Rakuten now accepts credit card payments and gives points

[Tony]

Yep. I just went through the Tsumitate NISA page, clicked on a fund, and went to make an order. There it asks how you want to place that order, and you can choose from the different options.

[sytyue]

Ahh! I wish I knew this before I set up my tsumitate with SBI!

[adamu]

You also get points on SBI for trading stocks and funds, but I've not looked into the details.

https://site1.sbisec.co.jp/ETGate/WPLET ... intin.html

[ivanpgs]

Just what I was looking for.

I started SBI Tsumitate NISA last year and did around 260 K yen of contributions already. But after some very negative balance and the market doing a "V" shape rebound I have sold in positive (I know this is bad, as that money cannot be used again for the 20 years of contributions, but that's not my future idea).

The thing is that I have no current funds in my account and I was looking forward to changing to Rakuten because of the possibility to pay using the Rakuten Credit Card and also getting points for the monthly contributions. I checked the SBI Points that I got and they are very poor:

ポイント付与率（年率）
月間平均保有金額 1,000万円未満 1,000万円以上
(A)通常銘柄 0.1% 0.2%
(B)当社指定銘柄Ⅰ 0.05% 0.05%
(C)当社指定銘柄Ⅱ 0.03% 0.03%
(D)当社指定銘柄Ⅲ 0% 0%

Source here: https://site1.sbisec.co.jp/ETGate/WPLET ... leage.html

I did get 100 points for the account creation, but after that I have only got 7 points (contributing with 260 K), and I registered in their SBI Points portal and transferred the points to know what I can do with them. They have some agreements with some companies like JAL (900 SBI points -> 300 Miles) and ANA (700 SBI points -> 200 Miles), T-Point (500 SBI points -> 500 points), etc:

Source here: https://sbipoint.jp/point/exchange/use

But you need to get a Platinum account in order to get 1% of contribution to points conversion.

I am more familiar with the Rakuten ecosystem and I think I can get much more there. Plus the fees and product offer (actually I will be using eMaxis Slim mainly) are very similar. The only painful thing is the bureaucracy / procedure, but in the long term it will be better, I hope.

I will let you know how it goes!

[Djdawang]

Interesting,

I am about to sign up for rakuten CC. the 1% in points sounds interesting. If I can use my credit card to do my NISA that would be cool. I wonder if I can also use it for iDECO contributions monthly.

[N00bster]

Interesting,

I am about to sign up for rakuten CC. the 1% in points sounds interesting. If I can use my credit card to do my NISA that would be cool. I wonder if I can also use it for iDECO contributions monthly.

I don't believe this would work for iDeco (the interface only allows this for regular and NISA accounts).

Also keep in mind that you are limited to paying 50,000Y by credit card each month. That's still 6,000Y worth of Rakuten points a year...

[Djdawang]

Interesting,

I am about to sign up for rakuten CC. the 1% in points sounds interesting. If I can use my credit card to do my NISA that would be cool. I wonder if I can also use it for iDECO contributions monthly.

I don't believe this would work for iDeco (the interface only allows this for regular and NISA accounts).

Also keep in mind that you are limited to paying 50,000Y by credit card each month. That's still 6,000Y worth of Rakuten points a year...

Thanks for the insight. Yeah I went to the Hoken Madoguchi yesterday because I wanted to consult about my medical insurance/big 3 disease insurance.
They asked me if I wanted to pay by credit card. My wife has a Japanese credit card but I only have a Canadian credit card.
I was told that if I wanted to pay by CC it would have to be under the same name as the policy holder.

So then I started thinking of which CC to get and I kept seeing people talk about Rakuten.
Does anyone have any insight or concerns of

thinking of getting:
Rakuten bank account
Rakuten CC
Rakuten securities (NISA and iDeco)
Rakuten Mobile (MVNO)
Rakuten insurance (medical)

I was diving into this whole rakuten portal and it seems they give points for more services you use.
My current set up is already:
UFJ, SMBC, JP post, Shinsei (I use 1 for salary, 1 for emergency savings, 1 for spending, 1 for retirement)
no japanese CC (don't really need it, but i have PR)
no NISA and iDeco (Rakuten vs. SBI) intending to get into it this year
Ymobile (MVNO) my contract is up in December.
Dai ichi insurance

[N00bster]

This may deserve a new topic, maybe Ben will want to split?

Of the services in your list I am using Rakuten Bank, CC and securities. I am satisfied by all of them and they actually work better if you use them together.

Rakuten Bank and Securities allow you to make instantaneous transfers from your bank account to your brokerage account. Can be useful if you want to quickly buy during a drop. Moving money back to your bank account is also instantaneous.

Rakuten CC has good benefits in my opinion. You have several options, but I went for the premium which includes a free priority pass card for 10,800Y a year. I think the cheaper ones will give you the same amount of points so you may want to consider it too if you are not using airport lounges.

Note that getting a Rakuten CC will also put you on the path for Diamond membership on Rakuten Ichiba, triggering more benefits. The points accumulate very quickly, and I am now typically getting 10% back on average on my purchases there (oscillating between 6% and 15% depending on promotions).

I have considered Rakuten Mobile and may be the switch later this year. Rakuten Diamond members get 500Y off per month, another benefit of having a CC. Other than that it doesn't seem to be much cheaper than my current contract with YMobile, so I need to consider more. In any case I will wait a bit as new legislation may outlaw the currently outrageous cancellation fees: https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/Japan- ... ation-fees

I don't know anything about Rakuten's insurances. Would be interested in a feedback if you try them.

So in my opinion the combo Rakuten Bank + CC + securities is a good one that should quickly pay itself in points back and other benefits. The service is "better" than most alternatives in my opinion in that the websites are more modern and more stuff is done online (no need to walk to a shop, etc.). Getting your Rakuten Securities account open may require you to jump through some hoops before they get your name right, but all in all that's a minor inconvenience.

[rori]

I was just adjusting my tsumitate nisa options and noticed that Rakuten now offers credit card payment that also gives rakuten points. I'm not sure exactly when this was implemented, but the option on the order page has "new" next to it, so I'm guessing it's new ...

I tried to do it myself, but as rakuten securities severely limits account name length, I got an error saying my account name and credit card name don't match, so I guess it would take a call to get it set up.

I like the idea of getting points on the purchases, but at the same time, I like the fact that tsumitate takes it directly from my account, instead of me having to place that money in another account manually (I have all my credit cards draw from a single account, separate from my daily usage account).

Here's an image of the new order screen
rakuten CC.jpg

good morning. we have the same problem. may i know if you already linked your rakuten securities account with with your credit card? How? Thanks

[Tony]

good morning. we have the same problem. may i know if you already linked your rakuten securities account with with your credit card? How? Thanks

Sorry, no. I never tried to actually get it working in the end, as it seemed too much hassle, for only a small benefit.