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)
What a wonderful resource this forum is! Blown away by the depth of knowledge and generosity of the members!
@Kanto, Excellent! Didn't realize that Kakaku also did card comparisons. Will look into it more. I will also check out Rakuten, View Suica, and Random mall card. Thank you!
nanaya wrote: ↑Sun Jan 03, 2021 8:19 am
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.
Apologies for the miscalculation! Back to elementary school arithmetic. I guess I quickly input "0.05" rather than "0.005". Safer to use your "0.5/100" method.
Online report and autopay in full is my preferred method anyway, so this works out perfect for me!
Thanks for the matsunosuke link. My Japanese literacy is poor, so Thank God for Google Translate!
Kanto wrote: ↑Sun Jan 03, 2021 9:22 am
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.
All good points.
If you are not looking for the main Gold card benefit, (High limit/Travel benefits), gold cards and especially platinum cards are not worth it.
Kanto wrote: ↑Sun Jan 03, 2021 8:35 am
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.
Good to know!
I do travel although like most people much less these days. Mostly Shinkansen. I'm in Kansai so I guess KIX lounge but no Itami. Which lounge is it?
Revolving payment is the same as autopay or installments financing? With US credit cards, I have autopay setup to pay minimum balance due so I don't get late fees, and I generally review my billing statements and pay off balances in full manually.
nanaya wrote: ↑Sun Jan 03, 2021 9:06 am
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)
Excellent point!
I do spend over ¥1M on Amazon every year, but I've been using my US credit card for ¥100K+ purchases for several reasons, which I would like to make a separate post about.
I'm guessing it's not difficult to downgrade from Gold to Classic? It's easy in the US at least. Not sure if in Japan one would have to do an entirely new application.
I applied for the Gold card this evening. Even if I cancel the revolving payment function, ¥5,000/year for a Gold card is probably worth it for me for the time being.
Chrome's Google Translate mostly worked for the form fields, but sometimes would randomly switch back to Japanese and be stuck there. Thankfully, I did screen sharing with a Japanese friend who handheld me through the process.
It was generally pretty straightforward. One annoying part is you have to redo Furigana in Katakana for addresses. On the final step adding my bank account, it failed to connect with Sony Bank and Japan Post Bank after multiple attempts. So it couldn't do an immediate review. I will have to wait for a response. I'm guessing like many of these things in Japan, I will get a response quickly.
glimmer wrote: ↑Sun Jan 03, 2021 10:48 am
I applied for the Gold card this evening. Even if I cancel the revolving payment function, ¥5,000/year for a Gold card is probably worth it for me for the time being.
Chrome's Google Translate mostly worked for the form fields, but sometimes would randomly switch back to Japanese and be stuck there. Thankfully, I did screen sharing with a Japanese friend who handheld me through the process.
It was generally pretty straightforward. One annoying part is you have to redo Furigana in Katakana for addresses. On the final step adding my bank account, it failed to connect with Sony Bank and Japan Post Bank after multiple attempts. So it couldn't do an immediate review. I will have to wait for a response. I'm guessing like many of these things in Japan, I will get a response quickly.
I had to fill out the paper form for the last step. Some sort of classic name mismatch error with Yucho.
Amazon Gold is usually a sure thing if you have another Japanese card already.
Kanto wrote: ↑Sun Jan 03, 2021 11:16 am
I had to fill out the paper form for the last step. Some sort of classic name mismatch error with Yucho.
Amazon Gold is usually a sure thing if you have another Japanese card already.
If this is your first card it is probably 50/50.
Good luck!
Yeah, I'm experiencing this issue with Sony Bank as they cannot fit in my long middle name on my card or perhaps account. So my PayPay cannot get linked due to name mismatch.
Making some larger purchases soon so going to do Amazon Reload (Amazon チャージ) of ¥90,000 to get 2.5% points in the meantime:
Kanto wrote: ↑Sun Jan 03, 2021 11:16 am
I had to fill out the paper form for the last step. Some sort of classic name mismatch error with Yucho.
Amazon Gold is usually a sure thing if you have another Japanese card already.
If this is your first card it is probably 50/50.
Good luck!
Yeah, I'm experiencing this issue with Sony Bank as they cannot fit in my long middle name on my card or perhaps account. So my PayPay cannot get linked due to name mismatch.
Making some larger purchases soon so going to do Amazon Reload (Amazon キャージ) of ¥90,000 to get 2.5% points in the meantime:
Making some larger purchases soon so going to do Amazon Reload (Amazon チャージ) of ¥90,000 to get 2.5% points in the meantime: