This might get long so I’m going to give you a breakdown of what I’ll be talking about: Today’s listed exchange rate, today’s Mastercard exchange rate, 2% currency conversion fee, adding this all up you’ll see my true conversion rate.
I know some people have been curious about the conversion rate when you withdrawal from an ATM using your Visa Debit Card or Mastercard Debit Card. MC and Visa are supposed to give you fair exchange rates from what I’ve heard. Today I used my Mastercard to withdrawl funds from my U.S. bank and here’s the breakdown of charges and rates.
Today’s USD to Yen rate from www.xe.com is
1 USD = 114. .735 JPY
The actual rate I received
1 USD = 114.23 JPY
Not bad! But then my bank charged me 1% to do the currency conversion and Mastercard (as well as Visa) charges a 1% fee. So if I withdrawal 11,000 Yen my account would reflect a $96.30 withdrawal amount, a bank fee of $0.96 and a Mastercard fee of $0.96. That means for 11,000 Yen I was actually hit for $98.22 and in reality if you include the 2% in fees my true exchange rate from the ATM resulted in 112Yen per $1 USD.
Is this a good deal? My true USD to Yen currency conversion comes to 112 Yen per dollar. The actual rate from xe.com is 114.735 Yen per 1 USD. This means I’m losing 2.735 per dollar I exchange. I would say that it’s a fair rate because at the banks and other places that do a far currency conversion charge between 1-3.5 Yen per dollar.
I’ve applied for a Capital One Money Market Account with an ATM card. Transferring funds electronically from my regular bank account to the Capital One account means there’s a delay in getting my money. However the issue you an ATM card with the PLUS logo which means you can use them at the ATM that takes that (usually the same as a Mastercard) BUT they take the 1% hit from Mastercard and they charge nothing. I’ll be saving 2%! This means a big savings! Only I’d be charged only 0.735 yen per dollar. Not bad! But I’ll write more on this later.
Today, November 3rd in Japan,$1 US Dollar will buy you:
Australia (dollar) 1.08
Canada (dollar) .93
China (yuan) 7.45
Europe (euro) 0.69
Great Britain (pound) 0.48
India (rupee) 39.32
Japan (yen) 114.70
Mexico (peso) 10.68
South Africa (rand) 6.55
Thailand (baht) 31.76
And of course don’t forget the Dollar Value Menu at McDonalds…. $1 plus tax. Doh!
Tags: currency conversion, currency exchange, exchange rate
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I do have questions regarding $$ and banking and what not. See I have bank accounts in the states with Bank of America I know they don’t have banks in Japan, what would be the best way to solve this situation if say my bf and I are going to need money? Should we just open bank accounts when we get to Japan or have the same one in the states and pay the fees and what not? Also since he’s in the military, do you know if they got some banking thing and what not? Thanks Steve
If I had to do it all over again I’d do it the same way I am now, mainly using my US bank card at the post office ATM.
Credit cards from the Bank of America charge you 2-3% per transaction. However for the actual bank card (ATM/Check/Debit Cards) when used at an ATM, you are charged 1% + $5 per transaction. If the max withdrawal from BoA is $500, then you’re charged about $10 total. (1% + $5).
You could open a bank account in Japan, but I’m not sure how it works if you’re getting paid in US dollars. Every time I exchange money at a bank to Yen it takes 15-20 minutes plus the time it takes to get there which is totally lame. So I choose to go to the 7-11 or Post Office and use their ATM machine.
I recommend opening a Capital One Money Market Account with an ATM card before you move. This online savings account is great. I’m never charged any ATM fees or currency conversion fees from this account.
Japan banks have lots of fees too. So if you’re using an ATM to withdrawal from your Japanese bank and it’s not M-F 8-5pm you could get charged $1 or something. And that’s on top of the fees you paid to exchange the money which is 2-3% at the bank, just like using an ATM. Whatever you choose, good luck!
I see, great Steve! I’ll look into Capital One and just might open one. Geeze…didn’t know they got all those charges, they’d stack up! Thanks again Steve I’ll look into Capital One
Actually I notice that Washington Mutual’s ATM card just charges 1% overseas transaction fee. I’m just wondering if the exchange rate that you get from oversea ATM are better than the rate from the banks in US.