RetireJapan

Hello all my 2nd post on my first day.
Apologies.

As I mentioned I am getting married and my current future mother in law has a separate wallet full of point cards.
I only have Lawson and Nananaco.
Are others worth it?
Are their other points/rewards schemes that I should be aware of?

Cheers

I am fully invested in the Rakuten point ecosystem - frankly it is ridiculously generous. Without going into exhaustive detail, if you use a Rakuten Credit Card, mobile app, and time your purchases wisely during one of their marathon campaigns, you can end up easily getting 10-20% of your spend back in points. Furusato Nozei purchases through Rakuten are particularly good for this. Moreover, the points are redeemable for pretty much anything sold through Rakuten including travel, car rentals, and even stocks/mutual funds. Also a lot of stores now take points in lieu of cash.

That said, Rakuten websites are horrible to navigate and really tough if you don't read Japanese.

I am also heavily invested in Rakuten and it is very rewarding indeed. During Furusato Nozei I even reached the upper limit of points one could receive when using some multipliers. One advantage of Rakuten points is that they can also be used with Rakuten pay or Edy, making them money you can use virtually anywhere (including Rakuten Securities! )

I have been using rakuten points for the past 2 years but it doesn't seem to go up by much...

Any tips and tricks to ramp up points? My monthly cc bill is over 150,000 yet over the past 2 years I have only managed to accumulate 6,000ish points

In 2019 I accumulated 75,000 points and this year I'm already at 65,000 (thanks to furusato nozei).

Make sure to use your credit card for everything you can (especially big or recurring expenses), that will get you 1% back in points. Of course never, ever spend more than you can and carry your balance over the next month, as the interest rate will nullify any point benefit you will get. Just try to move expenses you will do anyway to the card.

Use other Rakuten services that make sense to you to max your points multiplier (Premium Card: +4x, Rakuten Bank: +1x, Rakuten Securities (if you invest 500points/month): +1x, Rakuten Mobile: +2x, etc.) and order on Rakuten rather than Amazon whenever possible. If the price is equivalent on both services (as it often is), then you can get 7 to 10% back in points (even more during some campains). Only drawback is that delivery usually takes a bit longer on Rakuten, and the site is not as clear as Amazon, but remember, you do it for the points!

Do furusato nozei on Rakuten so you get that same 7-10% back in points over your tax money. This was a big source of points for me in January as I did it in December. Spread your spending over several months, otherwise you risk hitting the monthly limit for some multipliers.

Don't fall into the trap of using services you don't need just to get more points. The cost (in money or time) of using the service won't make up for the points you get. And put into perspective, the points benefit will only make a very small portion of your "income", even for a heavy user like myself. So don't overthink it.

Also if you are doing any domestic travel, check out rakuten travel, I usually find deals on hotels there are great, and sometimes you'll find deals that give you 10% in points. They usually also have good deals on ticket and accommodation, although they usually don't get 10% back.

Ah yes, I forgot about Rakuten Travel. There are also some good deals sometimes if you need to rent a car (and you will get +1x on Ichiba if you used Travel during the month).

OkiBum wrote: ↑Thu Mar 26, 2020 5:07 am Any tips and tricks to ramp up points? My monthly cc bill is over 150,000 yet over the past 2 years I have only managed to accumulate 6,000ish points

By the way, this looks weird. If you get 150,000 monthly on your Rakuten CC you should get 1,500 points back a month, of 18,000 a year. I suggest you look at this first, which card did you get?

N00bster wrote: ↑Sun Mar 29, 2020 4:59 am

OkiBum wrote: ↑Thu Mar 26, 2020 5:07 am Any tips and tricks to ramp up points? My monthly cc bill is over 150,000 yet over the past 2 years I have only managed to accumulate 6,000ish points

By the way, this looks weird. If you get 150,000 monthly on your Rakuten CC you should get 1,500 points back a month, of 18,000 a year. I suggest you look at this first, which card did you get?

Rakuten ANA Mileage card

OkiBum wrote: ↑Mon Mar 30, 2020 2:29 am

N00bster wrote: ↑Sun Mar 29, 2020 4:59 am

OkiBum wrote: ↑Thu Mar 26, 2020 5:07 am Any tips and tricks to ramp up points? My monthly cc bill is over 150,000 yet over the past 2 years I have only managed to accumulate 6,000ish points

By the way, this looks weird. If you get 150,000 monthly on your Rakuten CC you should get 1,500 points back a month, of 18,000 a year. I suggest you look at this first, which card did you get?

Rakuten ANA Mileage card

I don't know the details of this one but it's likely you are not getting the 100Y=1pt benefit from it (look at the details of your card to confirm). You may want a purely Rakuten card for that, like this one: https://www.rakuten-card.co.jp/card/rak ... mium-card/

Now if you are happy getting miles instead of points, there is no need to change.