that fee on top of what the ATM charges you if you need to withdraw a lot of cash.
Where you’ll bump into issues is that some Japanese websites are OK with foreign Visa/MasterCard cards, but a lot are not. *However*, this one is easy to resolve- Cocokara Fine (major local drugstore chain) point cards have a prepaid Visa function on them, and you do *not* need an ID or a Japanese mobile phone to sign up. You can get that on day 1, deposit cash to it, and use it on any Japanese website that’s not a recurring bill like mobile phone service.
I have used my European Wise card in Japan without problems. However take into account that is not a normal debit card, you first need to put money on it on the currency you want. But I think in your case it’s not a problem since you will close your normal bank account and I guess you will move some money to your Wise one. Put it in yen directly and you will be good to go 🙂
> I decided to exchange and store yen in a Wise account
https://wise.com/jp/terms-of-use-multi-currency-english#section-9
> Based on the laws and regulations related to the Fund Transfer Business, the user shall not hold funds in own Wise Account that are deemed not to be used for payment transactions under the services related to the Type 2 Funds Transfer Service provided by the Company.
Short version: You can’t use Wise as a bank. You can only use it for short-term transfer or transaction. Can’t park money there for any kind of extended period.