This place used to be good....now it's a total RIP. The day I went to change money - I checked the market rate which was 1USD = 132y. These guys were only going to give me 127Y to 1USD so I don't like being ripped off. . It's not much but say you were to change $1000 USD into Yen - you'd be losing about $40 in transaction fees. TIP* Change a little here if you have to. But once you fly into Tokyo or Osaka - the rates are soooooooooooooooooooooooo much better. In Shinjuku - there is this place called NINJA MONEY EXCHANGE which gave me close to market rates. No skimming and no transaction fees. Woo-hoo read more

Pacific Money Exchange - Currency Exchange Near Me - Honolulu, Hawaii

Walk-ins welcome but limit is $1000. Best to call ahead and make an appointment so you can get more yen! Kamaaina rate available! Must show ID in person (they will not give daily kamaaina rate over the phone). Everyone I know, their uncle, aunty and cousin goes to Pacific exchange for yen! Dollar to Yen rate listed in newspaper today was 110 and that's what I got today :) Fast, friendly and good rate! Was told that I need to either bring passport or social security card next time. That's a new one. No parking so either drive down with a friend and one of run out to get the yen or look for street parking! read more

Pacific Money Exchange - Currency Exchange Near Me - Honolulu, Hawaii

Went to ask about buying yen and at first the lady behind the counter said they don't sell yen. Then she asks how much. When I tell her the amount the man next to her says it would need a reservation. Okay, what is the rate they're offering. Oh it cannot be disclosed. I realize it'll change depending on when I pick up the yen but I cannot even find out what the rate is today? read more

Very friendly and fantastic exchange rates. Good location for tourists Would always recommend to friends and strangers read more

Call ahead for reservation. Young lady who took my reservation was professional and polite. I had a 2 weeks wait, til after Golden week, it was not a problem for me. It appears the exchange rate in the past was a better savings, but it was still better than what the banks were offering. If saving a percentage or 2 is important, give them a call. We parked at the zoo and enjoyed our walk to and from. Parking was $1.50/hr, metered. When we arrived at the location, the elderly woman who greeted us was very pleasant. Even with our large sum that we exchanged, the entire process was rather quick. Just a few minutes. Although we saved just a few dollars more than if we had gone to the bank, the entire process was pleasant and easy enough that we will continue to do our business with Pacific Money Exchange. We trust them, and that is the most important of all. read more

Exchange rates were competitive, not as good as previous years but still good. Easy to order in advance and pick up is quick

Good exchange rates and professional service. If you need to exchange a large amount, I recommend making an appointment so your transaction is presorted before you get there. Bring your ID and cash for a quick and easy exchange. read more

There are good rate for exchange Very convenient location Very nice service for senior read more

Charged me 136 yen to the dollar!!! Today rate is 144. What a ripoff. I used to go here for their good rates.

They will not quote over the phone. And I can't waste my time to drive down into the mess of Waikiki just to find out they're rate is poorer than elsewhere. read more

This place is great and very convenient. I highly recommend. Make sure you call ahead

This is the only currency exchange place I got to whenever I need yen for travel! The workers are so kind, no commission fee, and I just learned that they have kama'aina rates! They don't give or take coins, so they'll round to the nearest paper currency, and give you back the difference in coins. read more

One of the few places open, as Duty Free and the other places on Royal Hawaiian Avenue are all closed. Call ahead as recently when the yen went above 114 there was a run on the exchange and they ran out for awhile. read more

They never have any yen unless you make an appointment months in advance, also their rates are terrible. Just buy yen in Japan it's a better rate, or another exchange place in town. They used to be the best, but now they are almost useless. read more

Exchanged a large amount of dollars for yen. Definitely make an advanced reservation for amounts over a few hundred. Rates are very reasonable for Kamaaina. read more

Quick process and transaction. They didn't have small bills to convert to the exact price, so they gave the rest back in USD. They made sure the conversion between yen and dollars was exact was understood. read more

Went to exchange $ to ¥ it was fast and easy. I was picking between this foreign exchange or the one located at Ala Moana. This location you get a slightly better rate $ to ¥. When I called they won't tell you how much you can get but said they had more than enough money to exchange for the day. It was fast and easy. read more

