My wife and I have had the Regular View Suica card for a while now. We signed up for this card just because we use public transit daily, and the auto-recharge function is very convenient. The point system is also straightforward.
We recently were invited to sign up for the gold card version.
https://www.jreast.co.jp/card/first/viewgoldplus/
１１，０００円 for the year, for 2 cards.
Benefits,
1. 10,000 points if you spend over 1,000,000万。(we will).
2. Extra insurance
3. No ETC Fee
4. Suica Mall discount of 3.5%
5. Lounge access.
My wife and I are both reimbursed for most of our train travel, and we tend to use our view card the most, due to convenience. (It is in our phone cases, the suica autorecharge makes it easy, etc).
Does anyone have any thoughts on this card?
(We also both have a "Gold" Rakuten card -４０００円 a year, and a Saison Card (free).
View Gold Plus Card (Suica)
View Gold Plus Card (Suica)
Last edited by Kanto on Wed Sep 02, 2020 1:42 am, edited 1 time in total.
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AreTheyTheLemmings?
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Re: View Gold Plus Card (Suica)
I think it is "zero yearly fees for the ETC card" rather than no highway tolls (which would be insanely good...)
The 10,000 yen bonus looks to be on spending of over 1 million yen, not 100,000 yen. So that would basically pay for the fees on the card.
Putting the bonus aside, the examples they give of estimated use show yearly point return of 3,500 on a spend on 1 million yen, so an estimated point return of 0.35%, rising to about a 0.5% return if you spend 2 million yen.
So at a back of the napkin estimate, compared to using a basic Rakuten card with a 1% cashback rate, paying 10,000 yen in points on a 1 million spend, you would be losing out on 6,500 yen per year (10,000 points per year if you spend 2 million yen). It's up to you whether lounge benefits, etc., would balance that out.
The 10,000 yen bonus looks to be on spending of over 1 million yen, not 100,000 yen. So that would basically pay for the fees on the card.
Putting the bonus aside, the examples they give of estimated use show yearly point return of 3,500 on a spend on 1 million yen, so an estimated point return of 0.35%, rising to about a 0.5% return if you spend 2 million yen.
So at a back of the napkin estimate, compared to using a basic Rakuten card with a 1% cashback rate, paying 10,000 yen in points on a 1 million spend, you would be losing out on 6,500 yen per year (10,000 points per year if you spend 2 million yen). It's up to you whether lounge benefits, etc., would balance that out.
Re: View Gold Plus Card (Suica)
Hmmm we just double-checked. Seems it JCB only. That will probably be a deal-breaker.tokyodave wrote: ↑Wed Sep 02, 2020 1:08 am I think it is "zero yearly fees for the ETC card" rather than no highway tolls (which would be insanely good...)
The 10,000 yen bonus looks to be on spending of over 1 million yen, not 100,000 yen. So that would basically pay for the fees on the card.
Putting the bonus aside, the examples they give of estimated use show yearly point return of 3,500 on a spend on 1 million yen, so an estimated point return of 0.35%, rising to about a 0.5% return if you spend 2 million yen.
So at a back of the napkin estimate, compared to using a basic Rakuten card with a 1% cashback rate, paying 10,000 yen in points on a 1 million spend, you would be losing out on 6,500 yen per year (10,000 points per year if you spend 2 million yen). It's up to you whether lounge benefits, etc., would balance that out.
Re: View Gold Plus Card (Suica)
Replace "We were invited to" with "they tried to sell us" and your thinking might change 
