How does 2-5% cashback sound, sir?
Have you noticed that recently a lot of shops suddenly have ‘we take PayPay’ and similar signs up?
There are also a lot of places that recently started accepting credit cards, using those little blue card readers to process the payment.
It seems this is not a spontaneous occurence, but rather a government push towards cashless payments, because the Olympics (and better tracking people’s spending), of course, and disguised by pretending to be a way of offsetting next week’s consumption tax increase.
The Cashless Rebate
I wasn’t very aware of this (and it seems many people around me are not either) but the cashless rebate system will launch next month alongside the tax rise.
When I first heard about this I assumed I would need to sign up for one of those funky *Pay systems (like PayPay, FamilyPay, SevenPay -ooh, not that one, it got hacked, AliPay, etc.) and register my My Number information and all that jazz. I had kind of decided not to bother.
However, it seems that as long as you use a Japanese issued credit card (and I try to do all my shopping on cards -makes it easier to track spending and also I get air miles) you don’t have to do anything. The rebate will automatically be applied to your balance each month.
It seems the system is due to run from October this year (next week) until June 2020. We’ll get a 2% or 5% rebate in the form of points from qualified merchants. There’s an app you can use to find out which shops can give you the rebate if you are motivated enough.
I found a good English language write up here if the Japanese site is too much for you.
My response
I’m not particularly excited about this, and I’m not planning to change my behaviour to take advantage of this promotion. Now that I know that I’ll get the points anyway just by using my credit card as I usually do, this is a minor positive for me.
The fact that many shops that didn’t used to now take credit cards is also a bonus.
If you don’t have a Japanese credit card it seems debit cards also qualify, as do the various prepaid or e-cash systems.
Did everyone know about this? Was it just me and those around me who were clueless, or is this another one of those failed government campaigns like NISA and iDeCo, where everyone can benefit but hardly anyone knows about them or understands how they work?
I watched some of the daytime news programs earlier this month outlining the details of this promotion. At that point, according to the experts doing the explaining, some of the critical details hadn’t yet been decided. So don’t feel bad that you’re not up to speed on this.
It’s only going to run for 9 months, so like you, this isn’t going to get me to change what I do.
It may be worth noting that how and when the rebate applies also differs depending upon the store and payment method. For example, when purchasing from a convenience store, a 2% discount is applied at the time of the transaction.
That’s a great point. I’ve been seeing the instant rebate on some receipts, and I’m guessing I’ll also see some on my credit card statements at the end of the month 🙂