Job Discussion Forums

[Willy_In_Japan]

The first two times I went to apply for a credit card, I was with my Japanese speaking Canadian friend. I got rejected at the Daiei Department Store Credit Card Kiosk my first year in Japan. A year later, I went with him to the Ito Yokado and got rejected.

This year, I decided to apply to Saison with an application by mail. I got my Japanese co worker to fill it out for me and sent it in. I got rejected with no reason given. My co worker called the company yesterday, and after trying to avoid talking to me through her, gave me two reasons for not granting me a credit card.

The first one was 'You have a bad credit rating'. Curious since I pay all of my bills and don't have a Japanese credit card to begin with! The second reason was 'You don't have a long enough job history'. Cripes, I have lived and worked here 3.5 years, and I don't have a long enough job history?!! It seems that rather than state the REAL reason (I am a foreigner) they lie.

This is getting rather tiresome, asking for favours to help me apply for credit and have them simply reject them for no good reasons.

Any suggestions?

[JimDunlop2]

Yup...

Get plastic surgery to give yourself a set of almond-shaped eyes, airbrush your skin Japanese, change your name to kanji...

In other words, short of becoming Japanese, good luck! it's a crapshoot. Japanese credit companies are NOTORIOUSLY racist, and I doubt there's much that can be done about it. Whereas in North America, you can get a Platinum card for your pet lizard!


I've heard that Saison is more liberal than others in giving out credit cards to foreigners but obviously you've shown otherwise. Perhaps the fact that your Japanese co-worker filled it out was a little suspicious... I.e. How could a foreigner write Japanese so well? When I write Japanese, it looks like a child wrote it.

I suppose my next step would be to try speaking with EITHER: Citibank or Shinsei Bank. Citibank, if they're anything like back home, will fill your boots with plastic... As for Shinsei, I don't know. I DO know they are affiliated with Amex (which, in and of itself can be tricky to get)...

In addition, another theory is that when they say your credit isn't good enough, they mean INTERNATIONAL credit... Apparently there is such a thing, or at least that's what they tell you in Puerto Vallarta when you're sitting at a condo sales meeting, applying to buy a condo, all because you wanted to extract some free bullfight tickets that some buddy down the street promised you.

[ava77]

It is quite simple if you apply for a visa at the bank where you have an account. I got one when I was in between jobs so I wasn't even working. Fill out the application through your branch. Tokyo Mitibishi has english forms or american express is easy to but you must pay the balance in full every month.

[Tiger Beer]

hmm.. when I got my current university job in Seoul.. there was a Korean credit card company that hunted down all the recently employed teachers trying to set them up with a Korean credit card.

Personally I'd rather just pay with cash or use the ATM machine for purchases here.. and save the American credit cards for elsewhere if I so needed them.

[madeira]

I have no idea how I got a VISA card so easily and quickly (in the first three months I was here.)

I applied, they sent me a card.

If you're having so much trouble, just keep using your overseas cards. Yes, it's a pain to transfer the cash. Yes, some places freak out about 'non-Japanese' cards.

Oh. About that last bit. You CAN sue/successfully complain to companies(businesses and the card companies) for not accepting your credit card. One of my co-workers did. He received some cash from VISA. He has the energy and patience to make a stink about stuff, though...

You know why some places don't accept our cards? He was told that "foreigners have fake credit cards".

I gave up after the first few refusals and got a Japanese card. And then I turned native and started paying cash for everything...

[Willy_In_Japan]

I have excellent 'international' credit....my Canadian cards have limits of 11,000 and 12,000 dollars.

It is not that I need credit. I just want to be able to order something from online, or pay for a hotel when I travel, and not have to send money home.

Which due to post office 'improvements' are now 2500 yen to send money home......grrrrrr

I am going to try applying to my bank (Mizuho)

[earthmonkey]

Willy.
I had the same problem. First of all, it has nothing to do with your credit at home. They don't/can't check that. Just keep applying. I finally got my card from Tokyu corp. last December after almost four years here, and three applications. It's a TopCard Mastercard. If you are in Tokyo, try them. Tokyu store or Tokyu plaza in Shibuya. Make sure that your Japanese friend reads the fine print. In my card's case, we found that I needed to send a copy of my gaijin card (both sides). Did you do this?

I do agree that it is a crapshoot as was said above. Some get one, some don't. But keep going and you'll get one.

People usually suggest Citibank because it's American. But Citibank in Japan is as Japanese as all the rest. I'd had the Postal Savings bank recommended twice as being looser with granting cards. Was just about to open an account there when I finally got my card.

Good luck.

[Montbell]

I can second the Postal suggestion. It was very easy.
Citibank wouldn't give me a card even though I had an account with them.

[nomadder]

The best way to get a credit card in Canada is to have a 6 figure income or a 5 figure student debt(while still a student and with little chance to work much of course).

And beware if you should overpay Mastercard while away and then come back after not using the card for over a year(or it could be less time) and then want YOUR money back from your now frozen card. It will take at least a year and lots of snooty phonecalls with French people in Montreal who you will want to poison eventually.

Hope Visa is better should I ever want to redelve in to the murky underworld of credit(dredit).

[womblingfree]

Even if you get a credit card and find somewhere that takes credit cards and knows how to use the machine, they may still pretend not to accept it if you're foreign.

I found Bic camera was just about the only place where I had no trouble using a credit card.

I didn't have a Japanese credit card but an international Mastercard. I went to a shop once, Tsutaya I think, which had a Mastercard sign in the window and next to the till. They said they didn't take Mastercard! When I pointed out the signs they said they only took Japanese Mastercards.

I called Mastercard and they told me this was total crap.

[JimDunlop2]

[Willy_In_Japan]

I was actually quite hopeful, because Saison sent me a letter requesting a photocopy of my Gaikokujin card. I sent it to them, and half expected to actually get a card.

It is a very frustrating procedure that is for sure.