Need advice on exchanging money

[Omaki]

So I have allotted 1-1.5k for spending money for my trip to Japan next month. I will be in Japan for 8 days. Should I get it all exchanged at at once when I arrive at narita airport or do it in increments of say $500? Also Will I be losing a lot of money when I exchange unused Yen back to USD?

[Kanji_The_Wanderer]

I would recommend doing what you said; exchange in increments. It would be best to change less USD into Yen so you don't have to change it back. Since Yen is actually worth more then dollars you will be losing money, and I am sure that you do not want that. So instead of changing more then you need, make it less. Then if you require more after, just go and change it.

I am not sure how to exchange currency though, since I have never traveled anywhere that doesn't use American money. Maybe you can do this at a bank or in an airport?

[chachava]

Originally Posted by Omaki

Also Will I be losing a lot of money when I exchange unused Yen back to USD?

maybe, maybe not... the yen is getting stronger and the dollar weaker so it could be pretty favourable for you when you change back if it continues

However, on the downside... your money will be worth less when you change it to yen (down to about 98yen per dollar now I think which is pretty shocking!)

[Tyrien]

Originally Posted by chachava

maybe, maybe not... the yen is getting stronger and the dollar weaker so it could be pretty favourable for you when you change back if it continues

However, on the downside... your money will be worth less when you change it to yen (down to about 98yen per dollar now I think which is pretty shocking!)

Remember that just about any bank you do the exchange with you have to pay a % on top. It's never a direct conversion.

Example: Changing USD to CND or CND to USD it costs 4% of what you're exchanging.

[kyo_9]

how about the currency now? is it still the same where Yen is stronger than dollar?

[chachava]

Originally Posted by Tyrien

Remember that just about any bank you do the exchange with you have to pay a % on top. It's never a direct conversion.

Example: Changing USD to CND or CND to USD it costs 4% of what you're exchanging.

Simple solution is to visit places like travelex (or the post office in UK) which have 0% commission rate...

[chachava]

Originally Posted by kyo_9

how about the currency now? is it still the same where Yen is stronger than dollar?

the dollar is worth less than the paper it's printed on - monopoly money is worth more right now lol

[aikochan86]

I'm having a similar problem. I'm going for 2 months and have decided to just use ATMs and take out big chunks of money at a time. The fees will suck but I can't really escape fees and I guess I'll have the convenience of using an ATM.

I'm going to need quite a bit of cash at the very start though and want to get it changed soon. Right now one Aussie dollar is only 88yen! I want to wait for it to get better but hope it doesn't get worse!

And to think it was 106 a few months ago.

[Gabcom]

Originally Posted by aikochan86

I'm having a similar problem. I'm going for 2 months and have decided to just use ATMs and take out big chunks of money at a time. The fees will suck but I can't really escape fees and I guess I'll have the convenience of using an ATM.

I'm going to need quite a bit of cash at the very start though and want to get it changed soon. Right now one Aussie dollar is only 88yen! I want to wait for it to get better but hope it doesn't get worse!

And to think it was 106 a few months ago.

Wow, I remember when it was worth about 100Yen, but failed to notice it fall down .
BTW, when are you going, aikochan86?


I was planning to convert increments of about A$500, and convert more if I have to, but I'd also like to find out some other options that may be available, and what you may think of it.

[aikochan86]

I'm leaving on the 28th of March and come back on the 25th of May.

I’ve decided against travellers cheques because I think they’re going to be too inconvenient.

I had a look at the account fees for withdrawing money from my NAB account. It will cost $4 per transaction plus 2% of the amount I’m taking out for the currency exchange fee. The maximum amount I’ll be able to withdraw is $5000 because that’s all I’ll have and so that will be $100 over the whole trip. As for the $4 transaction fees, I’ll just have to take out large amounts and this wont be a problem when I’m with host families and can keep my money at home.

I was worried about compatibility so looked into that too and found this:

“The big exceptions are the ATMs found at the over 20,000 post offices and over 10,000 7-Eleven convenience stores across the country. These ATMs allow you to withdraw cash by credit and debit cards issued outside of Japan, including Visa, Plus, Mastercard, Maestro, Cirrus, American Express and JCB cards and provide an English user menu.”

So it looks like I won’t have a problem with cards. I think I might keep one card with my passport and the other in my wallet so that way I’ll have a back up if anything happens. Internet access is everywhere and I can transfer from one account to the other so it doesn’t matter which card I use.

That's how I've decided to deal with it and I'll just have to keep an eye on exchange rates. If the exchange rate gets too bad then it will only become a problem for me in the last week or so of my trip as I'll be running low on cash by then. At that point I can either head home early or ask my bf/parents to lend me a couple of hundred dollars to tide me over.

There are travellers atm card things that you can get but they also have fees and are not 100% reliable.