I’ve been trying to think of ways to better split bills and small expenses with my housemate. At this point we go to the atm on the weekend when they’re off of work and swap a bunch of cash and then go to the convenience store to pay bills.
We try to evenly switch off for daily purchases like toilet paper, shared groceries, etc, but since my housemate basically gets home from work way after everything but the convenience store closes and doesn’t have time for shopping, if we run out during the week I’m the one picking up all of the little house expenses and I feel like a nag having to keep track of things and asking for a couple hundred yen at a time to split costs.
I keep thinking “aw man I wish we could just use like Venmo and send little invoices to each other for bills/purchases and pay exactly how much we owe.” Then I thought about paypay, but we both only have US Apple/google accounts and paypay is a Japan only app.
Are there any apps that work with Japanese banks available that aren’t region locked? Or any other suggestions to make payments more efficient?
If it helps, we both have JP bank accounts, but my housemate also has a MUFG account where their paychecks are sent. They basically only pay rent from their JP account.
8 comments
Why don’t you just… (crazy idea incoming)… take the 30 seconds to make a Japanese Apple ID and just download it that way…?
How about a Wise account? Your jp balance can receive and send in JPY and you can transfer from and to your bank.
Revolut
Why don’t you just change the region of your appleID/App Store? I think there is no such thing as a US apple account.
My husband and I keep our finances separate. At the end of every month he tells me how much my share of the household expenses are and I do a money transfer to his bank account. When we go shopping together we split the payment. If we go shopping separately we tell each other what the other’s share is and reimburse it.
Use Splitwise and stop exchange cash. Or do it just when the balance is too much.
Me and my friends use [tricount](https://www.tricount.com/en/) to keep track of our expenses. It automatically calculates how much everyone owes after you input it, so you can wait until the end of a term before you reimburse. Pretty handy.
OP I appreciate your question here; it’s led to some good advice. Thank you for taking the time to put it together and post