What's new

Withdrawing from US banks from Japanese ATMs

Emoni

先輩
20 Sep 2003
1,768
67
63
I'm leaving for Japan again soon, this time possibly for good. One issue I'm running into is how to transfer money from my bank to Japan without getting ripped off with fees.

Previously, I used Citibank. I had my money in Citibank and could withdraw in Japan or other countries with only a 1% fee. Then they upped it to 3%... and kept making horrible mistakes akin to a 5th grader handling my money. (That's another story I won't go into here...) I really want to avoid using this sorry excuse for a bank if possible.

What are my options? Obviously a wire is possible, but that would be usually $30 or so for each wire, and I do not want to send all of my money at once. I'd prefer to hold back a bit right now since the exchange rate sucks.

What I am wondering about is what other methods might be possible. I heard from one friend who has money in Safe Credit Union, and used his ATM card to withdraw at the post office in Japan and only had a 1% fee at the ATM with no other charges. He said he could find no other indication of charges. I'm leery of this a bit, but I'll be checking into it for sure.

Mostly, I'm trying to hold on to what limited money I have and don't want to get hit with hidden charges. How have others here transferred money or used ATMs? What do you recommend?

Thanks.
 
Using the "convenience" of ATMs may not be your best option. You may want to consider using travelers checks. You can exchange them at a large post office branch in Japan and will get a better rate than if you were exchanging cash. And if you have a AAA membership, you can get the travelers' checks free of charge.

Not sure if that's the best way to go either, but worth looking into.
 
How about withdrawing from an ATM on a monthly basis?


Those at the post office and at 7i Holdings (711) work all the time.
 
Thanks for the info so far guys. Mostly I'm trying to find a sure-fire way that avoids any extra fees other than the typical conversion fee for withdrawing from an account from an ATM.
 
Here's what I found.

Golden One and Safe Credit Union charge 1% and a $1.50 fee per use of a none-credit union ATM. So this seems to be the best way so far internationally. Also, depending on your account you can wire money for free internationally from Golden One.
 
Back
Top Bottom