daily limit for atm withdrawl?

is there a limit for the amount of money you can withdrawl from a japanese atm daily?

i bumped my debit card daily withdrawl limit up to $1000 but it wouldn't really matter if the atms in japan limit you to say 30,000 yen daily.

do different atms offer different exchange rates or is it soley based of your bank?

i read on the forum that when you purchase international postal money orderyou have to let them know at the time what currency you want it in, locking in the exchnage rate amount you get.

is this correct? because i assumed that hte money orders are cash and you get what ever exchange rate the japan post office is offering?


thanks

is there a limit for the amount of money you can withdrawl from a japanese atm daily?

Most atms (postal and convenience store) allow you to withdraw up to 500,000 yen at a time.

do different atms offer different exchange rates or is it soley based of your bank?

I believe the rate is determined by the atm that you withdraw from. However your US bank may also apply a 3% foreign transaction fee on the withdrawal. For example BofA does but Citibank may not when using a Japanese Citibank atm.

i read on the forum that when you purchase international postal money orderyou have to let them know at the time what currency you want it in, locking in the exchnage rate amount you get.

is this correct? because i assumed that hte money orders are cash and you get what ever exchange rate the japan post office is offering?

Yes, you are locked in at the time of purchase. Japanese post offices will only cash yen denomination international postal money orders.

is there a limit for the amount of money you can withdrawl from a japanese atm daily?

No. But there is a limit per withdrawl, which I believe is usually 1,000,000 yen.

If you cannot withdraw beyond a certain amount, it is most likely not due to the ATM's limits, but due to your card's limits. Note that oversea limits are often lower than domestic limits. Furthermore, mind the time zones. Two different days in Japan can sometimes fall into the same date with respect to your home country's time zone.

I believe the exchange rate from yen to whatever your currency is would be decided by your bank. The Japanese ATM gives you yen and then the charge appears on your bank card statement - it is usually close to the daily market rate (before any foreign currency charges). That's been my experience with a US ATM card at least....

Maranyc...thats what im trying to figure out right now actually. the guy on teh website above said he gets market rate minus the $5 charge with wells, no 1-3% transaction fee, but when i called wells they told me i would get their 1 dollar to 77 yen crappy rate they offer on their foreign exchange website.

i def dont want to do the atm thing if it ends up that id be getting a worse exchange rate..


so confused...

I am under the impression that an ATM withdrawal is still the best bet - I don't pay a fee and only 1% for foreign currency exchange with my card.
If you exchange money as in $ for I believe you get a retail rate which will be worse than your ATM card rate....
Right now the $/ exchange is not in the favor of people from the US....

I did an in depth calculation on another thread the other day on what provided the best rates. I found that recent bank rule changes (that took effect after that blog post was published) mean that some people now pay transaction fees on international atm withdrawals which make the atms far less attractive than they used to be. You have to check with your specific bank because varies between 0-3%.

The cash exchange rate at Narita is usually very good (although the other day it was a few points worse than normal for some reason), however their TC rate is excellent. So for most people this may be the best way to currently exchange USD to yen.

Chowdig,

If wells is telling you that you will get the cash rate than that is what I would assume is correct. I wouldn't count on the blog being current anymore as its over a year old and a lot has happened in bank fee restructuring in that time.

If this is the case, and if you can get free TC, then get the bulk of your cash in USD denomination TC and exchange them for yen at Narita. It ends up being about a 1% "fee" which is excellent. You can always use your atm card and credit cards as backup.

true..ill have to think about that especially since i can get traveler checks for free.

i did post teh questoin on teh guys blog and he did respond yesterday saying it is still teh same for him over there right now.

ATMs are an easy way to get money IF your card works in them.

The first year we went to Japan, our card wouldn't work in any ATMs that didn't ask the question as to the type of account. Ours was a checking account, but because the question wasn't asked it defaulted to savings and would not let us into the account.

You can have some problems with ATMs depending on your bank and country you are coming from, and sometimes it's hard to know for sure until you get there and try it! I would, however, suggest checking with your bank to see if there are any particular ATMs they recommend in Japan... they may or may not be able to give you sound advice on that.

Having said all that, there are plenty of Citibank ATMs in Japan, and even if you do not have a Citibank Card, your ATM card is still more likely to work in Citibank ATMs than any others.

I would suggest talking to Citibank to find out where their ATMs are in areas where you will be. That way, if your card doesn't work in just any old ATM, you can always go to a Citibank ATM and it will probably work.

Japan Post ATMs, Citibank ATMs are well established known atms that work with international cards.

7-11 Convenience store atms work with many and some cards also work with Shinsei Bank ATMs.

If you have more then one bank account the card will usually go to the "primary" account linked to the card (at least for Bank of America cards).

I've taken money from ATMs in Europe and Japan and never had them ask for the type of account. My primary account is checking. I have gotten from the Post Offices, 7 Elevens and ATMs at the airport - not sure what bank it was. Actually can't say I've noticed Citibank in Japan.
I always call my bank before I travel to let them know.....

Just noticed in my posts above that instead of the yen sign that came up when I typed my post a slash came up - interestingly as I typed the slash here a -yen sign came up - I don't know how it will post here as there is no preview function - hope I didn't confuse anyone. From now on I'll write out yen....

i was able to raise my daily limit to $1500 and the guy on his blog said that he pulled money from his wells account from an post office atm as close as august 2010.

ive decided to not go with TCs and just pull out money from post office atms when i need to since my daily limit is so high.


ill let you all know how it goes.