This is about my trip to Fukuoka last September. I tried to withdraw money from an Aeon ATM next to Hakata Station for the first time using my Travel Wallet card. Before my trip, I read a few blog posts, and all of them said, "Just go to an Aeon ATM, insert your card, and withdraw." I genuinely thought that was all there was to it, until I stood in front of the Aeon ATM.
To cut to the chase, while you do insert your card and withdraw, I wouldn't describe it as "easy." Especially for first-timers, you'll likely hesitate at two key points 99% of the time.
Since Travel Wallet is affiliated with Visa, only Aeon Bank ATMs in Japan offer fee-free withdrawals. Japan has a lot of ATMs; you'll find them in every convenience store like Seven-Eleven, Lawson, and FamilyMart. It's easy to think, "I'll just withdraw from the nearest one," but withdrawing from those will incur a fee of about 110-220 yen per transaction. It feels a bit wasteful to pay 200 yen when you're only withdrawing 10,000 yen.
That's why I usually use the Aeon ATM closest to my accommodation or a station. Aeon ATMs are typically found inside pink-signed Ministop convenience stores or Aeon Malls. I withdrew from a small booth right next to Hakata Station.
Getting back to the main point, let me tell you about the two points where 99% of people hesitate at Aeon ATMs!
First Hesitation: You Must Select the Language First
This is where it really begins, and I paused for a long time here initially. The Japanese ATM screen gave me a bit of a panic. In Korean ATMs, you naturally look for the "Withdrawal" menu, but in Japanese ATMs, you first need to press the "International Card" button on the initial screen. Only after pressing this will the screen change to English or Korean.
Strangely, this button isn't very prominent. I tried to proceed on the Japanese screen and the transaction was interrupted once. I don't even remember what I pressed, but I kept pressing, wondering "Is this right?" and that's what happened. I reinserted my card and this time looked slowly, and there it was, the International Card button on one side of the screen. Press this button first. Seriously, knowing just this one thing will save you 3 minutes.
Second Hesitation: Adding "00" After Your PIN
This part truly makes you blank out. In Korea, you enter your 4-digit card PIN as is. Travel Wallet also uses a 4-digit PIN. So I entered 4 digits, but the screen showed that I needed to enter 2 more digits. At first, I genuinely thought, "Was my PIN 6 digits? What was my PIN?" and stood blankly in front of the ATM for about 3 minutes. I looked behind me and saw Japanese people waiting in line. Not just one, but two or three. Feeling apologetic, I considered taking out my card and stepping aside, but then I'd have to come back and struggle again, so I kept trying. I kept entering a 6-digit PIN I used frequently, but it still didn't work, and I really started to sweat.
It turns out that Aeon ATMs require a 6-digit PIN, so you have to add '00' at the end to make it 6 digits. If your PIN is 3939, you enter 393900. I'm not sure if I misread the travel wallet information or if I misread a blog post. It seems there wasn't much information about this.
I forgot this fact until my next trip to Japan and got stuck in the same way again. It's really a good idea to make a note of this before you depart. Just writing down "If PIN doesn't work, add 00 to make it 6 digits" in your phone's memo app will genuinely help.
After That, It's Relatively Smooth Sailing
Once you get past the language and PIN, the rest is quite straightforward. It's well-designed and easy to understand in Korean. Since Travel Wallet is a prepaid card, not a Japanese bank account, it doesn't make a huge difference what you press, but if there's a skip option, skip it, or otherwise, go with "Savings Account" to be safe. Be careful with one thing when selecting currency: sometimes it asks "Withdraw in JPY or pay in KRW?" You must select JPY (Japanese Yen). We've already pre-loaded JPY into the Travel Wallet app. Since you're withdrawing that pre-loaded JPY, choosing JPY will prevent any exchange rate loss.
And one good thing about Aeon ATMs is that you can withdraw in 1,000 yen increments. Other ATMs usually have a minimum of 10,000 yen, but Aeon allows you to withdraw 1,000 yen or 5,000 yen. If you only want to buy a can of soda and withdraw 10,000 yen, you'll end up with a lot of small change. So, I remember usually withdrawing in 5,000 or 10,000 yen units.
If You Don't Know the Limit, You'll Get Stuck on Your Second Withdrawal
This is another common oversight. Travel Wallet has a single withdrawal limit of USD 400 (approx. 60,000 JPY) and a daily limit of USD 1,000 (approx. 140,000 JPY). Also, a 2% fee applies for withdrawals exceeding USD 500 per month. This means that after withdrawing about 700,000 Korean Won's worth, subsequent withdrawals are no longer free.
People who stay in Japan for over a week or visit frequently often hit this limit. I found this out when I went to Osaka right after Fukuoka and suddenly started incurring fees. So, it's more economical to withdraw the necessary amount in larger denominations at once. Instead of withdrawing 10,000 or 20,000 yen frequently, withdraw 50,000 yen at once.
Take 5 Minutes Before Departure
If you do these two things in advance, you won't be stumped at the ATM.
First, check your JPY balance in the app. Travel Wallet is a prepaid card, so if your JPY balance in the app is 0, nothing will come out of the ATM no matter how many times you press. It's best to load money when the exchange rate is favorable.
Second, reconfirm your PIN and make a note of "00." Your Travel Wallet PIN is the 4-digit one you set in the app. If you confuse it with another card's PIN and enter it incorrectly multiple times, it might be temporarily suspended. Before you depart, check your PIN in the app once, and be sure to write down "if it doesn't work, add 00 to the end" in your phone's memo app.
In Conclusion
The statement "You can withdraw money for free from Japan's Aeon ATMs with a Travel Wallet" is true. However, blog posts ending with "it's easy" make people complacent. Free and easy are two different things. You'll 100% hesitate at these two points: pressing the International Card button and adding "00" after your 4-digit PIN.
Knowing these two things, my second trip to Japan allowed me to complete withdrawals in under a minute. But it's strange how even after getting used to it, if some time passes before your next trip, you might forget again. So, I recommend recalling the process the night before your departure. It's a small thing, but there's a huge difference between sweating under the gaze of Japanese people waiting in line and withdrawing money in just one minute.