RetireJapan

Hi guys, I’ve been looking at the different kinds of points offered by SBI Securities, e.g. T-points, Docomo points etc.
Certainly some ways they give you points, e.g. for existing account holdings, sound attractive.

However, do you guys think that linking your account with receiving outside points in this way would affect the security of your brokerage account? For example:

a) The point provider would presumably receive some of your personal account information from the brokerage.
b) If the point provider gives you a certain number of points, maybe they can judge the amount of money in the account.
c) SBI seems to have experienced some account theft back in 2020, and I am wondering if that was in any connected with outside point cards?

The other thing I’d like to ask is, if you make a T-point or other card (not as formal as a credit card, bank account or the like), do you make sure your personal information is exactly the same as for your brokerage account?

Sometimes for point cards, I am more laid back, or also concerned about personal information, and will give a nickname, tell them I am 200 years old, or something…but I imagine that if you are linking your card with a brokerages account then your card personal information must also be dead accurate so it matches with your account?

Look forward to your replies, and have a great weekend!

I have worked on T-Point implementations on the technical side and for the most part I wouldn't worry about it.

a) Its the other way around. The brokerage will know your T-Point/Yahoo Account information since you have to link it. The T-Point people will only ever know you attempted to link it to the brokerage.
b) I guess? It would also know how many famichiki you buy but I don't know how relevant that is.
c) No chance. As I said, the flow of information is opposite what you're thinking.

As for the linkage, I don't think its a big deal. I haven't done it a while but I'm pretty sure you authenticate to T-Point to link it to SBI. SBI won't care. Its a point system, not a credit card.

Security and privacy are not the same thing.

I don't think using a point program will put your funds in the brokerage account at risk (although I wouldn't want to rule it out!).

A large part of the business model of point programs is gathering data (who, what, where, when, how much), so if you are concerned about privacy you shouldn't participate in point programs.

Thank you very much for your replies Zeroshiki and Adamu.

Zeroshiki, thank you for your detailed response! It’s interesting you’ve done related work in the past. Is it in finance or a different industry? Anyway, you told me a lot of things I was unaware of. You also made me laugh, as I had to look up “famichiki”!

And Adamu, you made a good point that there is no free lunch in this world, and that even these points come in exchange for personal information.

Well, if I ever sign up to T-card or a different card I guess there is nothing to lose by naming myself Mickey Mouse and saying I was born in…well, I forget my history of Disney…