One last thing I should touch on before I rest this topic is credit cards. If you manage to get one as a foreigner (still a rather difficult thing to do) you should know that it doesn't work like your card back home. Well, that is unless you had an American Express card. Visa, Mastercard, all the big credit card companies are here. (Oh but no AmEx.) When your credit card bill comes, you are expected to pay the entire balance in full by the due date. If you miss your payment for that month, the card freezes immediately, and you won't be able to use it again until you pay it off. No, you can't take three months to pay off that new laptop you just bought.
But wait, you can take three months.
Imagine you're buying $100 worth of clothes in a department store. At the time of checkout, the clerk will ask you if you'd like to split the payments. Usually you can choose a one-time full payment, two payments over two months, or three payments over three months. More than three is unusual. The department store itself is responsible for managing the split payments. Expect to pay a handling fee for choosing to pay in more than one installment.
2 comments:
I also forgot to mention. Credit cards with no annual fee are non-existant. After all, you can't carry a balance under the Japanese system, so it's the only way for them to make money.
If you're a foreigner and nobody seems to want to give you a credit card, try for the DCMX Visa being offered by Docomo to it's customers. They give them out like candy. Just be aware that once you apply, your cell phone bill will automatically go to your card and cannot be paid any other way.
interesting, that way unless there are good rewards there is really no advantage over a debit card/check card. I can't remember if my card with the post office bank was debit or not, I mainly used it as an atm card either way.
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