From: jice@echo.asd.sgi.com (John Eisenman)
Subject: Re: Have some cash
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc.
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1992 21:41:47 GMT

In article <Bt71wJ.B9o.1@cs.cmu.edu>, jfriedl+@cs.cmu.edu (Jeffrey E.
F. Friedl) writes:
|> cb522@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Cathy Atwood) writes:
|> |> Awhile ago someone said that it is cheaper to take $
|> traveller's
|> |> checks and convert when in Japan.  This may be so, but I have a
|> |> different perspective.  I go for short visits, and need to know
|> |> what my budget is.  Since the dollar/yen conversion can be
|> |> volatile, I prefer to get yen cash and t.c. before leaving the
|> |> United States, and know what I'll have available to spend.
|> 
|> Certainly convenience is an issue, but make sure you know exactly
|> just how much you're paying for it.
|> 
|> I just called up the foreign exchange "store" (what's it called?)
|> at
|> the local airport and found their buy/sell split was 18 yen, plus
|> a
|> one percent "service charge" (which is about the most ridiculous
|> thing
|> I've heard of... they could just include the charge in the rate,
|> but
|> want to make their rates look better and the spring the service
|> charge
|> on you later).
|> 
|> Their current sell rate was 117 yen/$. $1,000 would then get you
|> 115,841 yen.
|> 
|> The equivilant exchange rate in Japan (if you have dollar
|> traveler's checks,
|> which you can get free at AAA) would be to give 124 yen/$
|> [calculation
|> given below], with no extra fee.  $1,000 would then give 124,000
|> yen which
|> is a difference of about 7% (!).

When I visited Japan about a year and a half ago, I found that
using US $ traveler's checks where a bad deal.  I exchanged dollars
to yen a number of different ways that all gave different results.

I changed some dollars (cash) to yen in San Francisco and got a pretty
decent rate -- just a couple of yen per dollar below the exchange rate
listed in the news paper.  I had to shop around for this rate, most of 
the local places where giving a much worse deal.  The down side was that
this place only took cash or cashiers checks.

I traded some more dollars for yen at the San Fran Airport.  Here I got
a deal that was about 5 yen/dollar worse than my best deal, but still 
better than the rates that the local place at the mall was charging.

I also obtained some US (VISA) traveler's checks.  There were free at
my bank.

In Japan I exchanged my US traveler's checks for yen.  I did this at
a bank.  The exchange rate for traveler's checks was much lower
(at least 8 yen/dollar) than the exchange rate for cash, and even
that was not very good.

Eventually, I had to take a cash advance on my Visa card.  I did this
twice.  Both times, I got a very good exchange rate (almost exactly
the rate listed in the newspaper).  All I had to pay was a small
cash advance charge and one month of finance charge to my credit
card company.  This was about 2%.  Overall, I would say that this was
the best deal.  It turned out to be especially good for me because 
the dollar/yen ratio was going up during my time in Japan (but that is
not something to count on).

The best deal overall was paying with a credit card whenever possible
(I can't speak Japanese well enough to bargain, so I don't know if 
cash would have been better from that point of view).  When I paid by
credit card (visa or mastercard), I got a very good exchange rate
(very close to the paper) and no finance or cash advance charge.
Again, this turned out to be even better for me because the dollar/yen
rate was on the way up, so that by the time I got the bill, things
where cheaper than I thought.  Is there a down side to using a credit
card?  Next time I go, I am going to bring very little cash and a
bunch of credit cards.

--
John Eisenman (jice@sgi.com)

Silicon Graphics Computer Systems
7U-550
2011 N. Shoreline Blvd.		
P.O. Box 7311		
Mt. View, CA 94039-7311		

(415) 390-1551


Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan