Revolut and N26 payment cards
Revolut and N26 payment card
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Paying in yen without exchange fees
Two new generation banks have created ideal credit cards for visitors. Revolut and N26 payment cards are an alternative way to pay directly in yen during your visit. These payment cards have no foreign exchange fees!
Outside the eurozone, most traditional banks impose more or less high exchange fees for each cash withdrawal or payment in a shop or restaurant. With a traditional bank, if you pay directly with your VISA or Mastercard type bank card, you will pay a fixed fee of approximately + 2.5% of the amount paid to the merchant.
The Revolut and N26 companies offer their customers an alternative means of payment when traveling internationally. These new generation banks created in 2014 and 2015 are complete, and only, online and operate from a smartphone application. The economy of not having physical offices allows them to have particularly attractive offers.
As a replacement for your usual credit card and to pay merchants directly in the local currency, in Japan in yen, the offers from Revolut and N26 are attractive because there are hardly any fees or none at all.
These two online banks do not charge any fees for any direct payment to a merchant. There is no commission on payments worldwide, or almost, and it is the current exchange rate that is applied. On the other hand, when withdrawing from the ATM in a foreign currency, there is a +1.7% fee that will be imposed for N26. With a Revolut card, it will be free up to 200 euros, then a rate of + 2% will apply.
For those who often travel abroad, N26 and Revolut are two excellent options. Although different in some aspects, they are relatively similar and it is only your personal preferences that will allow you to make a choice.
It is possible to use its cards without any problem in Japan, in particular at 7 Bank and Japan Post distributors, as well as at most merchants.
Pay with a Suica or Pasmo card
If you are not a customer of these banks and do not wish to become one, other alternative means of payment exist!
Think of the Pasmo and Suica prepaid transport cards! And yes, even if they were created to make it easy to take the metro, they quickly became payment cards. Supermarkets and vending machines have quickly adopted them and this means of payment is spreading more and more in stores and restaurants in large cities.
Payment by Suica and Pasmo
Syohei Arai