One of the better exchange rates to get yen. I would highly suggest that you call in advance to see if they have yen and if they do (especially if you want a large amount) to reserve it. If you are exchanging more than $999 U.S., then you will have to bring your passport or social security card. Flash them your local driver's license to get a little better rate and no fees like some other places do. Parking... best thing to do is to ask a friend to drive you or to stay in the driver's seat and pull over to the side and jump out and do your transaction so you don't have to pay for parking somewhere. Best time to go is in the evening as during the day there can be a line at times. read more

The elder lady working there is very polite and friendly. She was nice over the phone when I called to set up an appointment. She was also nice in person when I showed up to exchange USD for JPY. I knew it was her when I got there because of the way she spoke. They don't give rates over the phone but since I had two weeks before my appointment, I went to 2 other foreign exchange places and to 3 different financial institutions. None of their rates came even close to what Pacific Money Exchange offers! No hidden fees or nonsense add-on charges. Just straight up best rates. In a couple of months Japan here we come! read more

Good service called to place a order, be sure to have a valid picture I'd such as a passport or drivers license. Took no more than 5 minutes to get my yen. read more

No trip to Japan would be complete without cold, hard yen. There are several ways to go about exchanging dollars for yen. 1) Exchange dollars for yen at the airport and get ripped off. 2) use your credit card at an ATM in Japan and hope that the card works. I've seen some blog posts reporting their credit card did not work in the ATMs. 3) Exchange dollars for yen with the Japanese person standing behind you in line at the Pacific Money Exchange and get a one-to-one rate. I've been tempted on so many levels. 4) Trade at Pacific Money Exchange or DFS Galleria Money Exchange across the street (see separate review). I've used both services and they are both four stars. Pacific Money Exchange CONS: - they don't answer their phone so just give up now and save yourself the headache and drive there. - they don't post their exchange rate. I heard some Japanese tourists complaining about this yesterday. I kind of agree that this is important information. You have to stand in line to ask what the rate is. - you need to make an appointment to get yen, which means multiple back and forths, and sometimes it won't be for a week or more. I've already made three trips out to Waikiki. - you are exposed to the elements. Take an umbrella if it's raining or you'll be standing in the rain or baking sun. - no parking! Most people drop their friend/family off and circle around in the car. You can also park across the street at DFS Galleria, get a validation by exchanging a small amount of yen and get free validation for an hour then go across the street to PME. PROS: - a better exchange rate than DFS Galleria, but only marginally. If you need to exchange $999, go over to the Galleria, they can usually give it you that day, but no more than $999. - the owner is super friendly, and really nice. She counts the money back to you and runs it through the machine so you can be absolutely sure you're getting the full amount. - you can get a large amount from PME but only with advance reservation/appointment. Start exchanging money well before your trip to allow time for PME to collect the yen for you. Take your ID and passport. I forgot my passport so they took my social security number down on a piece of paper. I sure hope they have a shredder. UPDATE - hard lesson to learn. Do not exchange a ton of dollars for yen unless you are going into the countryside, riding the cabs a lot, taking the local trains on a regular basis or plan on eating mostly all of your meals in the alleys like Golden Gai or street food vendors. I exchanged a lot of dollars for yen, and when I came back to exchange yen for dollars, I lost a lot of money in the process due to the exchange rate (Yen is lower rate), so when you buy, you are thinking you got a great exchange rate, but when you sell back, you lose all that money (I lost approx $200 in fees and users who say they have no fee are wrong, how do you think they stay in business? It's not run for free!). Most places in Japan now take credit card, and we used it exclusively in restaurants, shops, and even the storefronts at Nara Deer Park! They are gearing up for the 2020 Olympics, so many Japanese stores have now gotten on the credit-card bandwagon. I applied for a credit card with no foreign transaction fees before I went to Japan and used that without any hassles, just make sure it's Visa or Mastercard as most places won't take Discover or Amex. read more

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The lady was a very nice work! I highly recommend going to this exchange. Very professional and easy to use.

