AUD to JPY in Australia or Japan?

Is it better to change AUD to JPY in Melbourne Australia or in Osaka Japan or anywhere else in Japan?

I heard that the exchange rate in Japan is awful compared to Australian money changers such as NationwideFX. Today's rate from NationnwideFX is 1AUD=56JPY. I checked Narita Airports rate from a website and it shows that today's rate is 1AUD=47.43JPY which is terrible and more that 10% worst.

Does anyone have a clue if the money changers in Osaka have similarly awful rates or are they better off?

Should i change my money in Australia or in Japan?

Sorry mate. The australian exchange rate is absolutely terrible compared to the yen right now. Best bet is to change it over at a bank before you come to Japan. Or find out if you can use your ATM card overseas. You might be able to use the ATMs at 7-11 and citibank. These will give you up to minute exchange rates.... Don't change at the airport, they are a ripoff.

use google and type the amount in dollars to yen and vice versa. You'll find out easily that way.

I ordered money through Commonwealth bank before I left so I had a bit of cash when I got there and they offered pretty good rates at the time I went. Then I just used my ATM card to withdraw cash over there. Much easier than taking over lots of cash.

Commonwealth Bank only charges $5.00 plus 1.5% per transaction for overseas ATM's (well they did in Feb last year), I found them the best. I also have an ANZ card and they charge $5.00 plus 2.5% per transaction so it's a bit more.

Lets hope the Aussie dollar improves quickly it's terrible!!!

I found Australia Post had pretty reasonable exchange rates and low fees (as long as you don't mind waiting a day or so). In general it seemed best to exchange in Australia, but definitely shop around. Beware of using credit cards in Japan as they usually charge exhorbitant fees on top of rather poor exchange rate. If you're going for any length of time you won't want to carry that much cash around, so won't have any alternative but to change in Japan. In which case ATM might be best bet. But make sure you can use your card there - many Aus. ATM cards will not work there.

You should convert you money in Australia now, the yen is 1aud to 63 Yen, but has started to go down again. I dont think it will be this high for a while again. Please buy up now.
I got mine through travelex only, but after their taxes it still only ends up at 61 Yen - but much better than the forties!

I have just been back from my trip to Japan as fortunately for me, i changed all my Australian dollars to Japanese Yen in Melbourne from United Currency before i left to Japan because as predicted, exchanging foreign currency in Japan in like entering a slaughter house because the rates are 10% more disadvantage. Hope this helps anyone who has a similar question in mind.

ive done quite abit of research on this myself. I, living in Sydney, found that Westpac, out of the banks, offers the highest cash exchange rate. On the day i researched, it was 58yen with $8 commission. Comm bank offered 57yen with $10 commission and travelex(HSBC) offered 54yen with 1.5% comission. These rates were in Sydney CBD area and only deal with cash rates as i said. However, i was lucky enough to find a flight centre outlet which offered NO COMMISSION fees at all as well as a whopping 60yen rate.

The other thing i did, since its dangerous to carry too much cash was investigate atm conversion rates. I have a westpac and HSBC bank account and found that westpac charges a 2.5% conversion rate + $5 for atm withdrawals and use the CASH exchange rate(which is lower than the TT exchange rate) while HSBC charged $4.50 + 1.1% of the atm withdrawal amount and used a TT rate.

So in summary, Westpac for cash exchanges(unless you find that flight centre outlet which is in george street next to HCF centre), and HSBC for atm withdrawals is my recommendation. Oh and dont exchange in japan yea.

Cheers

If you live in Sydney,go to
the KVB Kunlun on park street in the city. It's famous place to exchange cash for Japanese. They change the rate timely, but the rate is always good. Today is 62yen!

hi babyship, thanks for that. will definately go there before i leave!

I've done a bit of research on this over the years for various destinations (Japan included). So far the best place I've found is actually travelex - they allow you to order your money online and pay no commissions. Your can select your pickup as either your local travelex office or the airport as you leave(although beware here as when I last went though Sydney, the pick up place was on the other side of customs and I had a mad frantic time trying to get my cash while my flight was being called). They used to allow you to order by credit card and then pay in cash on pickup, but now i think its all done via bpay. I just did a quick check since I'm heading to NZ in a month and out of travelex and Commonwealth, St George and ANZ they had the best rate as well as no commission. Still not sure that you won't get a better exchange in your country of origin (depending on where you are going) but for exchanging in Aus - definately the way to go!!!

I'd say convert the in Australia. It's hard to find money changer in JaPan, not to mention really low rate. I'm with suncorp and fond that withdrawing mone from JP atm gave me good rates too. And i guess depending on your bank you can use CC for your puchases. I found the rate is also good.