I am sick and tired of this crappy bank. For the past two days I've been trying to get a credit card for my account with no luck.
Yesterday I was told that I didn't bring the right identification (my bank account was opened with my passport which has my name in roman characters, and I had brought my driver's license, which has my name in Japanese kanji.) Today I brought the right identification and was turned down. I'm sure it's because I switched jobs recently, but it's absolutely crazy because the bank knows how much money I have in my account and they still reject me. I have a not-insignficant amount with that bank.
Today is the last straw. I'm moving banks. I'm going to go through all the pain of switching all of my automatic debits (cable Internet, cellphone, water, electricity, gas, what else is there?) and the deposits from my company. All because Mitsui Sumitomo Bank does NOT VALUE THEIR CUSTOMERS. WHY WOULD I WANT TO DO MORE BUSINESS WITH THIS BANK IF THEY'RE NOT GOING TO GIVE ME A CREDIT CARD!!! I AM NOT A CREDIT RISK! LOOK AT MY PROFILE YOU STUPID IDIOTS!
The bad thing is that there's no other good choices in Japan. Shinsei Bank maybe. Citibank Japan actually has the best online banking, but they dont have many branches. And there's the bit with their private bankers breaking laws in Japan.
Banking in this nation feels medieval.
Oh, and there's the part where foreigners who visit Japan (Yokoso! Japan) can't download money from Japanese bank's ATMs because they're not on the Plus or Cirrus networks. So welcome! To the country where you can't get money from the ATMs! Welcome!
My sympathies with you on this one, Gen. My bank shut down my card because I was late on one payment (I was abroad on vacation), and ever since, I've been turned down every time I try to make a new credit card somewhere. Result: I only have cash in my wallet --- no kidding.
Amen brother!
Banks suck. The #1 most visited page on my site like 10 times more than any other is my "Wells Fargo is the worst bank in the world" page.
I sympathize. Thankfully I don't use my mitsui sumito account much but the times I have to, it's always a pain. They gave me a credit card / debit card right when I opened my account though. Although, the expiration date on the card was only good for 3 month -- thanks for the trust. And when it expired they didn't even send a new one.
I suspect this has less to do with foreignness and more to do with Japanese being violently afraid of Credit Card usage. Granted it's getting better but still, it's few and far between when you can go out for a night of drinks and expect to pay with plastic.
And the ATM situation is ridiculous. Not only that, but the limits on hours of usage -- no Sunday night transactions. You can't update your bank book in the ATM after bank hours. And like you point out, the amazing inability to use a foreign card in anything other than scarce foreign ATM outposts or the random city bank sprinkled in Omotesando or Shinjuku. And then you go to a country like Cambodia and have no problems finding an ATM taking foreign cards.
I'm not surprised. When I was a kid living in Tokyo in 1982-85, I had a bank account with Mitsui, and they redefined "banker's hours" in ways scarcely imaginable. Come to think of it, I probably still have a couple hundred yen there accruing interest for the last 20 years or so...
Gen...
I would go for Citibank. Allthought they only have a few branches you can use their cards in Mizuho, Sumitomo (ye gads) ATMs and also the combini IY ATMs now.
They are honestly more helpful than any other bank.
Craig: You can withdraw money from any IY ATM 24 hours a day.
The only problem I have ever encountered is during Golden Week where everything shuts down. IY ATM is mostly in Tokyo and Osaka but they are expanding fast to other regions.
i suggest you try one thing before you cancel your account. last year i switched my account to something called "One's Style". it's a type of account targeted for people in their 20's and 30's. it's similar to "One's Next" if you're familar with that, but it's all online using "One's Direct" (no checkbook), and you get one card that's both an ATM card and a SMBC Visa card.
of course it might end up being the same thing, but since it's targeted for people in their 20s, it kinda seems like they're willing to accept people without high job security... i dunno, i was able to get it, and i had been employed for only half a year at that point. i think it's like no annual fee for 5 years or something... credit limit might not be so high though, better check.
http://www.smbc.co.jp/kojin/sougou/style/index.html
hun... I have been pretty happy with my Tokyo Mitsubishi account. Gave me a Visa gold when I signed up, and a debit, renewed the Visa after 6 months for a 3-year one. They have the whole internet banking thing too, even on BREW if you have an AU phone. you can do almost everything on your keitai with them. pay bills, transfer etc...
You can get cash from smbc and another bank's ATMs, and except AM/PM, it works in Lawson, Family Mart and recently 7Eleven. no bank book updates on WEs though but who updates them anyway...
Might be worth a try. and as a foreigner, they have always been very very correct, even all the times I went to make international transfers or change my address etc etc.
Oh and they ve got that new thingy where to get cash out from the ATM you can have your palm scanned instead of using a pin code.
hope that helped.
If you haven't seen "The Dough" check it out
http://www.xdude.com/
Another bank story. About 5mins
All Japanese banks suck.
I use Citibank in Japan, which is not as bad as some of the others. But it still sucks.
Ya, I am shocked at the unpreparedness of Japan to accept the foreign tourists it claims to want. Just today I saw that they're requiring hotels to collect photocopies of foreign guests' passports... a practice they stopped something like 20 years ago. I ranted about it on MF. I mean, I guess we should be thanking them for not forcing foreigners to turn in their passports at the immigration counter, right?
Your frustration reminds me of my ongoing battles with Sony Finance, who gave me a card but with a comically low limit. I have to call them every month to negotiate a higher limit. I once asked them if they knew anything about the credit card business.
As for banks, Citi is, as others have said, maybe the best of a bad bunch. Shinsei doesn't charge you for using any ATMs (including convenience store ones), but it can be difficult to find a machine which will accept a Shinsei card sometimes.