getting your first Japanese credit card

[halfnip]

[james]

[quote="halfnip"]Oh man! That's another classic one. I have had situations where I wasn't even able to place an order online because 1) Where they ask you to input your name and surname, it will not allow anything other than kanji (obviously us FG's will have katakana in both the furigana and name section!) and 2) because since my name is ク]

wonder what it would do if you input the kanji 一 instead you could be kurisutofa1

[ttjereth]

[ttjereth]

I've had varied success with credit in general here. Two cards I applied for I got without any trouble at all. The most recent one (Shitibank) turned me down, though I am making far more $$$ and now have PR. Who knows...maybe the moon phase was wrong!

I have more than enough credit right now, I just wanted the Shitibank card for the US$ charging ability and being able to pay the bill directly from the US$ balance in my Shitibank account.

Sounds like a lot of people are having problems with citibank. I thought they were supposed to be the "foreigner friendly" alternative. Maybe too many foreigners?

My card is a visa through a department store here, and they never gave me any problems. No guarantor required, no weird questions or anything, filled out the app got a card in the mail a few weeks later and been using it ever since.

The limit is now more than I would ever want to actually use on a credit card, but I suppose it's nice to know that I can buy a car outright with money I don't have if I ever need too

[momotobananaoishii]

Almost a month since I've been here. Totally forgot about the thread. Good advice. Thanks.

Some of you really need to get a life. Sure got lots of time to troll threads and flame don't you?

Does it matter who the fuck initiated the thread? You don't seem to mind Blair, Bush or Harper in office so why the fuck would you care who initiates some piddly thread?

Nice logic...

[Mulboyne]

You'll get a better reception if you respond as much to people who have taken the time to reply to your questions as you do to people who attack you. Otherwise it seems that you don't care much about their answers.

[momotobananaoishii]

Tru dat! Thanks...

As you know there is mukoyoushi and yomeiri.

Can a male gaijin do mukoyoushi and take the wife's last name?

I was thinking that could have a lot of benefits such as administrative procedures like credit applications.

[james]

Almost a month since I've been here.

and completely unrelated of course, but what a lovely month it's been.

[momotobananaoishii]

Case in point...

Notice how my reply today to your jab was virtually a month later and your reply to my post today was almost immediate.

Get a real life that isn't based online and maybe you'll find that you don't need to have come backs for every post that belongs to someone you don't like.

Enjoy typing...Smell ya in another few weeks.

[Mulboyne]

Case in point...

Case in point. You could have taken the time to respond to people who steered you towards information they thought was useful and tell them whether it was what you wanted but instead you decided to tell others how little you think of them.

[sublight]

Sounds like a lot of people are having problems with citibank. I thought they were supposed to be the "foreigner friendly" alternative. Maybe too many foreigners?

That seemed pretty weird to me, too. I applied for a citibank card the same time I opened my account, a little bit after I moved to Tokyo and got my first non-eikaiwa job. Everything went through without a hitch. That was about ten years ago, though, maybe they've turned Japanese.

How are the annual fees and restriction on J-bank CC's? I always figured Citi felt they could get away with outrageous fees (10,000yen/year for a NorthWest Perks card) because the foreign customers had nowhere else to go.

[ttjereth]

That seemed pretty weird to me, too. I applied for a citibank card the same time I opened my account, a little bit after I moved to Tokyo and got my first non-eikaiwa job. Everything went through without a hitch. That was about ten years ago, though, maybe they've turned Japanese.

How are the annual fees and restriction on J-bank CC's? I always figured Citi felt they could get away with outrageous fees (10,000yen/year for a NorthWest Perks card) because the foreign customers had nowhere else to go.

I can't speak to anyone else's situation or the overall situation, but my J-card only has fees on cash withdrawals (the fees are outrageous, but I never use cash withdrawals anyway). Otherwise no monthly/yearly fees, no fees on shopping uses, and I've never had any outrageous charges using it outside of Japan (they might pick the best exchange between 2 or 3 days of the purchase, but I'd bet most cards do).

[Ganma]

Any updates on getting a credit card these days? I'm thinking of getting one. Where are the best places to apply?