Amazon Japan Mastercard

[glimmer]

Uncertain if "Banking" forum is appropriate for a credit card question. Let me know if I should repost in another section such as "General".

I frequently order things from Amazon Japan. It's so easy to order in English and I still cannot wrap my head around Rakuten's UI and worrying about communication, shipping costs, return issues, etc.

Anyone have the Amazon Japan Mastercard? There seem to be 2 versions. How has your experience been thus far?

https://www.amazon.co.jp/MasterCard_%E3 ... 3036192051

[RetireJapan]

I've had this for a while. You get points for purchases on Amazon. You can use the points (1pt = 1 yen) to pay. Seems to work fine

I only use it on Amazon though.

[captainspoke]

If one is close to you, a tangential use might be costco. I think you need to use a MasterCard there, so if you don't already have a MC, this could work there, too.

[glimmer]

@RetireJapan: Thanks for prompt reply! Good to hear! When I searched in English, I couldn't find any information about this card. Only posts about using a foreign credit card on Amazon Japan. I just tried adding my Synchrony Amazon Prime US Store Card but it doesn't seem to work, I guess Amazon US only.

May I ask, do you have the Gold version? I guess the Gold's ¥11,000/year fee includes Prime membership, which costs me ¥4,900 annually. So from my quick calculations, you would need to spend a minimum of ¥122,000 annually on Amazon to get your money's worth and match the 0.5% difference between Classic and Gold. I certainly spend much more than that, but still it's interesting to know these metrics. Please correct me if I made an error.

@captainspoke: Excellent point! I do have a Costco near me, and would be good to have a Yen based Mastercard, as my current Mastercard which I often use is US $ based. As a side note, when I inquired about the Costco Citi Mastercard they told me that I have to have Permanent Residency to qualify, which I do not have.

[Kanto]

@RetireJapan: Thanks for prompt reply! Good to hear! When I searched in English, I couldn't find any information about this card. Only posts about using a foreign credit card on Amazon Japan. I just tried adding my Synchrony Amazon Prime US Store Card but it doesn't seem to work, I guess Amazon US only.

May I ask, do you have the Gold version? I guess the Gold's ¥11,000/year fee includes Prime membership, which costs me ¥4,900 annually. So from my quick calculations, you would need to spend a minimum of ¥122,000 annually on Amazon to get your money's worth and match the 0.5% difference between Classic and Gold. I certainly spend much more than that, but still it's interesting to know these metrics. Please correct me if I made an error.

@captainspoke: Excellent point! I do have a Costco near me, and would be good to have a Yen based Mastercard, as my current Mastercard which I often use is US $ based. As a side note, when I inquired about the Costco Citi Mastercard they told me that I have to have Permanent Residency to qualify, which I do not have.

https://kakaku.com/card/item.asp?id=008017

KaKaku is the go-to place for card comparison.

Basically, if you use Amazon monthly, and you pay for Prime the Gold card is worth it.

We use it as our Main card now.

We also have ->

Rakuten Gold (4000 a year)
View Suica Card (Free)
Random Mall Card (Free)

[nanaya]

May I ask, do you have the Gold version? I guess the Gold's ¥11,000/year fee includes Prime membership, which costs me ¥4,900 annually. So from my quick calculations, you would need to spend a minimum of ¥122,000 annually on Amazon to get your money's worth and match the 0.5% difference between Classic and Gold. I certainly spend much more than that, but still it's interesting to know these metrics. Please correct me if I made an error.

I think you missed a 0. To match the difference you need to spend x where x * 0.5/100 = (11000 - 4900) which is 1,220,000.

The only way to make amazon gold card worth it is by applying for both online report (-1100) and automatic revolving payment (-5500) at which point the "yearly fee" becomes -500 instead. From what I gather when using automatic revolving payment as long it's one time and paid in full there's no extra fees charged.

I'm not comfortable with that and it may change at any time (it's already slightly changed for other SMBC credit cards) so I just use classic.

If you can read Japanese this website has some details on Amazon credit cards (and other credit cards): https://matsunosuke.jp/amazon-card/

[Kanto]

May I ask, do you have the Gold version? I guess the Gold's ¥11,000/year fee includes Prime membership, which costs me ¥4,900 annually. So from my quick calculations, you would need to spend a minimum of ¥122,000 annually on Amazon to get your money's worth and match the 0.5% difference between Classic and Gold. I certainly spend much more than that, but still it's interesting to know these metrics. Please correct me if I made an error.

I think you missed a 0. To match the difference you need to spend x where x * 0.5/100 = (11000 - 4900) which is 1,220,000.

The only way to make amazon gold card worth it is by applying for both online report (-1100) and automatic revolving payment (-5500) at which point the "yearly fee" becomes -500 instead. From what I gather when using automatic revolving payment as long it's one time and paid in full there's no extra fees charged.

I'm not comfortable with that and it may change at any time (it's already slightly changed for other SMBC credit cards) so I just use classic.

If you can read Japanese this website has some details on Amazon credit cards (and other credit cards): https://matsunosuke.jp/amazon-card/

If you and your spouse use it as your main card, and you already pay for PRIME, and you shop on Amazon regularly it is worth it.

If you travel there are all those fringe benefits as well. This is why most people want a Gold card to begin with.

Please do not sign up for the revolving payment...there are too many horror stories with Rakuten or Amazon cards in regards to that system.

[nanaya]

If you and your spouse use it as your main card, and you already pay for PRIME, and you shop on Amazon regularly it is worth it.

If you travel there are all those fringe benefits as well. This is why most people want a Gold card to begin with.

Please do not sign up for the revolving payment...there are too many horror stories with Rakuten or Amazon cards in regards to that system.

Travel benefit is its only benefit. And with current situation it may not be all that useful for next few months.

If it's only for shopping on Amazon, classic card is probably better (even with paying prime on your own) unless you spend 1M on Amazon every year. (or take risk)

[Kanto]

If you and your spouse use it as your main card, and you already pay for PRIME, and you shop on Amazon regularly it is worth it.

If you travel there are all those fringe benefits as well. This is why most people want a Gold card to begin with.

Please do not sign up for the revolving payment...there are too many horror stories with Rakuten or Amazon cards in regards to that system.

Travel benefit is its only benefit. And with current situation it may not be all that useful for next few months.

If it's only for shopping on Amazon, classic card is probably better (even with paying prime on your own) unless you spend 1M on Amazon every year. (or take risk)

The 1st major benefit/difference is Free Prime.

The 2nd major benefit/difference is 2.5% points on Amazon.

The 3rd major benefit/difference is travel insurance and travel lounge access.

The 4th major benefit/difference is a higher credit limit.

.....

The regular card has No prime include and only 1.5% points on Amazon.

.....

It makes sense as your MAIN card. Probably not as an auxiliary card.

[nanaya]

The 1st major benefit/difference is Free Prime.

The 2nd major benefit/difference is 2.5% points on Amazon.

The 3rd major benefit/difference is travel insurance and travel lounge access.

The 4th major benefit/difference is a higher credit limit.

.....

The regular card has No prime include and only 1.5% points on Amazon.

.....

It makes sense as your MAIN card. Probably not as an auxiliary card.

With classic and paying own prime, the point is 2.0% on Amazon. So that only gives gold extra 0.5% for additional 5000 yen per year. To redeem that back over classic, you'll need to spend 1M on Amazon.

My current credit limit with classic when is 700k per month which is more than enough.