Great service and great rates. We were advised to call before going to make sure that yen is available. We were very lucky the day we went, the line was short and the transaction went quickly. read more

I had heard good things about pacific money exchange so I decided to buy yen from here for my trip. I was in Waikiki one day so I thought I would just stop by and see what the rate was that day even though I didn't have any money on hand. The lady told me that there was no yen left unless I had a reservation that day and that she couldn't even tell me what the rate was. I'm not sure if this is normal at money exchange places because I thought most places have a board that post what the rate is that day. A couple of weeks later I decided to call to make a reservation. The lady who answered ask what day I wanted to reserve yen for so I just said the next day. I asked for $1500 and she said that because it was over $1000 I would need to bring my passport. I decided to make the reservation under my fiancé's name since I didn't have my passport. The next day I drove down there with him and he picked it up. About a month later we wanted to pick up another $1500 but when I called the lady said they didn't have any reservations till June. That was 3 weeks from when I had called and by then we would've came back from Japan so that would've been too late. read more

No one answers the phone. Very disturbing and frustrating to place a order to purchase anything from this establishment. At the very least they should have an answering service read more

02/16/2023. I don't quite understand the transaction. Currently yen is around 150 but we were given 145 rate. The man said that 150 is in New York and we would have to go there to get that rate? read more

This is an update to my previous review. Called last week to check on status of yen. There is a wait list of 300+ people and a wait of at least two months. If you are in a hurry, then go to a bank. If not, you can put your name on the list. Staff here are friendly and apologetic, but it's not their fault....the Japan tourists are not coming here in droves like before. read more

This is the best place I find to exchange USD to Yen. They don't charge a fee as other places will, which can run between $3.95 to 7.95, depending where you are going (airport or other exchange places) and rates are usually higher than those other places (We changed at the airport the following day and had to pay the fee and got Yen at a 92 rate, 16 less than what we got here). Kama'aina rates are available here. Be sure to show them your Hawaii ID. The rate is usually 2 yen more than what is shown on the board. When we went to change out the board showed 106 and we got our Yen rate at 108! When they do the exchange, they only do bills, no coins. So anything that requires coins, they give that back to you in USD. I called previously for Korean Won and they don't have that here. Not sure about other international currencies... What I like also about this place is that they are constantly doing exchanges and unless you are planning on doing a very large amount, they usually have enough Yen to change out. If you do plan on doing any changes over $1000 you can give them a call and make a reservation. This way they will hold Yen for you! Don't forget to bring your passport when doing these large exchanges. They are located around the corner from Victoria's Secret in the side street, facing Duty Free. There are two windows available. You line up in the front of it. It is not a store you go into. They are super fast, so the line moves smoothly. It's easy to find them. DO NOT mistake them for the other exchange spot, which is the business kiosk next door. You want to go to the one that is next to the Japanese eatery. Their sign is right above their window. read more

Good rates. They offered better a better rate then kama'aina rate, so they said. The yen rate on a May 8 was 1.09 I forgot my passport (they said to bring it) but they took my drivers license and took down my social security #. Said it was to document for the feds to insure there wasn't any money laundering. Very nice service. Parking is a problem but I had my hubby drop me off. It's a 2 window place right on Royal Hawaiian on the left side across DFS. I got got confused at first because there was another money exchange on the corner but the right one has a big sign that said Pacific Money Exchange. Walked right past it- LOL! There's a small lane before that your ride can turn into to wait. Real fast service read more

We made an appointment a month before and the person who took my call was very pleasant and answered all of my questions. Once we got there the transaction between UD dollars to ye man went quickly and smoothly. The exchange rate was better than our bank offered so we were pleased. Highly recommend. read more

They seemed friendly enough over the phone. But they declined to reveal the exchange rate over the phone. If there was nothing to hide, it seems like they would tell you their exchange rate before making you go through the hassle of going into Waikiki and searching for parking etc. So instead, I went to their competitor Currency Exchange International in the International Marketplace. Not sure if I got a better or worse rate, but at least they had nothing to hide. read more

My usual place to exchange for yen but no yen available with a waiting list to July 2022. The lady explained the limited yen availability is due to low numbers of Japanese tourists and their use of credit card purchases instead currency. I'm not in a rush to exchange for a cruise trip in 2023. read more

Exchanged money yesterday and I am extremely satisfied! I was going to originally trade at the place next door, but they were trading for slightly less (¥108.50), even if it's just by a little, every bit counts of course! Called around Waikiki that morning and confirmed that this place was the highest. The official forex rate was $1 = ¥109.65, meanwhile this place was trading dollars at ¥109 (Kama'aina rate). Aside from being the best rate, other pluses are that there was no minimum exchange amount and no fees. Their con is that at the time they only had the biggest yen bill (¥10,000, so less than $100) at the time. This can be a bit inconvenient if you wanna trade a flat numbers like hundreds, so I wasn't able to trade $900 like I planned. Instead I traded $917.43. The cashier did help me figure that out though. She told me I could either trade $825.69 for ¥90,000 or $917.43 for ¥100,000. Despite the snag, the exchange was nice and quick! read more

