No credit card/paypal? Use Visa Vanilla from 7/11

[trunk]

For those of you in japan who maybe cant get a credit or send funds to your paypal like myself, Visa Vanilla prepaid cards seem to work バニラ Visa オンライン（ネット決済専用プリカ）

If you cant read japanese, click on the middle icon on that page and you'll get a list of places you can find them,... 7/11, yamada denki, aeon mall and family mart are where you can find them. i got mine from 7/11.

I say "seem to work" as I've just placed and order with Inawera, who process their Visa through paypal. the transaction appears to have gone through.

I did try another card called e-saifu and i would constantly get a " your bank has not authorized your card for this use" message.

with visa vanilla however I got a confirmation that the transaction has gone through, as well as an email from inawera and paypal saying the payment has been made.

so it's looking good.

you do need to go to the site and register your card so get someone to help you if you cant read japanese. I suck at japanese but managed it without ....ing up

Thanks to Hattori for mentioning that his friend uses this card to buy stuff from outside japan, and thanks again for bugging your friend for me, much appreciated mate.

I'll update this thread if/when anything happens.

 

[trunk]

got notification from Inawera that my order has been shipped.

so far so good

 

[mbottema]

Vanilla Visa.....that made me laugh. I guess if the numbers are right and the order is right, it works. Never heard the term though, but I'm an old man. I may have to get me one since my bank in the US is hard to replenish.

 

[trunk]

it is a very stupid name,... probably dreamt up by some hipster teenagers at a PR firm

there are jcb and mastercard ones as well but i think some cards might have restrictions,... like japan only websites,... the e-saifu ones, which are from UFJ i think, didnt work on international sites and i kept getting that error message about unauthorized use. but i managed to use it at yodobashi online without any problems.

 

[trunk]

well, the package has cleared customs and is at my local post office so that's that i suppose.

in summary,....

if you dont have paypal or a credit card in japan, go pick up a Visa Vanilla card. not any card that says Visa on it, it has to say Vanilla.

e-saifu doesnt work.

hope this helps someone

 

[trunk]

thanks to @HattoriHanzo for bugging his friend for details

 

[imabuddha]

Thanks for the tip! I bought one from Family Mart today & used it to order from fasttech. ^_^

 

[hakarune]

For those of you in japan who maybe cant get a credit or send funds to your paypal like myself, Visa Vanilla prepaid cards seem to work バニラ Visa オンライン（ネット決済専用プリカ）

If you cant read japanese, click on the middle icon on that page and you'll get a list of places you can find them,... 7/11, yamada denki, aeon mall and family mart are where you can find them. i got mine from 7/11.

I say "seem to work" as I've just placed and order with Inawera, who process their Visa through paypal. the transaction appears to have gone through.

I did try another card called e-saifu and i would constantly get a " your bank has not authorized your card for this use" message.

with visa vanilla however I got a confirmation that the transaction has gone through, as well as an email from inawera and paypal saying the payment has been made.

so it's looking good.

you do need to go to the site and register your card so get someone to help you if you cant read japanese. I suck at japanese but managed it without ....ing up

Thanks to Hattori for mentioning that his friend uses this card to buy stuff from outside japan, and thanks again for bugging your friend for me, much appreciated mate.

I'll update this thread if/when anything happens.

Can you link it to your Japanese paypal? I'm trying to finda way to linka prepaid card in Japan to my PayPal...

 

[trunk]

sorry for the late reply,... and no i dont think you can but then again i havent really tried.

dont think i mentioned this, but these things have a limit of up to 30,000 i think,... maybe 40,000 i forget. and you only have to buy the card itself once. apparently you can just top up using the machine at the conbini till you get to the limit. i have yet to try though.

so its good till about 300-400 bucks incase that is the reason why you want to link it to paypal.

 

[trunk]

disregard the above,.. i had to buy another card to add funds.

so for 20,000 you pay 20,890 ish,... 890 charge, just short of 5%.

but it works, got some nicoticket custard on the way

 

[Hokkaidomist]

I link virtual online card called a V-preca to my paypal to buy stuff from ebay and all my ecig stuff. You can get them at the machines at all conbinis i think.

 

[hakarune]

So I bought a tester and it worked with my Japanese PayPal. It even allowed me to send money to my American PayPal and deposit into my bank account. It was a lot cheaper than an international transfer. And yeah I couldn't find a way to recharge it, has to buy another one which caps at $200. :/ but it works!

 

[trunk]

brilliant! i'll have to try that out

 

[hakarune]

Here's the breakdown:

$4.20 - purchase fee/per $100 vanilla visa
$2.35 - PayPal international transfer fee
$3.57 - exchange rate upcharge using PayPal exchange rate (based on difference from real time exchange rate at the time of sending)
-----------------------------------------
= $10.12 for $100 transfer to American bank via Paypal

Definitely cheaper than any bank or the post as long as you don't need to send more than $100-$200 at once. I'm going to see what the exact amount is for sending $200 on the 26th.

Also it is instantly sent to my American PayPal and in my bank in 3 days or less.