Tsutaya

[Harold]

Has anyone gone to TSUTAYA and used a foreign credit card there? It was the only place that my VISA was rejected, but it worked every else that I used it at.

[MMM]

That happened to me a video game store...not sure why.

[Keaton421]

I can't speak for Tsutaya, but I have problems with my Visa at ALL game stores. The clerk tried to explain it to me, but there's some kind of code in the register that rejects certain credit card numbers, and it's often Visas He mentioned something about shopping at stores other than the ones near where your card was issued to you

[MMM]

Originally Posted by Keaton421

I can't speak for Tsutaya, but I have problems with my Visa at ALL game stores. The clerk tried to explain it to me, but there's some kind of code in the register that rejects certain credit card numbers, and it's often Visas He mentioned something about shopping at stores other than the ones near where your card was issued to you

They got some weird rules over there sometimes.

[Nyororin]

There are multiple services that are used for accessing the Visa servers - and multiple servers that your card may be registered on. It depends on what bank your card is through...

In the case of foreign cards, a lot of the smaller but more prone to fraud type stores (game shops, small but easily resold things, etc) can`t afford to be in one of the higher protection card services... And instead will opt to go with the safest route - in other words, a service that only accepts cards that have been registered through certain banks.

The exact same thing happens when trying to use a Japanese card in the US/UK. My card is through a smaller bank, so ends up only working about 3/4s of the time... While my husband`s is through a huge bank and works I`d say 95% of the time.

It`s not an issue with Japanese rules, but a downfall of making the Visa system so decentralized.

[Harold]

Originally Posted by Nyororin

There are multiple services that are used for accessing the Visa servers - and multiple servers that your card may be registered on. It depends on what bank your card is through...

In the case of foreign cards, a lot of the smaller but more prone to fraud type stores (game shops, small but easily resold things, etc) can`t afford to be in one of the higher protection card services... And instead will opt to go with the safest route - in other words, a service that only accepts cards that have been registered through certain banks.

The exact same thing happens when trying to use a Japanese card in the US/UK. My card is through a smaller bank, so ends up only working about 3/4s of the time... While my husband`s is through a huge bank and works I`d say 95% of the time.

It`s not an issue with Japanese rules, but a downfall of making the Visa system so decentralized.

That does make sense, but this is TSUTAYA. I would think a store like this would serve foreign cards... especially a store that's in Okinawa.

Oh well. I did end up buying what I wanted in paper money that I had on me just in case my card got rejected. It really scared me for the next few days to not use my card in fear of it getting rejected again, but it turns out TSUTAYA was the only trouble maker.

[Nyororin]

It`s not really a matter of not accepting a foreign card...

My guess is that they were probably scammed multiple times, and the insurance rates went up to the point that they switched to a more strict service to handle card transactions...

It`s not the size of the store, but rather what they`re selling. Games, CDs, DVDs... These are all small items that are hard to trance and very easy to sell for a profit on the black market.