Pacific Money Exchange - Currency Exchange Near Me - Honolulu, Hawaii

Have to settled for two stars because the Asian lady was less than friendly when we tried to buy Yens. First, we couldn't get exact purchase because she had no small changes only larger bills. Secondly, why so hostile and discourteous to customers? Wasn't she there to help customers? The only saving grace was the exchange rate there was a little higher than competitors. Manager/supervisor, please check this out. She was there on 23 Sep 18 around 2030ish. It doesn't make any difference to us anymore because this was one time deal for us; however, I hate to see others experienced what we did. It kind of ruin our otherwise nice evening outing. read more

30 June 2019, Heard from everyone on the island that Pacific Money Exchange and Currency Exchange International had the best rates on the island for buying JPY with USD. Market rate was 1 USD to 108.30. Pacific Money Exchange offered at the time a kamaaina rate of 106.##, but had a special rate of 107.40. No fees nor limit (if you exchange $1000+, you do need your passport). It's easy to find and exchange, parking isn't existent. Bring a friend to sit in the car or pay for parking at Royal Hawaiian Center, or purchase an item at the center to get parking validation. Note, they do NOT carry Japanese coins so they will round to the closest USD cost for you to buy or round to the nearest JPY and pay the difference in USD. They only carry JPY for purchase. I did a walk-in but I'd recommend phoning a reservation if you have a large exchange! Currency Exchange International at the time offered a rate of 104.##. Pretty clear on who the winner is for today! read more

The pics for reviews of this place are spot on and give you a good idea of what to look for. Located on a way one street, if you can, it would be best to have someone drop you off and circle if needed. You can hop out and if there is no line, it's a very quick transaction. Staff was super friendly. You can take your US dollars and they will tell you how much to round up or down in order to give you a flat rate in the currency you're changing to. Show Kamaaina ID and get something - I think the fees were waived? read more

I found parking right in front on the Courtyard by Marriott, metered stalls so I put in for 35 minutes and crossed my fingers. Just a block away walk, it wasn't bad at all. As I inquired about exchanging USD to JPY, I got some good tips from the employees. They explained how to search the market rate by day and their rates are just about the same. For locals there is no fee, but if exchanging $1,000 or more you'll need to call to reserve and bring your passport. Since the rate changes daily, it's good practice to call ahead to find out what they offer and to see if they have enough cash for your transaction. You let them know how much you have to exchange and they calculate the amount for the conversion. No coins are given in the foreign amount so your amount in foreign currency will be rounded up or down depending on what you prefer. My transaction, under $1,000 took about 10 minutes. They counted out the foreign currency in front of me, making sure everything was accurate and gave me an envelope with the 10 key tape so I could refer to the amount and rate. Everything was very smooth. The employees were very helpful and I left with what I needed, feeling confident in my decision. I'll continue to check the rates as the days near our trip. I will definitely be exchanging from this business in the future and I would recommend their services to others. read more

Pacific Money Exchange - Currency Exchange Near Me - Honolulu, Hawaii

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Called and made a reservation two weeks in advance since that was the soonest Yen would be available. Woman answering the phone assured me that I would get the current rate with no fees. Went in today to purchase and it was 7 yen lower than the current days rate. If I wanted something that low I would've went to a bank and got 2 yen higher than what they offered. I will never refer anyone to go to this place. Best bet is to use your credit card when traveling and going to a bank to get your yen. Another good option is to convert when you get to your destination. read more

Don't waste your time going here. They used to be good but now they are the worst. They won't tell you rate over the phone because it's terrible. Their rates was 4% lower than what is actually is. This is after I showed them my state ID. I wasted my time going here and trying to talk to them. I would strongly encourage everyone to look else where and not believe what they say. Also no parking and not in the safest place. read more

A little confusing on the exchange rate but no fees for kamaaina and my friend told me they give you more money to spend in Japan! It's a little booth and fast and quick, my hubby waited in car in the loading zone. Just be aware if you need more than $500 you should call in advance to see if they have enough yen and can hold money for you as they do run out sometimes. Have a enjoyable trip to Japan with your new yen and take lots of pictures! read more