Exchanging for Yen
 

Is it better to exchange money at a bank before you go to Japan or when you are actually in Japan at the airport or something? (I'm in New Zealand if thats relevant)

At first I thought it would be better to exchange it at a local bank, but I remembered that there is a cost when getting foreign money, but no fee for changing it back because the bank wants more foreign money, so would that be the same for japan?

I don't know anything about that, but my logic tells me that there's no difference with the exchange rates no matter where you are in the world, unless someone is blatantly trying to rip you off. Just change your money before you go. Besides, even if you're fluent in Japanese, it's always easier to speak to a banker in your own language right? ¦3

Edit: Oh, the thing about the fee for exchange. If it costs nothing to exchange money in Japan, then by all means, don't let yourself get charged for that. Then, as you said, just change it back free of charge when you get back.

I would take Tenchu's advice, he seems to know what he's talking about. I was just making an educated guess. Whatever is the cheapest and hassle-free, do it XD

Thanks for all the responses

Haha, I'm taking nowhere near $10,000NZ

Do it before you leave, and do it soon.

The yen is getting stronger and stronger. The sooner you exchange the better.

Also, the margins they charge here in Japan are outrageous. You'll do much better at a bank at home I suspect.

i claim that the JPY is rising against a good many currency.

JPY<->THB
JPY<->USD
JPY<->EUR
JPY<->NZD

now, whether or not it will appreciate or depreciate in the near future or before when ever u will go.......i would be a very rich man if i knew that.

now to the question of the poster: i don't specifically know compared to rates in NZ, but japan is usually not a very good country to exchange money in. (as already pointed out by wasabista, but i needed an excuse to post)

don't ppl think nowadays before the opening their mouth.

Yes, Japan is officially in recession. Strangely, though, it seems most everyone else is suffering worse, so the yen is quite strong nowadays. In fact, it's holding up better than the Swiss franc.

My experience in Japan was that the rate is better if you exchange in Japan than in your country because the Yen in your country have to come there first. Also the rate at the airport is not bad at all, definetly not under the Banks in the city.

pls be kind and explain why it is better to buy than to sell a currency for a private individual? i would love to hear this.

based to 50 % upon the american consumer? strange, since the japanese trade only stand for 15.5 % of its GDP and less than 20 % of its trade is with the US. now u did say american so i guess we can add all other "american citizens". however trade with the other american countries is not very great.

the yen is falling u say. i'm sry if four examples weren't enough. i'll give u a couple more, pls let me know if u require more to understand that the JPY has not fallen.

JPY<->CAD
JPY<->GBP
JPY<->HKD
JPY<->KRW
JPY<->CHF

I wouldn't advice you to exchange money in the bank they take loads of money from you, if I was you I would exchange my money or in the post office or then in Japan, maybe at the airpor:vsign:

Tenchu, can you discuss ANY topic at all without getting insulting? I should remember to stick to my decisions when i decide to ignore someone.

The yen was as high as $1.07 a couple of days ago. The trend has been strictly endaka since the collapse of Bretton Woods and has been accelerating recently.

Recession and currency moves are two different things. I can explain further if anyone's interested, but the info is readily available on the interwebs.

The chart below extends to 2007 and does not include the yen's recent rise.

tenchu, that is a fantastic bank u got there.
i will let the bank (bank of siam) buy my 1 AUD and get 30 THB. then i will let the bank sell me AUD, i will hand over my previously exchanged 30 THB and get voila 1 1/14 AUD back. this i will do over and over again, until i am a very rich man. arbitrage worthy of its name.

kind of reminds me of the first thing i learnt to program in basic.

10 print "rich man"
20 repeat 10
run

come to think of it, i don't remember basic very well, so i might be remembering it incorrectly. were u supposed to write "30 run" or?

