RetireJapan

zeroshiki wrote: ↑Sun Jul 25, 2021 5:01 am Rakuten Card (from Premium up I think) also has lounge access in domestic airports and Honolulu I think, outside of Priority Pass. Before covid when I would travel alot, Priority Pass was amazing to make those airport waits just a little bit more bearable.

Domestic airport lounges are pretty lame. Usually pretty crowded, good for a coffee or soft drink, but rarely any food aside from a croissant or piece of candy.

Priority Pass in Asia is usually good, and the places you can get a ¥3,000 meal/drink restaurant credit instead of a lounge is also great. I especially like Plaza Premium, but that group just exited Priority Pass.

adamu wrote: ↑Sat Jul 24, 2021 4:30 pmAlthough I think I read somewhere that time limited points *can* be used for some services, but I don't remember which ones. I want to keep it as simple as possible, though.

So I just found out that you can use time-limited points for Rakuten Energy from a youtuber. So, the REALLY no-fun point churning strategy is to pay off your credit card using points but pay Rakuten Energy using your time limited points. I've never tried it so I don't know how hard Rakuten makes it to do so but its a great way to use up time limited points you get from SPU and other promos.

Depending on how hard it is to do (do you have to do it every month?) it might be a bridge too far for a lot of people.

zeroshiki wrote: ↑Mon Jul 26, 2021 4:49 am So I just found out that you can use time-limited points for Rakuten Energy

I set it up but then bought a pizza with Rakuten Pay which used all my time-limited points, so never got to see if it worked.

You can set the max points to use, and chose whether it's one-off, or monthly. You can't specifically choose time-limited points though. The setting applies for the following month, so if you have time-limited points to burn, it may take too long for the setting to go through.

Not sure if it is mentioned elsewhere but many brick and mortar shops and restaurants (and Famima!) now take Rakuten Points in lieu of cash (including time limited points). See: https://pointcard.rakuten.co.jp/partner/

I also use points for hotels and rental cars a lot too (not so much during covid). I know there are naysayers and the websites are just awful on the eyes and really hard to navigate but I literally have saved hundreds of thousands of Yen over the years by being a power user with Rakuten.

zeroshiki wrote: ↑Mon Jul 26, 2021 4:49 am So I just found out that you can use time-limited points for Rakuten Energy from a youtuber. So, the REALLY no-fun point churning strategy is to pay off your credit card using points but pay Rakuten Energy using your time limited points.

For us, another electricity company worked out cheaper even after taking the points into account. The best option might be to change suppliers every year or so and claim the gift coupons from places like kakaku.com.

eyeswideshut wrote: ↑Mon Jul 26, 2021 8:22 am Not sure if it is mentioned elsewhere but many brick and mortar shops and restaurants (and Famima!) now take Rakuten Points in lieu of cash (including time limited points). See: https://pointcard.rakuten.co.jp/partner/

This is how I get rid of my time limited points too.

I don't think it's been mentioned so far, but you can also earn extra points with Rakuten Rebates.

eyeswideshut wrote: ↑Mon Jul 26, 2021 8:22 am I literally have saved hundreds of thousands of Yen over the years by being a power user with Rakuten.

As a counter-point (heh), for someone on the career ladder, they could focus on career development for a million yen pay rise, which applies every year thereafter.

Obviously that's not mutually exclusive to earning points, but I'm just pointing (heh) out that if it was a choice, the effort to maximise points might be considered lower priority to earning more value elsewhere.

adamu wrote: ↑Mon Jul 26, 2021 4:38 pm

eyeswideshut wrote: ↑Mon Jul 26, 2021 8:22 am I literally have saved hundreds of thousands of Yen over the years by being a power user with Rakuten.

As a counter-point (heh), for someone on the career ladder, they could focus on career development for a million yen pay rise, which applies every year thereafter.

Obviously that's not mutually exclusive to earning points, but I'm just pointing (heh) out that if it was a choice, the effort to maximise points might be considered lower priority to earning more value elsewhere.

That's basically the conclusion I came to with air miles: rather than spending time and effort mastering the system, best to just get the basics and then spend time and effort on other things

adamu wrote: ↑Mon Jul 26, 2021 4:38 pm

eyeswideshut wrote: ↑Mon Jul 26, 2021 8:22 am I literally have saved hundreds of thousands of Yen over the years by being a power user with Rakuten.

As a counter-point (heh), for someone on the career ladder, they could focus on career development for a million yen pay rise, which applies every year thereafter.

Obviously that's not mutually exclusive to earning points, but I'm just pointing (heh) out that if it was a choice, the effort to maximise points might be considered lower priority to earning more value elsewhere.

Hey now, grinding points on Rakuten is a legitimate career skill!

RetireJapan wrote: ↑Mon Jul 26, 2021 4:51 pm rather than spending time and effort mastering the system, best to just get the basics and then spend time and effort on other things

Exactly!

What it is worth doing is being an early adopter when new services launch. Then you get to take advantage of the loss-leading offers, and they're desperate for customers so there's very little annoying stuff.

I'm thinking the 2% Cashback card with Line Pay when it first launched (lasted 2 or 3 years).
Free 5G mobile for a year with Rakuten Mobile
Bitflyer used to give out free Bitcoin (!) in around 2015.
Etc.

I’m a big proponent of the rakuten eco system.
I’m on with
Card
Bank
Securities (for Tsumitate NISA)
Gas
Electric
Phone (sim only)
Internet (hikari)
And of course use Ichiba.

The system is not perfect in terms of integration. There needs to be more linking together. 1 account with a bunch of services rather than loads of different accounts for different services. They should just link everything to the main rakuten account and then you should sign up to the various services through that account. Not have to link each service to each different account to get the benefits.

For example, I can’t link my credit card to my securities account because one of the accounts has my middle name and one of them doesn’t, but I can’t change them (at least not easily and seems like the easiest thing to do is make a new credit card. But that involves making a new credit card account by the looks of it!)

However the system is saving me a bunch of yennies from all the points I get whenever I pay any bills or go to McDonald’s or shop at Conan.