Protecting Myself From "Bees"

Japan like any country has credit cards, banks, ATMs, membership cards, wire transfer transactions, etc.  It's a developed nation after all and these kinds of things are normal.  I like to think of the institutions as giant bee hives and my job is to thwack them, try to get some honey, and not get stung.

What I mean by "not get stung" is not get stuck with their fees.  Fees are short, quick, ouchie payments I have to make just to use their service.  It's how many of these institutions pay for themselves other than just by lending money and profiting from the interest.  We are usually charged fees for anything from doing something wrong (making a late payment, or not keeping enough money in our account) to doing something right (like just trying to access our money after 7pm).

I am very allergic to fees.  They make me swell up and want to die.  I avoid them wherever I can.  I recently signed up for a JR East "View" credit card.  I did this because my employer pays me to buy a train pass every few months.  This amounts to about JPY60,000 (USD777.00) a year and I want to make points off of that.  In addition I can make more points and have them redeemed for cash on my Suica card* from my other spending.

When signing up for this card however I was presented with a variety of different choices.  Many of them included annual fees.  I could almost care less what the additional benefit of the card with annual fees was.  I have had credit cards before and have received ZERO benefit from any of the additional "products" they tack on because of the annual fee.

Another example of me trying to thwack a bees next to steal the honey and not get stung is a recent conversation I had with Citibank.  I work for an English conversation school that has an agreement with Citibank for one year of free international transfers and no account maintenance fees.  Well as overseas transfers can cost upwards of JPY4,000 (USD52) a pop of course I signed up.  The catch is that after your year you have to start paying maintenance fees unless you have over JPY500,000 (USD6475) or you deposit your paycheck from the English conversation school into your account.  However your check must have been deposited two months before your one year is up, otherwise, you guessed it, they will start to charge you JPY2,100 (USD27) a month for the account and overseas transfers will cost you too.

Due to my "allergy," in due diligence I made sure my check was being deposited and called them up this morning to extend my benefit.  I was told my account will be extended for another year of free fees and overseas transfers.  This is a savings of not just JPY2,100x12months=JPY25,200 (USD325) in maintenance fees but also monthly overseas transfer fees of approx JPY3,500x12months=JPY42,000 (USD545) and in total JPY67,200 (USD870) a year!  Wow!  That could buy me a few shares of Coca-Cola, or J&J.  And with those dividends...  Well, need I go on?

How do you protect yourself from "bees?"

*A Suica card is like electronic cash that can also store a train pass.  You add money onto the card at just about any JR East train station (there are other places as well) and then you can use the card to pay for train fare, in addition to buying drinks at vending machines, paying for items at convenience stores,  and like I said storing your commuter pass to get to and from work.  Check this out for a more detailed explanation.