Paying foreign credit cards in Japan

[KNVBKing]

I have a question regarding paying foreign credit cards in Japan. Here's my situation. I have some Canadian credit cards, and anytime I use them I have to pay them from my Canadian bank account (online) because my bill still goes to my old (Canadian) residence (parents house). The problem is that if I keep using them the money in my Canadian account will evaporate and it's expensive and a bother to send money back home just to pay my credit cards. I don't use my credit cards for much, but I want to get satelite and my landlord needs me to pay it by credit card.

So my main question is: is there a way to pay foreign credit cards in Japan? Can I go to my japanese bank and give them my credit card and say I want to pay my bill for that credit card, or something like that? Or if I get my credit card bills sent to me in Japan, can I take those to a japanese bank and pay them?

Any advice is appreciated :)

[OaklandZoo]

seems very unlikely, and even if your local bank somehow allows it, I don't think your canadian credit card issuer will. Just get a japanese credit card, it's not that big a pain.

But maybe I'm wrong, maybe you should just go ahead and ask your credit card company if it's okay to change the billing. But I wonder how everybody else living here is dealing with this kind of situation. You guys keep sending money back home or did you get japanese credit cards?

[jindojim]

I have the same problem. Here is what I do.

I transfer money to my bank account abroad from my Japanese account. And then I use the money from my bank account abroad to pay back stuff (e.g. credit card). It works as long as you can pay stuff online.

[Pierrot le Fou]

Get a Japanese credit card. Much much easier. There is no easy way to pay off a credit card from outside of Japan while in Japan, sorry to say.

[japanat]

Get a Japanese credit card. Much much easier. There is no easy way to pay off a credit card from outside of Japan while in Japan, sorry to say.
I do both, for the above reason, and because many American web shopping sites won't accept cards with foreign billing addresses. So I pay what I can with my Japanese cards, and use the American ones for others. Or you could open an account at Chase, Citibank or one of the other truly int'l banks (although your interest and yearly fees will likely be -much- higher).

[erbiumfiber]

I do as jindojim does and send money home to pay off the credit card. I have to send money home anyway for a variety of reasons (property tax, income tax, daughter's tuition, health insurance, etc.). I pay the card online from my online bank account. No big deal. I used to send money home only once every two or three months, and then I would wait for the best exchange rate. My bank makes sending money home pretty easy (once you do it a first time, a card is generated that remembers all your information and you just need to input the amount you want sent).

If you'll only use it for satellite then a Japanese card will suffice but I don't use more than one credit card (that way I always know what I owe and don't dig myself into a big financial hole) and, for japanat's reason, I have the billing address in the U.S. (for sites like Travelocity, and a few others).

I thought Japanese credit card companies gave you a hard time if you weren't a permanent resident? I guess not if PLF has a Japanese credit card.

I do have Citibank as my credit card but have never explored paying for it by hauling in bunch of yen. My guess is that I would get ripped off on the exchange rate.

[mikem]

I'd just like to mention that no one will issue you a credit card while you are on a student visa no matter how much money you make working here.

Otherwise I do like everyone else. I keep a bit of money in America to pay for things that are difficult to do here.

[KNVBKing]

Alright, thanks for all the information. Looks like I have two options:

1) Send money back home.
2) Get a Japanese credit card.

I think I'll try to get a Japanese credit card (I'm not on a student visa), but I've heard it's hard to get. I'll probably end up having to send some money back too though. I've heard that doing this through the post office is the cheapest way?

[Pierrot le Fou]

Short-termers have trouble getting Japanese credit cards, or used to, but that's changing (slowly). If you have a decent job, and don't seem like you're about to skip off, and pay your bills, you'll likely be a-okay.

[mawande]

I have two Japanese credit cards. I have one US credit card. I have PayPal. I have a savings account in America that I hardly ever use, and sometimes I transfer money into it from my PayPal account. Speaking of which, it's time to do just that.

[jindojim]

Heh, well from what I've learned from a thread I created and from my own experience, here's what I know about sending money abroad from the Post Office:

1) Say you want to do a soukin (送金).
2) You should get the International Transfer Application and Declaration Form (国際郵便振替請求書兼告知書), which has directions in both Japanese and English.
3) Where it says "Remittance" (送金種類), check "to Address" (住所あて送金). I made the mistake of checking "to Bank account" (銀行口座あて送金) the last time I did it. While very quick, it is also very costly, as I found out the hard way...
4) Check "Ordinary" (通常) for "Method of Remittance" (送金方法).
5) Fill out the rest of the form.
6) Have someone back home deposit whatever comes in the mail into your account abroad.

Fee is 2500 yen for an outgoing transfer at the Post Office. I have yet to do an "Ordinary" transfer, so I am not sure if there are incoming fees associated with that. I know, however, that for a Telegraphic (電信) transfer, your bank abroad will probably charge you an incoming fee as well. And there may be a converstion fee too :(

[erbiumfiber]

The good folks at Mitsubishi-UFJ charge me 3700 yen to do an ordinary transfer directly to my bank account (takes 2 business days, tops). Then my bank charges me $10 to receive the wire transfer. I never send less than $5000 so it's worth it to me. I get about the going exchange rate.