Where can I get cash with a foreign card?
Short answer
A convenience store ATM. They take overseas cards, run around the clock, and there are tens of thousands of them.
Convenience store first, bank last
The ATM inside a convenience store is the default answer, and it is the reverse of what most travellers assume. Those machines accept the major overseas card marks, operate day and night, and sit in every neighbourhood.
Bank branch ATMs are the least dependable for a foreign card, and many keep branch hours. Walking past a bank to reach a convenience store is not a mistake.
What to expect at the machine
There is an English button on the first screen. The flow is the same everywhere, so the second withdrawal takes half the thinking of the first.
Airports, large stations and department stores also have these machines, which means you can withdraw on arrival rather than committing to an exchange counter rate.
If a card is refused
Not every card carrying a supported mark will work, and a refusal at one machine is worth retrying at a different operator before assuming the card is the problem.
Carrying two cards from different networks costs nothing and removes the one scenario where this becomes a real problem rather than an inconvenience.
Good to know
- Decline the machine's offer to convert to your home currency — your bank's rate is the better one
- Two cards on different networks is the cheapest insurance there is
At ATMs carrying your card network's logo. UnionPay is accepted broadly; Visa and Mastercard work on a narrower set of machines.
ATMs are everywhere and international cards work at more than 20,000 of them — but local-bank machines cap each withdrawal low, so the machine you choose decides your fees.
Look for the word "Global" on the machine. Those take foreign cards, and many but not all of them run around the clock.