The way how I look at things is that I shouldn't get less than 3x on any spend in Japan. If a store accept Pasmo, I’ll get 3x on my spend. For dining, since my Citi Prestige is a Mastercard, the acceptance rate should be pretty good. I also have an HSBC card that gives 3% back on all travel spend. I don't like leaving money or points on the table!

Yeah my approach was the same (PASMO via CSR) until the VISA breakdown in August. Since then I’ve been slumming it with 2% via Apple Card (Amex gold for dining though)

I'm now reading that CSR isn’t working on the Pasmo. What the eff? I'm surprised Suica isn't fixed and not coded as travel. That's why I was happy hearing that Pasmo is coded as travel. I also have AMEX Gold, but is the acceptance rate decent in Japan? Like I said, I survived in my very brief stay in Narita last month with Citi Prestige and Citi Premier.

Not CSR or chase’ fault - visa issue. Tug of war behind the scenes. Suica coding most likely feature not bug - don’t expect it to change back

Guess I won't maximize my earnings as long as I can't use CSR to load Pasmo. Sucks that Suica will likely never code as travel on the CSR ever again. I'm surprised these technical difficulties take this long to resolve.

it’s not technical difficulties. it’s being done on purpose and it doesn’t affect folks with Japanese visas so it’s not like there is a large vocal majority making a big deal out of it unfortunately.

You can use Amex Green, it codes as 3x for suica (but only on apple pay)

I visit Japan fairly often, at least in my experience, Amex acceptance rates are fairly high. I'd have a backup MC/Visa but you can always lead with Amex and as long as they take credit card, I found about 85-90% of the time it would be fine.

Had a question regarding using Apple Pay Suica and the physical Suica as it pertains to booking Shinkansen tickets with the Smart Ex app. Apologies if this isn't the right thread.

I plan to book Shinkansen tickets in a reserved car prior to arriving in Japan, and was planning on adding a Suica card to my Apple Pay before arriving as well. Ideally I would have added the Apple Pay Suica card's full number to the Smart Ex booking prior to leaving, but you need the Suica app to get the number, and the app is only in Japanese.

As such, I was thinking about getting a physical Suica when getting to Japan (I would keep the separate Apple Pay one for ease of reloading) so that I could get the full number on it.

I was wondering: can you retroactively add a Suica card number to a Smart Ex booking? I would prefer to just be able to tap in to the Shinkansen if possible.

(I don't mind the deposit fee for a physical Suica, and would carry enough of a balance on the physical card to cover my trip on the subway/conventional lines to the Shinkansen stations. The physical card would also be a backup in case my phone dies etc.)

The suica app may only be in Japanese, but getting the card number is easy. There’s, no need to sign up, just install the app, just click the i symbol under card.

Thanks! If I add the card in the Apple Pay app first does it automatically get pulled into the Suica app?

Responding to COVID has massively improved the acceptance of all electronic payments everywhere in japan - Recruit and Square have been making hay with people’s fears around handling money. This does mean a lot more places take credit cards that didn’t before, and the same tech is enabling suica, PayPay, Line Pay etc. There’s just fewer places that don’t take cards or qr code payments.

That said suica is faster, because even a tap with a foreign credit card on Apple Pay can result in a signature, and there’s a general unfamiliarity with tap CC payments - a lot of insistence on sticking the card in the slot.

“Suica de hairimasu” “suica de harratemo ii desu ka” generally gets a good response.

As for loading - unfortunately it is pretty slow, about 45 seconds - has resulted in an embarrassing “Sumimasen charji ga hitsuyo desun ga” whilst at the register.

Yes

Apple Pay requires a signature? Since when? I've used that a lot and I can't recall a time anywhere in the world when I was asked to sign anything.

I may be misremembering, (it’s only a couple of weeks ago), but I was asked for signatures almost every time I used my Amex; however I was also asked to use the physical card a lot. I may be confusing the two.