I’ll be staying in Japan on a one year 3 month student visa beginning in a month and have been looking into phone carriers.
I plan to pay off my iPhone 14 Pro Max on my current US contract and bring it with me, since it covers pretty much all of the bands in Japan, but I’m having a hard time figuring out how to sign up for a carrier in Japan. I understand that you need a residence card, which is fine, but apparently Docomo won’t let you pay with a foreign credit card? Do I seriously need to open up a bank account in Japan just to pay for my phone bill?
I’d rather have a normal phone plan with a local number through Docomo or AU and not use a service like Sakura. The price isn’t a factor, I don’t really care how much it costs.
The few posts on this subject didn’t seem to resolve the question. I already have housing so I won’t have trouble getting an address on my residence card right away, but I still don’t know what to do about billing. I guess I’m okay with opening a bank account as long as I can set up automatic bank withdrawals through Docomo and don’t have to apply for a credit card just to pay my bill, that would be insane.
1 comment
This is a copy of your post for archive/search purposes.
—
**Phone carriers and billing**
I’ll be staying in Japan on a one year 3 month student visa beginning in a month and have been looking into phone carriers.
I plan to pay off my iPhone 14 Pro Max on my current US contract and bring it with me, since it covers pretty much all of the bands in Japan, but I’m having a hard time figuring out how to sign up for a carrier in Japan. I understand that you need a residence card, which is fine, but apparently Docomo won’t let you pay with a foreign credit card? Do I seriously need to open up a bank account in Japan just to pay for my phone bill?
I’d rather have a normal phone plan with a local number through Docomo or AU and not use a service like Sakura. The price isn’t a factor, I don’t really care how much it costs.
The few posts on this subject didn’t seem to resolve the question. I already have housing so I won’t have trouble getting an address on my residence card right away, but I still don’t know what to do about billing. I guess I’m okay with opening a bank account as long as I can set up automatic bank withdrawals through Docomo and don’t have to apply for a credit card just to pay my bill, that would be insane.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/movingtojapan) if you have any questions or concerns.*