RetireJapan

Hello,

As many of you know there was a discussion last year, as per the below link, about 550K JPY shopping on Rakuten Ichiba will be the break-even cost for Rakuten Premium Card (to make it free).
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1271

However i think that analysis does not take into consideration the "Ichiba Shopping Course points " and "Birthday Month" point benefits. In this case, below is the analysis done and it shows to break even, shopping worth 360K JPY is enough for Rakuten Premium card.
https://aucfan.com/card-life/rakutenpre ... -spec-3424

Or maybe I am wrong and there is a chance that since the video is in japanese, i may have missed explanation where these two points are taken into consideration.

What does everyone think about it ? Thanks

With everything R*****n you need to keep an eye on the details.

The "Ichiba Shopping Course points" +1倍 are only available on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so that analysis is assuming you do all your 360K shopping on those days.

Note there is also an extra +2倍 available for Rcard spending on 5/0 days (5th, 10th, 15th, 20th... of the month). So unless the Tuesday/Thursday is also a 5/0 day, you'll actually be losing out spending on those days. Likewise with R*****n, the best way is to be spending during the Marathons, making it even less convenient. You'll be trying to time 5/0 + Tue/Thu + Marathon day combinations to be getting the best deals, which becomes increasingly difficult.


So yes, in theory it is possible to make the Premium card worthwhile with only 360K spending/year. But is the effort required to accomplish this worth your time?

Thanks for the answer.

So yes, in theory it is possible to make the Premium card worthwhile with only 360K spending/year. But is the effort required to accomplish this worth your time?

>>> Usually my furusato shopping is fixed with grocery like items (meat, fruits, vegetables)
I don't need to time it so much, since all these items are always available and i can just buy them in one go on that specific day once. So i guess i will hopefully break even without trying to time it or spending lot of effort.

tofusoba14 wrote: ↑Wed Apr 20, 2022 9:05 am Thanks for the answer.

So yes, in theory it is possible to make the Premium card worthwhile with only 360K spending/year. But is the effort required to accomplish this worth your time?

>>> Usually my furusato shopping is fixed with grocery like items (meat, fruits, vegetables)
I don't need to time it so much, since all these items are always available and i can just buy them in one go on that specific day once. So i guess i will hopefully break even without trying to time it or spending lot of effort.

If you are spending that much each year on furusato nozei contributions and on multiple low ticket items like foodstuffs, the best strategy is likely to be timing the spending during marathons to get the +10倍. There's a limit of 7,000 or 10,000 points per marathon, so it may be best to hit multiple marathons.

With furusato nozei their is also the opportunity cost to consider (because of paying taxes early), which is why I always time my contributions for the last marathons of the year in December.

The ideal scenario for the Premium card would be if you have a birthday in December, get the extra +1倍 for that, then hope there are 0/5 days on Tuesdays/Thursdays during the Marathons in December.

Oh Rakuten, how you complicate our lives

I think you also need to factor in the other benefits of the premium card (lounge passes; extra insurance) to figure out if it is worth it or not. Good overview in English here: https://livinginjapan.net/2020/09/00589/.

eyeswideshut wrote: ↑Thu Apr 21, 2022 5:39 am I think you also need to factor in the other benefits of the premium card (lounge passes; extra insurance) to figure out if it is worth it or not. Good overview in English here: https://livinginjapan.net/2020/09/00589/.

Yes, agreed. The point was just that the Tuesday/Thursday thing isn't such a good deal if you are missing out on better points multipliers to do it.