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View Gold Plus Card (Suica)

Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2020 4:24 am
by Kanto
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).

Re: View Gold Plus Card (Suica)

Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2020 12:36 am
by AreTheyTheLemmings?
Kanto wrote: Tue Sep 01, 2020 4:24 am3. Free ETC
Are you sure? Free expressway tolls?!

Re: View Gold Plus Card (Suica)

Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2020 1:08 am
by tokyodave
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)

Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2020 1:43 am
by Kanto
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.
Hmmm we just double-checked. Seems it JCB only. That will probably be a deal-breaker.

Re: View Gold Plus Card (Suica)

Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2020 1:52 am
by adamu
Replace "We were invited to" with "they tried to sell us" and your thinking might change 😄

Re: View Gold Plus Card (Suica)

Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2020 3:07 am
by Kanto
adamu wrote: Wed Sep 02, 2020 1:52 am Replace "We were invited to" with "they tried to sell us" and your thinking might change 😄
Yes, that is probably a more honest surmisal.