Which of three are more commonly accepted in Japan?

[Anonymous]

Get the Chase Sapphire Preferred, and you get 3 points on all purchases xD

[yfan]

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@ways2go wrote:
My daughter will be going to Japan late summer. Which one is accepted more, visa , MasterCard, or Amex? I can get her a Discover as well? Personally she has a Freedom card and a BOA MasterCard, and she is an AU on my Amex.

Thanks

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Ger her a Discover card. Due to an agreement with JCB, Discover is accepted everywhere JCB is, and JCB is Japan's most widely used network.

[Kellan]

Discover has a deal with JCB, but also take a backup Visa/MC because in my experience merchants are sometimes unwilling to try a discover card, They don't see it as a jcb card. 

[Kellan]

Also in Thailand you can still get awesme deals on 4 star hotels. I stayed n Phket in Sept for 120 a night at a pretty nice SPG property. 

I am making reservations for 4 store property for about the same over Songkran this year. If you are having problems finding deals in Thailand let me know. 

[mongstradamus]

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@Kellan wrote:

Also in Thailand you can still get awesme deals on 4 star hotels. I stayed n Phket in Sept for 120 a night at a pretty nice SPG property. 

I am making reservations for 4 store property for about the same over Songkran this year. If you are having problems finding deals in Thailand let me know. 

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Where do you goto book hotels i am curioius , i have never had to book hotel in thailand, but i did want to try and see if i could find an good price for four seasons in chiang mai.

[BottomRanker]

In Japan, expect to pay cash for daily essentials - transportation, meals, amusement, etc. Many cash-only stores and vending machines also accept the regional NFC cash-rechargeable cards - e.g., Suica in Tokyo.

Convenience stores and department stores will in general accept Visa, MasterCard, and American Express. If you have a Discover card, it may be accepted over the JCB network at some merchants, but this is not guaranteed whatsoever and is on a merchant-to-merchant basis.  (The people above are wrong.  It has nothing to do with the cashiers.)

Diners Club International in Japan does you nothing as a Discover cardholder.

[Callandra]

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@BottomRanker wrote:

In Japan, expect to pay cash for daily essentials - transportation, meals, amusement, etc. Many cash-only stores and vending machines also accept the regional NFC cash-rechargeable cards - e.g., Suica in Tokyo.

Convenience stores and department stores will in general accept Visa, MasterCard, and American Express. If you have a Discover card, it may be accepted over the JCB network at some merchants, but this is not guaranteed whatsoever and is on a merchant-to-merchant basis.  (The people above are wrong.  It has nothing to do with the cashiers.)

Diners Club International in Japan does you nothing as a Discover cardholder.

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I believe Suica and Pasmo (and the other regional ones) can be recharged [even automatically] with a CC but it might have to be a Japan-issued one. Not totally sure on that as I've been outside Japan for two years now. Cash is the easiest way to reload the card but if your daughter can make use of the JR pass, I'd highly recommend that (will pay for itself if she visits Kansai and she can ride Hikari shinkansen). (I'm also pretty sure shinkansen tickets can be bought with non-Japan cards, think I've done it myself)

I meant the cashier might be the problem as in, they don't recognize the card and refuse to try it as Japanese people tend to be stubborn. Not that they don't know how to run the transaction. In retail, you swipe the card and see if the system takes it; that's universal. 

[go_FICO_self]

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@mongstradamus wrote:

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@Kellan wrote:

Also in Thailand you can still get awesme deals on 4 star hotels. I stayed n Phket in Sept for 120 a night at a pretty nice SPG property. 

I am making reservations for 4 store property for about the same over Songkran this year. If you are having problems finding deals in Thailand let me know. 

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Where do you goto book hotels i am curioius , i have never had to book hotel in thailand, but i did want to try and see if i could find an good price for four seasons in chiang mai.

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Please stay on topic.  If you want to discuss Thailand start your own thread. 

[Anonymous]

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@ways2go wrote:
My daughter will be going to Japan late summer. Which one is accepted more, visa , MasterCard, or Amex? I can get her a Discover as well? Personally she has a Freedom card and a BOA MasterCard, and she is an AU on my Amex.

Thanks

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From my travels of Japan and China, I can say that your daughter will be fine with a visa and a mastercard, but heavily rely on cash. Restaurant and hotels will accept credit cards, but whole in the wall restaurants and some tourists spots operate cash only. Some of the taxis in Tokyo do accept credit card lol. If your daughter can, have her exchange her money at the hotel she is staying at or find a Citi Bank. If she banks with BofA, they might have a relationship with a bank in Japan to where she will not be charged ATM or exchange rate fees when withdrawing money out of an approved ATM. Citi Bank still charges you exchange rate fee even if you have a bank account with them and use one of their ATMs =_= (then what's they point of having you as a bank then?). 

For China, the same rules apply including the BofA and Citi Bank information.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Get the Chase Sapphire Preferred, and you get 3 points on all purchases xD

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I believe those are only US based purchases.