# Quick Qs re: Bank and Smartphone / 3G mobile hotspot



## Andrew123 (Oct 21, 2011)

I am an american patent attorney that is planning on spending 6 months in Tokyo next year, and I have managed to plan for just about everything (thankfully, I have a lot of support within my firm, and we have JP IP department trainees that have helped me as well here in DC).

*Banking:* I did some searching and some of the responses were a little old, so I wanted to check to see what people's current thoughts are. I was thinking to either switch over to citibank or open a separate citibank account here in the US and move money over. That way, I can just take out big clumps of cash and pay for everything with cash to avoid any sort of fees associated with using a credit card. Everytime I go to Tokyo I end up with these extra fees or whatever. Is there a better way you all can think of to handle banking / paying for things?

My firm will be paying the rent on the serviced apartment directly. I guess if I really wanted to, we can have the firm setup some kind of account that includes a credit card / debit card or something. I am just trying to figure out the easiest way for us to pay for things without eating a bunch of fees.

*Smartphone / 3G mobile hotspot*: So, one of the more challenging things about going to japan on business is that unless you accept the roaming fees, blackberry or smartphone access for email is tough. I did some research and I can get 800MB for $200/month on AT&T using an iPhone in Japan. Mobile email is very important to me, as I will not be in our offices all the time while I am there. One other option is to get a 3G mobile hotspot and then use my existing phone to download email using only the 802.11 radio. I am currently leaning towards getting a 3G hotspot and then just keeping it long term for use by me and other colleagues when we go to Japan. Any other clever solutions to this problem are appreciated.

*Volunteer opportunities* My girlfriend is coming with and won't be working. I am planning to have our secretary in Japan and a Japanese paralegal here in washington look around for opportunities, but I figure I could ask here as well. Any ideas on such opportunities would be nice. Girlfriend is currently doing medical research in a neurosurgery department in preparation for medical school. 

Thanks in advance for any help.


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## Rube (Apr 27, 2011)

My info is old as well but when I used citibank I think there was a daily limit on withdrawals of something like $2,000 which was a huge pita, had to keep going back every day. 

I know that a lot of Mc'donalds are now overing free wi-fi so if you don't mind having their coffee you can check your e-mails for free.


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## Andrew123 (Oct 21, 2011)

Rube said:


> My info is old as well but when I used citibank I think there was a daily limit on withdrawals of something like $2,000 which was a huge pita, had to keep going back every day.
> 
> I know that a lot of Mc'donalds are now overing free wi-fi so if you don't mind having their coffee you can check your e-mails for free.


Great info. Unfortunately, the modern business of law requires basically instant access to emails. The $2k limit is super lame. I am not uncomfortable at all with having large sums of cash in Japan. Maybe just have citibank and keep like $1k in yen on person, and like $5k in yen at the apartment?


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## Rube (Apr 27, 2011)

Actually I don't know if that's the limit here, it was the limit in the states for us with our accounts from Japan. We were going to L.A. for business for a short time and were planning on renting places and buying some decent used cars in the first few days, had to wait 2 weeks to get a car in L.A. Not fun. Might be much higher here. 

I wouldn't worry about carrying money. I've been here a long time and never had any problems. People used to carry 10k around during the bubble with no problem besides looking silly with a purse.


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## Andrew123 (Oct 21, 2011)

Thanks for the info. I actually learned during lunch that citibank is the way to go.


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## Rube (Apr 27, 2011)

What's the limit now?


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## Andrew123 (Oct 21, 2011)

Not sure, but I know one of our attorneys accidentally took out like $5k one time and used the yen for awhile. My girlfriend and I are thinking to just have a little lock box with cash in the apartment. Citibank is a client (learned that today), so I guess we get good account status with them or something. I will keep a high balance anyways, so I think you avoid the fees that way and get pretty good spot exchange rates taking money out. 

My parents are also planning on visiting, so I was thinking to give them a few K of spending money and they can pay me back later. Seems citibank is the solution.


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## Joppa (Sep 7, 2009)

Andrew123 said:


> Not sure, but I know one of our attorneys accidentally took out like $5k one time and used the yen for awhile. My girlfriend and I are thinking to just have a little lock box with cash in the apartment. Citibank is a client (learned that today), so I guess we get good account status with them or something. I will keep a high balance anyways, so I think you avoid the fees that way and get pretty good spot exchange rates taking money out.
> 
> My parents are also planning on visiting, so I was thinking to give them a few K of spending money and they can pay me back later. Seems citibank is the solution.


Not an expat in Japan but I visit Japan 2-3 times a year and have relatives.
Daily withdrawal limit is still quite high if you have a checking account with a Japanese bank (including foreign capital like Citi). It's around 500,000 yen a day at your own ATM and about 200,000 at partner ATMs in convenience stores etc. Some corporate account holders can get as much as 2,000,000 yen. It used to be higher for everyone but a limit had to be introduced because of increasing incidents of scams involving confidence tricksters. High withdrawals reflect low crime rate and the fact that Japan is still very much a cash society. Cheques aren't used by individuals and big transaction like car purchase is often still done in cash.

For downloading emails using smartphones. If your own data plan is too much, as it clearly is, I suggest you get a Japanese data plan by a company called b-mobile. You need to have an unlocked phone and you must get it unlocked before you come to Japan as unlocking is technically illegal there. Then you subscribe to either a monthly plan (contract) or pay-as-you-go with b-mobile which will provide you with a data-only SIM or data-and-voice SIM. They have normal-size SIM for BB etc and microSIM for iPhones. PAYG plan starts from 3100 yen/month for up to 1GB download limit.
See b-mobileSIM U300 | SIM??????simple?????????? (in Japanese only)


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