ATMs in Japan keep asking Accept or Decline Conversion - what does that mean? Shows high charges for this
I was confused at first in Fukuoka with a Mitsubishi UFJ ATM. It said something about converting to GBP and showed a “guaranteed rate” that was rubbish. I hit decline and my Monzo debit card did the conversion itself at the correct market rate. Basically, if you accept conversion, you let the ATM operator decide the rate, which always ends up costing more. Best practice is to always decline and let your card company handle it.
Used my Sparkasse ForexPlus card at a Japan Post Bank ATM in Kyoto and it gave me the same screen. “Do you want the transaction converted to EUR?” I chose decline after checking online. My card provider charged me the standard Visa exchange rate and it worked out much cheaper than what the ATM offered. Decline means your home bank/card does the conversion. Accept means the ATM sets the rate and it’s usually inflated.
Same in Shinjuku at a Lawson ATM. It asked me to accept conversion to EUR and I was about to hit yes but then saw it was giving me 138 yen per euro while the actual rate was more like 146. Pressed decline and my DKB Visa did the rest. Later googled and this is called DCC dynamic currency conversion and it's always worse for the customer. Decline it always, even if the ATM tries to scare you with vague language.
Just came back from Osaka and ran into this with the Seven Bank ATM at Kansai Airport. It said something like “Do you want to be charged in USD or JPY” and had this big “conversion rate” screen. If you hit Accept, it gives you their own exchange rate which was really bad. I hit Decline and my Chase Sapphire Preferred card gave me the actual Mastercard rate with no extra markup. So always hit Decline. It just means you’re avoiding their own poor conversion rate.