I rather use my iPhone than buying a physical Suica or Pasmo card. Are there any differences between the digital version? My trip is short enough where I’ll spend all of my time in Tokyo and taking the train from Haneda and taking the train to Narita. I’m hoping to is as less cash as possible. I think I read I should go with Pasmo because I can load with my US credit card and it'll code as travel. Unless I misread something, the balance isn't secure? Like if I change my iCloud account, then I'll lose my digital Suica/Pasmo and whatever balance is on the card?

correct. so don’t overcharge it - just charge as you go if you’re concerned about ending up with too much balance

Is this a bug or feature? I can't believe this hasn't been addressed. It's pretty bad if you ask me. If there is a little bit of Yen left, what can I do to drain it?

Is it possible to load a physical Suica or Pasmo with a US credit card in Japan?

You can use them at vending machines and such.

Recently I saw on here that someone mentioned this website, which is super comprehensive and discusses what credit cards work:
https://atadistance.net/apple-pay-suica/
https://atadistance.net/all-about-ap...uica-recharge/

I’ve never had a problem with an excess balance with suica. It’s so widely accepted now you’ll find a way to use the last bit - you can use it to buy duty free in the airport if you are stuck with some. Given they now sell Noguchi naohiko sake at Haneda, there’s a good reason to go shopping there.

TBF I’m never that worried about having an excess balance as I know I’ll be back soon

as for the other questions

theres no way of charging a physical suica or pasmo with a credit card.

As for loosing the balance if you loose your phone - with a max top up of 20man your phone is the bigger concern.

why suica and not pasmo - you can earn jre points with suica, probably not that much of an advantage unless you shop a lot in jr stations or buy Shinkansen tickets on eki-net but it’s basically 1-2% cash back when you do. I spend enough in kimijimaya liquors ebisu station when I’m in Tokyo to score a free lunch most trips.

a good reason to have either is you can currently get a good discount on Shinkansen tickets if you load them on to an IC card rather than get paper tickets.

If I do ride the Shinkansen, it'll be with the JR Pass. I'm guessing that's still paper?

Still paper, although it’s now at least a mag stripe ticket so you don’t have to negotiate the cabin of shame every time you board a train.

What do you mean by 20man? The problem with a balance is that I need to find the right item to spend it on or top up just enough to spend it. I find it strange that the balance isn't saved on the cloud.

20man - 20,000 yen

It’s not saved to the cloud because that’s not how the system works, it predates the cloud, and smart phones. It a very literal digital wallet, money is encoded into the card, rather than credited or debited from an account like a credit card. The system was designed for speed, no communications backhaul is required to verify a transaction when you tap in the gate, it’s just the card and the gate talking - maybe less of an issue today but this system was launched in 2001.

As for zeroing it out, you can charge the card to any value. For example Daimon to Narita costs 1344yen so if you want to leave with a zero balance - charge to exactly the last fare or purchase you’ll pay and you’ll end up with zero balance.

I do change iCloud login from time to time so this is a concern for me. I suppose given what you said, I might be able to top up enough just to take the train to HND or NRT?

Do most stores/restaurants accept Suica/Pasmo even if they don't accept credit cards?

When loading my mobile Pasmo from my iPhone, is the amount loaded instantly or there is a bit of a lag?

At least with Mobile Suica, it is tied to your iCloud account, so you do not really lose the balance when you remove the card from your iPhone/Apple Watch or if you change your iCloud account. You can add it back even after you remove it from the device before and the balance will be there once you log back into the iCloud account that has the Mobile Suica. I am guessing Mobile Pasmo works the same way.

I just went into my Apple Watch settings for Wallet and try to remove Mobile Suica on my Apple Watch and the screen even said with subject "Value Remaining on Card" and description "If you remove this card now, you can restore the value later in Wallet" so the assumption the left over balance is lost is simply not true at all.

So I think you are safe either way. When you log out of your iCloud account, I would think the Wallet cards / etc would be removed.

For pyhsical cards, you can buy one of the registered ones with your information on it which would allow you to recover the balances if you lose the physical cards, but if you don't have a Japanese address and identification to prove it is your card I am not sure how much advantage that would be and I believe you would also have to pay some small fee (a few hundred yens) to be re-issued another Suica/Pasmo card.

Topping off Suica/Pasmo will be in increments of 100 yen, just tested with my Apple Watch. You don't have an option to top up the exact amount.

A lot of stores / restaurants do accept Suica/Pasmo, in addition to the convinence stores / vending machines, but I don't know if "most" is accurate. Small shops probably still only accept cash.

It is instantly loaded and you can use the amount you just loaded immediately.

What the heck? What's with the reports that mobile Suica/Pasmo balances are lost forever once I switch iCloud accounts?

How can I tell I can pay with mobile Suica/Pasmo at the store/restaurant?

If you’re this panicked about it just keep a small balance and take a few moments to top it up just prior to making a more sizeable purchase. Credit card acceptance is far wider than it used to be and most terminals work with Apple Pay as well these days so don’t feel like you need to use PASMO everywhere.

What's wrong with asking and trying to understand the issue? Absolutely I'll be using credit cards whenever I can. Citi Prestige earns 5x TY on dining and that's what I'll be spending most of my money on.

there are some corner cases that can be confusing/annoying sometimes. For example my watch died at the end of a long bike ride but after I had hopped the train back home, so it’s PASMO was stuck “in a ride” and I totally forgot about it until I had to give the watch to Apple for a support replacement and the card couldn’t be shifted over to my phone during unpairing in that state. Wouldn’t have been a big deal to let it go if it didn’t have almost the full 2man on it, so I had to walk back over to Shibuya station and have them clear the status and then go back to Apple.

anyways, in a case of someone who doesn’t live here I’d say just keep your balance on the lower side especially since it sounds like you have dining covered already 👍 and it takes all of 10 seconds to top up as needed