Great experience in Japan, much more useful than my Revolut cards due to their charges after certain amount of £ withdrawal as cash is king here
Worth noting the hard £250/day, £1,000/month and £3,000/year ATM limits on Monzo.
Revolut’s ATM fair usage fee is still way below what you would find elsewhere. I’d suggest just combining both cards to be honest, topping up Revolut from Monzo maybe to keep it all in the same travel report.
Agreed. It is quite annoying that when doing a trip that costs more than a weekend away in Europe, you do land up using multiple financial services. So though I’ve got a great ‘holiday’ spend total for my trip, it doesn’t include my flights and I also had to use Revolut.
Good things will come with patience I’m sure [but I want it now muahhahaahhaa 
]
Just spent the whole week in Japan with my Monzo card. Never let me down, cash withdrawals in the middle of nowhere and every purchase accepted without any problem. Loving it.
I’ve just spent a fortnight in Japan. I also found it just worked. A lot of machines don’t let you withdraw with a foreign card, but the 7/eleven ones do and they are everywhere.
I’d caution anyone going that many places in Japan don’t take card at all.
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How was the exchange rate? Was it okay?
You can compare Monzo’s conversion rate vs other providers here. Monzo offer the MasterCard wholesale conversion rate with no fees (even hidden fees 
) which should be pretty close to the rate you see when you Google it.
Few questions regarding shopping with a card in Japanese convenience stores:
- Can you pay with card in FamilyMart/ 7-Eleven / Lawson?
1a. If so, do they take both Visa and MasterCard cards?
1b. Is there any minimum spend limit?
1c. And finally, has anyone tried using Monzo for such purchases?
1d. Are such transactions chip+pin or contactless?
I know I can just take cash out of ATM; that’s what I do each time I’m in Japan. I just hate using cash .I don’t speak Japanese so I never tried asking if they would accept a card.
I can sort of vaguely answer these.
- Yes but you’re far better off paying with an IC card such as Suica, Passmo, etc. (Edy also works but as a visitor, you might as well use the same card for transit.)
1a. From memory, VISA, MasterCard, American Express, UnionPay, and JCB.
1b. No but they don’t seem to like it at all for small transactions.
1c. Not personally, my experience came from using Revolut (this was pre-Monzo Alpha and advice from friends who live there though).
1d. Most of what I encountered across Osaka and Tokyo was still magstripe outside of hotels and some stores in Akiba that had more modern EMV terminals. It’ll depend on the specific branch you go to but most of them now have combined IC/EMV payment systems on the PoS unit.
As a visitor, Suica is so good. Easy to recognise logos, it works just as well as cash in most metro areas, English language topup machines, and simple enough language in convenience stores to work around. 「Suicaで」 while holding the card to use, something as simple as 「Suicaのチャージ」 to top-up from cash (such as in the following video).
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Thanks for a quick respond.
I do not like the idea of Suica when contactless debit/credit cards exists. That’s just another card taking space in my wallet.
Do you know why they might not like when someone pays low amount with a card? I can’t see how is that worse than dealing with a hand full of 1JPY coins…
And as for the magstripe usage… wow! I have only ever seen magstripes being used on old movies.
In Japan, debit cards as we know them in Europe never really had the chance to take off in a country where traditions and social protocols are deeply rooted in cash. They exist mainly for ATMs, high value tech, and online purchases. Most card usage is actually credit cards and those are only really offered to those who actively work in good jobs. I could go on for hours about the history and attitudes towards money in that region of the world, it’s quite fascinating!
Suica (and other cards in the IC group) has only taken off in recent years as a convenient cash replacement for the masses as it used cards most already had (high usage of public transport there!), required no credit checks, and had easy standalone terminal integrations for merchants.
In very recent months, there have been moves towards more standard contactless systems with QUICPay and iD, however it’s still very early days and I’m still not certain if foreign cards are supported.
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If it is like UK and Europe then it will probably be because of the pos terminal provider or acquiring bank’s charges retailers have to pay
But here if that’s the case they usually impose a minimum transaction amount limit. If there is no limit then I’m not sure what difference that would make to a cashier.
They also charge different fees for processing local and foreign cards, so maybe that is why they not keen on foreign cards for small amounts? I have seen shops in UK refuse foreign bank cards and was shocked.
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I got no specific date but I might be in Japan this year. If so I will attempt few payments here and there and report my findings.
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In February I paid for a lot of stuff in Japan on my Monzo card. Debit isn’t accepted everywhere, but I found it in a lot of places.
It entirely depends where you go and what you do. Many tourist and business places will accept debit cards in various capacities or be cash only. This will only increase in the lead up to the Tokyo 2020 Games when the government has various targets and incentives to accept foreign payment methods in more places in addition to promoting IC cards.
My trips are spent doing more “normal” local things, lots of train travel, game centre visits, convenience stores, and fast food makes IC cards very much my preferred payment method. I’m sure that people on booked holiday visits would encounter higher acceptance of debit cards than I do.
Monzo cash withdrawal worked in Ishigaki central (Yaeyama) post office main. [ishigaki is a small southerly island in Okinawa prefecture) There were 2 ATM machines in there, it only worked in the “older” looking machine (on the right) - it immediately recognised monzo card as an “oversea card” when I put the card in, I did unlock the mag stripe just before I put it in the machine. Not sure if I needed to have wifi access to activate the mag stripe function and if it made a difference. I did get charged 216 ¥ (£1.56) to withdraw 25000¥ (£178) by the ATM machine.
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Card worked fine in small boutique shop in Ishigaki where the MasterCard logo was displayed. 
Spent small amount i.e. £13