RetireJapan

Hello all, Kansai Ken in Kyoto here.
I am an Australia who has been living in Japan for about 10 years. I have PR, stable employment, and I am looking to start investing with NISA (tsumitate); about 50,000 a month for now.

Current bank account = MUFG
Current credit card = ANA Card through SMBC

It seems like it’s best to invest in NISA using a credit card to get points.
I wonder if the points will be beneficial enough for me to set up a new credit card.

I don't mind creating a new bank account and credit card if I have to. I don't fly so much, so the ANA points aren't so useful for me. And, there's no point for me to pay the yearly credit card fee when there are others for free.

It seems like most people suggest the Rakuten card and then connect that to the Rakuten NISA brokerage. However, the points are quite low now?

Amazon card seems like it could be suitable for me as I do use Amazon often and I have prime.

Or I could just use my current setup to invest in NISA. However, I've been warned that big banks like MUFG charge higher fees and might not have all the desirable NISA options.

Some I'm wondering,
Which credit card should I go with to maximize points when contributing to NISA?
Which NISA broker should I use? SBI? Rakuten? MUFG?

Anyway, not really sure what to do. Anyone have any suggestions for my situation?

SMBC card works with SBI, but they're due to cut the amount of points later this year.
Rakuten already cut their points recently.
Not sure about Monex.

You could possibly convert your SMBC card to one of the eligible ones for SBI, giving up the ANA points. Not sure if that's worth it - and note the point rates are dropping later this year so you'll need to spend 1M yen on the card even to get 1% points on the investments.

I would treat the CC card points as nice to have, but not spend too much time or adjust your setup too much considering they all seem to be bait and switch schemes.

adamu wrote: ↑Mon May 13, 2024 3:40 pm
I would treat the CC card points as nice to have, but not spend too much time or adjust your setup too much considering they all seem to be bait and switch schemes.

Sound advice from Adamu.
Choose Rakuten or SBI or Monex for investment. Get the card if you can to "win" extra points to use for investing (NOT shopping).
Rakuten may be the easiest card to get???

adamu wrote: ↑Mon May 13, 2024 3:40 pm SMBC card works with SBI, but they're due to cut the amount of points later this year.
Rakuten already cut their points recently.
Not sure about Monex.

You could possibly convert your SMBC card to one of the eligible ones for SBI, giving up the ANA points. Not sure if that's worth it - and note the point rates are dropping later this year so you'll need to spend 1M yen on the card even to get 1% points on the investments.

I would treat the CC card points as nice to have, but not spend too much time or adjust your setup too much considering they all seem to be bait and switch schemes.

Thank you for the advice

beanhead wrote: ↑Mon May 13, 2024 8:19 pm

adamu wrote: ↑Mon May 13, 2024 3:40 pm
I would treat the CC card points as nice to have, but not spend too much time or adjust your setup too much considering they all seem to be bait and switch schemes.

Sound advice from Adamu.
Choose Rakuten or SBI or Monex for investment. Get the card if you can to "win" extra points to use for investing (NOT shopping).
Rakuten may be the easiest card to get???

Thank you for the advice

One of the cool things I found out recently is if you own an account in Monex, you can use Monex cc or your D card for greater point returns. I use my Monex card to finance my monthly Tsumitate NISA account because it gives 2.2% cashback as points. But recently they have a campaign that if you switch to a D card/D Gold card, they'll give you a better deal.