Thank you very much, thats what i meant. Bassicly you´ll always get more for selling your own money to a bank in a foreign country than when buying foreign money in your own countries bank. Up till now that worked in most places. I must say that selling weak currencies after you come home might not work so well, that happend for example with the leftover thai baht when i came back to Germany. But if you have the Euro or Dollar youll be fine anywhere finding a good exchange rate. In China and Southamerika you will even get better rates than official if you sell privatly.

Cheers

Okay here's a f'rinstance of what I'm talking about.
I just returned to Thailand from Japan today. At Narita I was offered this rate:
1 baht = ¥3.15
At Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok I exchanged at this rate:
¥1 = 0.3621
Inverting this, we get:
1/.3621 = 2.762

So one baht would have cost me ¥3.15 if I'd bought in Japan, but I waited till I got to Bangkok and paid only ¥2.76 for the same one baht.

So change your money before you arrive in Japan, not after.

edit: not aimed at u wasabita

i am afraid u got a wee bit wrong.
u don't get more money either way. let's take the rates posted by tenchu.

when the bank (or if its a financial institute or exchange bureau) buys USD from you, you will get 33.3456 TBH for every one (1) USD they r buying from u.

when they bank sells USD to you, you will have to pay 33.6911 TBH for each USD you buy.

I fail to see how u get more money either way. now, in some countries there is better competition among "currency exchanging companies", which usually gives u better rates compared to currency exchanging companies" in other countries. that's why it might be better to exchange money in for instance ghana then in peru. but that says nothing of it being better to buy or sell. think of it more as an exchange, hence "foreign exchange", "forex", or "FX". on very rudimentary way of comparing exchage rates between different banks is to look at the "spread", the difference between "buy" and "sell". the bigger spread is, the worse rate for u as a customer. this can be done even with different base currency, however, remember to re-calculate!

more on forex

any future replies by me in this thread will be done as updates in this post since i don't want to put this post on the first page every time i am answering in it.

firebird>>
because u have two (2) rates, one for sell and one for buy. wasabita brought up one of them, if u want to do the opposite, which u r referring to, u have to look at the other rate, which will be different. therefore u can't make the assumption u did.

example: wasabita sold yen, lets call this the sell rate. this means that if u want to buy yen, u will exchange money according to the buy rate, which is not the same as the sell rate. note "spread". only top-traders gets to trade at a practical "no-spread" rate.

wasabita>>
a man of many trades i see :)

??? you got better money selling your yen in Thailand than if you wouldve bought Baht in Japan, right? So why are you suggesting that one should buy yen in their homecountry if they will also get a better rate in Japan???
I think what you are talkign about is changing back.... Because youd better sell the yen in your country than buying USD or euro or whatever inside Japan.

So ill still stick to: change your money in the country of your choice and not at home! There might be one exception wich is: The exchangerates are changing rapidly now, so if you feel that the rate is very good for you now, than you should exchange at home.

One of my only skills! ;)

Firebird, I'll see how it works when I go to Canada. But I suspect there's more competition there than in Japan, so the result will be similar. Anyway, yes, change your money at the destination, not in Japan.

Hehe i thought of Japan as the destination as the thread-opener wanted to know if it would be better to change money in NZ (buy yen in NZ) or get the yen after arriving in Japan. So we bassicly meant the same but got mixed up somewhere on the way ^^

For any short, slow moving financial period you will never make any profit as the banks have that covered.
Even at the best buy rate and the best sell rate you will loose out.

The only exception is if there is a massive change in value while you have the dominant currency.

There is no money to be made by the casual traveler, you can only try to find the best rate. As many have pointed out, Japan does not have the best rates. Most if not all Japanese banks charge a massive fee that is calculated on the % of the held currency in relation to it's rate.

The best way to make your money go further is to use a direct debt card. You pay a rate set by the bank in your own country. Just hit a participating ATM in any country and you should get a fair rate.
Caution on this, as it is better to withdraw the limit, not just a few bucks as the transaction fee will be the same.