Adventurasia Community

In a cash-based society such as Japan, having easy access to your savings is extremely important. The majority of businesses that you may encounter on a day-to-day basis still do not accept credit cards, debit cards, or personal cheques. So if you walk into a electronics store, it’s not uncommon to see people pay for a new laptop / computer / video camera etc… in cash. I know I’ve done it. Japan is generally safe, so you can generally feel safe in carrying large sums of money without fear of being mugged or something. However, in Japan, and Tokyo especially, it’s so easy to spend money, that unless you have extremely good money saving habits, I wouldn’t recommend carrying around more than you need.

What surprises me is that it’s only been recently (the last 2-3 years) that we’ve been able to access our savings 24 hours a day. Unfortunately, at least in Tokyo, this still is not a widespread phenomena, usually you have to go to one of the major districts in order to find a branch that offers 24 hour access to their ATM machine. Luckily, starting from last year, some of the major convenience store chains have installed ATM machines that allow you 24 hour access to certain bank accounts.

I still remember my first year here when I had to work some weekends. I didn’t have a chance to go to the bank/ATM machine to withdraw money. And by the time I was ready to leave, the ATM machines would all be closed. So some days I only had a couple dollars to survive on - basically enough to cover my train ride to/from work. On one occasion I was just able to scrape enough change together from my coin jar to pay for a one-way ticket to work.I’m a bit smarter now that I make sure that I have at least an extra 1000 yen (10$) lying around in case I need it.

It was also during my first year in Japan that I had decided to cancel my credit card from back home. At the time, I had thought that the currency exchange rates used by the credit card company + the method of paying the balance each month from outside my home country, would be a major pain. This was fine for awhile, except that recently I’ve been wanting to make purchases online, and I can’t, short of borrowing someone’s credit card. So in some cases, I’ve had to mail a money order to make a purchase, and these aren’t cheap as you have to pay all sorts of domestic/international banking charges. So, I’ve attempted to sign up for a credit card. No problem. Or, so I thought. I mean, I was in first year of university, with no real job or savings and I could walk to the credit card representative (CitiBank by the way), and sign up and receive a card on the spot. Not here. I’ve now applied for both a CitiBank and an American Express card and got turned down by both of them. I received a slip of paper saying something to the effect of ’sorry, after careful review, and with our experience of dealing with people similar to you, we have to reject your application. Have a nice day. ‘ What really kinda of irritated me is that my bank friend said that it shouldn’t be a problem getting the card in Japan, people without much income get it all the time. To this day, I don’t really know what criteria they use, other than I don’t know too many foreigners that have a Japanese-issued bank card unless they have a Japanese spouse or they work for a large company.

But I digress.

About a month ago, I was preparing for a trip and was sorting out what sort of cards and what not I’d need to bring with me. Unfortunately, during this sortingprocess, I had inadvertently put my Mizuho Bank card in a box that was to stay in Japan. I hadn’t realized that I had done this until a few days later when I wanted to withdrawsome money from Mizuho (for those that don’t know, Mizuho Bank is the world’s largest bank by assets and was created on April 1, 2002 through the merger ofDaiichi Kangyo Bank, Fuji Bank, and Industrial Bank of Japan. There was a fair bit of publicity about them the first week or so as their computer systems were a mess - transactions weren’t going through; incorrect amounts of money were reported; even now the ATM machines are segregated depending on the originalbank you used; depending on which ATM I use, my telephone number is listed differently; the list goes on). . Panic stricken, I frantically searched my wallet, and my desk drawer to see if I left the card there. No card. I then started retracing my steps back theprevious few days and remembered that the day before I had met a friend at a coffee shop and at one point had some help in filling out a payment form - using the numberfrom a different Bank’s bank card. I thought maybe I had dropped the card at the coffee shop. I called the coffee shop, and tried to explain as best I could what I thought mayhave happened. Unfortunately, no card was reported found (of course, this is because I had the card all this time, but in a different box). I then called up the Mizuho toll-free numberto tell them I misplaced the card. They put a stop on the card and told me to go to a branch to sign up for a new card.

The next day, I went to Mizuho Bank, and filled out an application form for a new card. I thought for sure I’d just receive a temporary card or something on the spot, but waslater told that it would take 10 days for the new card to be issued! I told them that I would be out of the country at that time. I asked them if I opened a new bank account, and closedthe existing one, could I receive a temporary card on the spot? They said no, it takes 10 days. Oooo-Kaay. I was charged 1000 Yen for having to get a new card. Now thenext problem was that I needed to withdraw some money. Up until that point in time, I had always used my bank card to make withdrawals, so it was a good lesson in learning how to withdraw money from a bank teller.

It’s quite interesting / scary when you think about it.

