Cell phone rental - Rental Charges
Rental Charges
All phones |
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| First week or part | Yen 3900 (approx. US$39) |
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| After 7 days, up to 20 days | Yen 300 per additional day |
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| After 20 days | Yen 100 per additional day |
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[call charges are not included] The rental charge is the same whether you use your own SIM or the Japanese SIM we send with the phone.Note that using your own SIM, your cell phone carrier will bill you for calls received as well as calls made at very high rates. We do not rent SIM only (many people think that their phone will work in Japan only to find it doesn't) nor phone only (because of the very high costs of making calls with foreign SIMs when roaming abroad) |
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Apart from the above charges, there are no extra charges for tax,
handling, or shipping within Japan - all are included in the rental charge
Call Charges
Call Charges (airtime) per 6 seconds using the Japanese SIM we send with the phone-
| outgoing | incoming | |
| Within Japan | from Yen 3.5 (see below) | free |
| Overseas (using 006610 dialing code) |
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| USA | Yen 4.5 | free |
| Australia | Yen 7 | free |
| UK/France/Germany | Yen 5 | free |
| These are the lowest call charges you will find for short-term rental. Unlike almost all other cell phone rental services, we bill for calls at cost, and do not add a mark-up. |
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We use Softbank Mobile prepaid / pay-as-you-go phones.
We make a note of the credit balance (minutes available for calls)
when we send phones - and inform you- then when we get phones back,
we check the remaining credit balance, calculate how much you have used, and bill you for that.
You can easily check how much credit is left yourself, and so how
much you have used, following instructions with the phone.
Phones are delivered with sufficient credit for most users- around
Yen 20,000 ($200 US)- if the credit balance runs low, just call us on
the toll-free number on the back of the phone to add credit. Of
course you will only be billed for what you use.
Notes about calling charges
The Softbank Mobile prepaid rate within Japan is Yen 9 per 6 secs to
both landlines and mobiles, which is relatively expensive.....
To help our customers, we program our phones with a discount calling card: just dial 006610 in front of the number and calls within Japan
will be at the discount rate of Yen 3.5 per 6 secs to landlines / Yen 5.5 per 6 secs to cell phones.
For example, calling Tokyo 03-3333-3333, if you call 006610-03-3333-3333 it will be at the discount rate of Yen 3.5 per 6 secs or Yen 35 per minute.
006610 is also the prefix for international calls- to call the USA 1-808-808-8008, call 006610-1-808-808-8008.
This 006610-prefix is programmed into our phones for easy calling , and is also on the back of phones.
There are therefore in fact two prepaid credit balances in our phones - for Softbank Mobile prepaid and for the 006610-prefix (international as well as discount domestic calls).
Note that using the 006610 prefix, your phone number will not be displayed on the screen of the phone you call.
If you need it to appear on the screen of the number you call : for domestic calls you will need to dial directly and use the Softbank Mobile prepaid balance ; for overseas calls dial either 010 or + in front of the country code (this is much more expensive for most countries - e.g. (per 30 secs) : US Yen 39 ; Canada Yen 49 ; Australia Yen 99 ; UK / France / Germany Yen 119)
Please note that with prepaid phones it is impossible to provide a call-by-call breakdown of charges (this applies to both the Softbank
Mobile prepaid balance and the 006610 discount / international balance).
E-mail / texting costs
With simple activation - call 1400 and press 41# when you hear “main menu”- you can send/receive e-mails to/from computers in Japan and overseas (this information is also included with phones).Yen 300 will be deducted from the Softbank Mobile prepaid balance (and every month if you are renting long-term) - apart from that there is no charge for sending /receiving e-mails.
Note that Japanese phones have an e-mail address (linked to the phone number)- you can text to a phone using the recipient's phone number only with the same carrier (in the case of our phones - Softbank).
With the phones we use, you should be able to receive SMS texts from phones abroad (for free), but not send (with some Japanese phones, you can send SMS abroad, but the cost is high- roughly that of a two- minute call so we consider it not worthwhile to set up). You cannot access the internet with these phones.
Many people are unaware that you can also send e-mail to US phones, and those of some other countries, as long as your know which carrier the recipient uses.
For more details , click here- http://www.tech-faq.com/send-text- messages-free.shtml
NB- The text of the e-mail must be short - under 160 characters, and have no html /attachments.
Payment
Generally we ask customers to pay by credit card.(Visa or Mastercard)
We usually charge for one week's rental before sending out phones,
and the balance (extra days plus call charges) on return.
We can also accept payment by Paypal -please ask us for details if
you prefer to pay this way (in this case we will need a Yen 30,000
deposit before sending a phone, and will refund the balance on return).