Tokyo - do you favour paying with cash or card?

[disneyworldgirl]

Hi all! Looking for some advice from those who know Tokyo. We’re going in May and have a Halifax clarity card from previous US trips. In the past, we’ve taken less cash than usual and made most purchases on the card. Is cash easier for Tokyo?

[doombuggy]

While at the resort, I charged stuff to my Capital One card, as it doesn't have fees for using in a foreign country. But I took cash to use other places. I came back with a lot (which I still have) in part because we were delayed in China for 3 days so our trip to Japan was cut short.

We went in October.

Note I am an American, so not sure about the card you mentioned to use.
Edited to correct - you are going in May, someone else posted a thread about going in September and I got them merged...
Enjoy!

[kevin_cambs_uk]

In japan
The only thing I used the card for was the hotel
Everything else was cash
A lot of places do not take cards so to avoid any issue I took all out money in cash

They love cash, cards are ok at bigger locations but smaller shops or food places you wil
Struggle with cards

[Caroian]

Echoing Kevin. It is a very cash dependent culture. We're here now and have used cash for everything except hotel bills and a taxi ride (to get us to Disney!) through JapanTaxi (bit like Uber. Uber went down in Tokyo just when we wanted to use them!) Be aware also that withdrawing cash might not be that simple (although machines in most 7-11s take foreign cards, and they are all over the place in Tokyo itself) so it's worth not letting yourself run too low.

[Guest]

I always take some cash but found a lot of places take cards.Temples and small shops dont take cards. Some restarants have machines to get meal ticket need cash for them. Its a mixture really i found little bakeries in subway stations that took cards but
i made sure had cash .

[sky13]

Definitely make sure you have cash. I last went 3 years ago but found that it was difficult to find cash machines at some places, and it was much easier to just use cash than attempt to use card. Only place I remember using my card was at hotel and when buying Disneyland tickets...

[hornetgirl]

Anywhere that cards were taken we were able to use our Clarity card without problem. A lot of places were cash only though, so definitely take both. The one which took me by surprise was when we booked the bus from the Disneyland Hotel back to the airport to go home. We booked it at the hotel reception desk on our last day and were told it was cash only. Luckily we still had some left!

[lottie89]

We’ve got a Starling account (card is MasterCard) so we can withdraw cash and spend without fees - might be worth looking into. I also have got a Halifax Clarity just in case, but prefer to be able to just open the Starling app and see immediately what we’ve spent and where we are funds wise.

[lottie89]

Originally Posted by hornetgirl

Anywhere that cards were taken we were able to use our Clarity card without problem. A lot of places were cash only though, so definitely take both. The one which took me by surprise was when we booked the bus from the Disneyland Hotel back to the airport to go home. We booked it at the hotel reception desk on our last day and were told it was cash only. Luckily we still had some left!

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Very glad I read this - also going straight home from the Disneyland Hotel. Was assuming we could use card in Disney mostly, but will make sure we have some cash left.

[dipsydoodle]

Originally Posted by lottie89

We’ve got a Starling account (card is MasterCard) so we can withdraw cash and spend without fees - might be worth looking into. I also have got a Halifax Clarity just in case, but prefer to be able to just open the Starling app and see immediately what we’ve spent and where we are funds wise.

See more...

Hi lottie89
We have always used the Halifax clarity wherever we have gone and its always worked well but Japan has got me a little concerned - I so hate cash - does the starling account work well out there? I am thinking about opening an account purely to enable me to get cash if I run out. It seems a slightly cheaper option than withdrawing cash on a credit card but I want to be sure whatever I use that its going to be accepted - any advice greatly appreciated