Why is that? Well, all you need to do is fill out a slip and put a ’signature block’ or ‘hanko’ on it - something that matches what is in your passbook. Then you can withdraw your money. In my case, they require my foreign registration card, but I’m sure this is the exception made to foreigners. My Japanese friend wassaying that he knows of a couple where one person would withdraw money from the other’s account, because they could easily obtain that person’s hanko. The otherinteresting thing is that the customer is only left standing for at most 1 minute during the transaction - the rest of the time, he or she can sit in one of the comfy chairslocated in front of the teller desks. I hadn’t realized this before, but if you withdraw money from a teller, there aren’t any service charges, only when you withdraw from the ATM - you would think it’s the other way around, but… like they say, ‘time is money’ and it’s much more convenient to wait in line 5 minutes for the ATM, than towait 20 minutes for the teller to get to you.

After making the withdrawal, I carried on with the things I needed to do to prepare for the trip. The card wouldn’t be ready on time, I’d have to wait until I returned frommy trip to get it.

Unfortunately, the card was couriered to my apartment during the time I was away, (and it actually only took about 3 business days to process) but of course I wasn’t around to accept it. I called up the courier company and they said that because 5 days had elapsed, they had to return the card back to the bank. The bank issued a postcard to me saying that I can go and pick up the card from the bank. I took the postcard to the bank and waited patiently for about 30 minutes while the bank teller tried to find the replacement bank card. (At the same time, it looked like there was a whole team of inspectors taking a look at the bank operations,which helped to slow everything down.) She came back to me and apologized saying the card was not to be found. One of the more senior guys (the one who had processedmy application form to begin with) came over to see what the hold up was, took one look at the postcard, and said they have to make a new card. They said to come backin one week to pick up the card. Okey Dokey.

So, today, I went to Mizuho Bank again, exactly one month from when I first made the application for a replacement card, and after the teller spent some time lookingfor my replacement card, the senior guy came out again to see what the problem was. It turns out that the card was indeed prepared, but it was being kept at the branchwhich I had originally made my account with - clear across the city about 1 hour away. The thoughts that came to mind were — WHY would they keep the card in over there whenI made the application at the local branch - they know full well where I live (b.) What happens if someone moves to a different city, and they stay with the samebank, do they have to open a new bank account? Isn’t there some sort of field in a database somewhere that they can change? Why make things so complicated? The teller then gave me two options - a.) go to the original branch and pick up the card (b.) have the bank reissue a new card to my home. Staring in disbelief, I asked them how long itwould take to get the card reissued - and they said one week. So I said that I would go to the original branch to pick up the card.

Being completely upset (PO’d is more the correct term) by that point, I ended up withdrawing almost all my savings from that branch on the spot. Now my immediate goal was to deposit the money into adifferent bank - Shinsei Bank. I opened up the Shinsei Bank account back in September. What initially piqued my interest was an online banner ad found on JapanToday.com They offered 24 ATM service, free withdrawals, internet banking service, telephone banking service, English + Japanese support, ability to have a multi currency account (US, CDN, AUD, Euro). At that time, I had just received an interest payment from Mizuho - it amounted to a grand total of almost ONE DOLLAR!!! This was for a 6 monthperiod! At that point, I was looking at how much Mizuho was charging me for each withdrawal / bank transfer and I realized how much I was spending. Keeping an accountat Mizuho ended up COSTING me money! Anyways, to put a long story short, Shinsei has been great - I’ve saved a fair bit of money on bank transfers alone, I’m able to do transactions 24 hours a day - on the train, in my apartment. I’ve even madea bit of money by purchasing Euros/USD on the account. The only shorfalls are - they don’t seem to offer a direct payment service (ie. paying Yahoo ADSL automatically eachmonth); they aren’t an actual bank with cash on premises; and they don’t have that many branches.

By the time I found a Shinsei Branch, it was getting late, and wouldn’t have had enough time to go to Kasai. Apart from Shinsei Bank and possibly CitiBank, the Japanese banks tend to close by about 3:00 PM. Tomorrow is the weekend, I’m hoping that the bank will beopen, hoping that card hasn’t been voided already, and hoping that I can finally have a Mizuho Bank card to use. One can only hope…

P.S. This run-around effect is not limited to Mizuho Bank either. I’ve been wanting to update my registration card for a few months now. The problem is that it takes 3 weeksbefore you receive a replacement: and you must have the card with you when leaving/re-entering Japan; for general ID purposes; and in the case of Mizuho, to pick upthe new bank card or make a withdrawal if you don’t have a bank card. I told this to the clerk, and they said that I should come back when there’s a period of time that I don’t need the registration card. I asked the clerk if there was even a temporary piece of paper that I could use in the meantime, to which she replied in the negative. Yup. OK. Whatever.

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