Job Discussion Forums

yellow earth · Joined: 14 Jan 2009 Posts: 41

I'm about to start year #2 in Japan. I got killed on my softbank keitai bill this year. I pay about 7,000 yen a month and I never text or go online. I only make a few calls per week.
Does Japan have any kind of cheap "pay as you go" phone like what the convenient stores in the US have?
Or could anyone suggest a better company/plan than softbank?

ShioriEigoKyoushi · Joined: 21 Aug 2009 Posts: 364 Location: Japan

Apsara · Joined: 20 Sep 2005 Posts: 2142 Location: Tokyo, Japan

I pay 3,900 yen a month with au for apparently unlimited emails (I send a lot). I don't spend a huge amount of time online and only make fairly short phone calls, but even with more calls my bill doesn't often go over 4,500 a month.

rikai · Joined: 06 Feb 2010 Posts: 13 Location: Tokyo

If you make very few calls but use keitai meeru a lot then Softbank prepaid is a pretty good option.

You have to top up 3,000Y every 2 months but you can get unlimited meeru for 300Y per month. Thus, after the handset cost of 6,000Yish you're effectively paying only 1,500 Y a month (1,200Y of which is available credit).

AU prepaid offers similar prices but no keitai meeru, which is a deal-breaker for me. The big disadvantage of prepaid is the lack of mobile internet though.

wayne432 · Joined: 05 Jun 2008 Posts: 255

I'm with docomo and pay about 6,700 a month (1,500 for the cheapest calling plan + 5,000 for unlimited mail/internet)... pretty decent deal since I send 500+ mails a month and scour the internet whenever I'm on the train.

To the OP, what's your call plan look like? If you were signed up for a cheap call plan and you run over it... the rates balloon like crazy.
Also, where are you calling? Did you work out a pay-as-you-go for your phone? For example, you can get a phone from softbank and pay increments for a year or 2...

Phone calls do eat up minutes like crazy... if you have questions, but can't speak Japanese, try to make your way to a softbank with an english speaker or get a friend who can help work things out and figure out why the bill is high... the companies are usually pretty nice.

projectrook · Joined: 08 Jan 2010 Posts: 45

As stated above, Softbank tends to have the best deals for people who use mail and SMS more than phone calls. They have deals such as the White Plan and Double White Plan.
AU has good rates for actual phone calls.
Docomo tends to be the most expensive of all the services, but usually has the nicer phones.

This is why you see a lot of people walking around with more than one keitai. One is for messsages and one is for calls.

Pitarou · Joined: 16 Nov 2009 Posts: 1116 Location: Narita, Japan

That's what's worried me most about moving to Japan.

Back in the UK, I liked to think I was pretty savvy about companies mugging unwary customers with hidden charges and confusing contracts. Now I'm in Japan, I'm at their mercy.

That, and the criminal justice system....

naujokaitis · Joined: 09 Mar 2010 Posts: 32 Location: london, ontario

how do iphones and plans for them work in japan?
will this be expensive?

wayne432 · Joined: 05 Jun 2008 Posts: 255

seklarwia · Posted: Fri Mar 12, 2010 12:19 pm Post subject:

Softbank is really only best for people who are mostly contacting other Softbank users since calls and mail to other Softbank phones are free from 1am to 9pm. Most of the people I call or mail are softbank users. So my monthly bill has never exceeded 2500/month (apart from the very first since that included setup fees).

yellow earth · Joined: 14 Jan 2009 Posts: 41

The english section of the AU website shows a prepaid phone. You can reload it with cards that you can supposedly buy at any konbini. I don't care about texting, email or internet. I just want a PHONE, and I don't want to pay 7,000 yen a month for it. Anyone have this prepaid thing?

wayne432 · Joined: 05 Jun 2008 Posts: 255

yellow earth, you said you had softbank... how long was the contract for?
I thought most phone companies did a 2 year minimum, and that if you broke out before then, it was usually quite expensive... can any softbankers fill in the blanks?

Prepaids can usually only be found in the big cities...
A lot of the companies don't like the prepaid, so it can be a hassle to get them in some places, since companies would prefer you pay them by month on a regular plan.

Since you said you only make a few calls per week, I have to ask, how many is "a few" and for how long do you talk on avg? (only outgoing calls)

yellow earth · Joined: 14 Jan 2009 Posts: 41

It's a one year contract. I make an average of 3 calls a week. None of them last more than a minute. Part of the problem was that I had no one with me who was fluent in English when I signed up. So I guess I'm angry with my bosses, too. I could keep the phone and try to make changes to the contract, but I'm moving to a new prefecture and starting up with a new bank. The whole process would be a hassle. I'd rather just cut my losses and find something else.
How about the electronic stores like EIDEN or BICCamera? Would they have a cheap prepaid phone? Is there any alternative to signing away my dignity to softbank/docomo/au?

seklarwia · Posted: Fri Mar 12, 2010 1:50 pm Post subject:

Depends on whether he owns his phone or not. I paid for my phone upfront so I don't have a fixed contract period. I can change or cancel my plan as I wish.

If somebody had just gotten the the 3Gs from them, then they would be looking at a 2 year contract. But a friend of mine got one with softbank a few months back and so far their monthly bills have been about 4,500.

I'm wondering what exactly Yellow is being charged for to be getting bills of 7000/month despite only making a few calls per week.

rikai · Joined: 06 Feb 2010 Posts: 13 Location: Tokyo

yellow earth I agree, save the hassle of a contract and just get a prepaid phone. As I said before your initial outlay is about 6,000Y then it's just 3,000Y every 2 months because the credit expires. 1500Y a month. I just don't get why everyone's on contract...

I believe that most softbank outlets have prepaid phones available (in Tokyo at least.) I got mine from the softbank outlet on Kichijouji's Sun Road.