Here’s a little advice on which cards to bring if you want to use them in Japan.

Mastercard is useless.

And Maestro (your normal ATM card) is just as bad.

Visa is the way to go. Accepted in more places overseas. Their ads are actually true. In China it was also easier to use Visa than Mastercard (but that was before the Olympics, not sure what the situation is since).

Many hotels and large department stores will accept both Mastercard and Visa, however, if you want to withdraw money from an ATM (which is a better idea as the bank charges you a fee each time you use your card overseas, as well as a % of the amount as a fee for currency exchange) it is virtually impossible to withdraw using Mastercard or Maestro.

If you want to withdraw money from the local 7-11 (which are everywhere), they only accept Visa. If you go to the ATM inside a shopping centre, they only accept Visa (if they accept foreign cards at all). The Mastercard ATM locator said that there were bank ATMs (located in/near banks) that did Mastercard but they were out of the way and inconvienent to get to. Whereas 7-11′s are everywhere.

So that’s my rant.

And if someone from the Commonwealth Bank reads this, please consider offering debit Visa cards instead of just debit Mastercard. I’ll have to keep my St George account with its debit Visa card open until Commbank changes its mind.