Rakuten Ecosystem

[seb]

Seems like Rakuten Ichiba is going to start calculating points on before tax price starting April 2022. This is effectively a 10% decrease in the number of points you can earn. Luckily this has no effect on Furusato Nozei.

They are really scaling down their point system. I lost the advantage from Rakuten Denki (it was +0.5 SPU before), Gold Card used to be +4 SPU but was lowered to +2 SPU like the free tier, etc...

Rakuten Ichiba is pretty expensive without the points cashback, so I hope they will lower their commissions/prices to compensate for the decrease in points.

[zeroshiki]

Seems like Rakuten Ichiba is going to start calculating points on before tax price starting April 2022. This is effectively a 10% decrease in the number of points you can earn. Luckily this has no effect on Furusato Nozei.

They are really scaling down their point system. I lost the advantage from Rakuten Denki (it was +0.5 SPU before), Gold Card used to be +4 SPU but was lowered to +2 SPU like the free tier, etc...

Rakuten Ichiba is pretty expensive without the points cashback, so I hope they will lower their commissions/prices to compensate for the decrease in points.

SPU changes quite a bit. You can tell what businesses Rakuten starts and fails to get traction in by the SPU change and then the subsequent removal from SPU. Rakuten Beauty gets downgraded next month from +1 to +0.5.

The Rakuten Gold thing was because they introduced the Premium Card and I think they want to shuffle people into that.

Rakuten has been very generous the past years and this might just be the market catching up but almost all the news coming out from them has been quite negative recently.

[pfdsa]

Quick question: Does anybody invest their Rakuten Points? (either on the pointclub app or in Rakuten Securities)

Usually get anything between 500-1,000 points per month (some points are time limited, other aren't), and don't really use the Rakuten Ichiba, so I'm wondering if it would be a good idea to invest those points instead of using them on conbinis/restaurants.

[TokyoWart]

Quick question: Does anybody invest their Rakuten Points? (either on the pointclub app or in Rakuten Securities)

Usually get anything between 500-1,000 points per month (some points are time limited, other aren't), and don't really use the Rakuten Ichiba, so I'm wondering if it would be a good idea to invest those points instead of using them on conbinis/restaurants.

I do when I can for stock purchases. Most of my Rakuten points aren't eligible to be used for investing so the bulk goes to making furusato nozei donations.

[adamu]

I'm wondering if it would be a good idea to invest those points instead of using them on conbinis/restaurants.

If you have Rakuten Credit Card, using your (non-time-limited) points to pay off that is the best strategy.

E.g. If you have 100 points, pay off the card with 100 points. Now you have 100 yen less to pay. Then if you later make a 100 yen purchase, you get 1 point.
If you instead used the 100 points to make the purchase directly, you have 100 yen less to pay, but you don't earn the extra point.

If you are also doing a regular point purchase in Rakuten Securities for SPU, remember to leave enough points for that to go through.

You could "invest" the points in point club. But if you instead use them to pay off CC and invest real yen in real funds, you get real yen back, not Rakuten points.

[zeroshiki]

What adamu said. Its the point grinder's most efficient way of using regular points. Its very no-fun (can't even treat yourself to a luxury using points) but its the best usage of points. I don't really do it since I have a bad habit of accumulating points but I would use it on Card if I ever wanted to divest myself of non-expiring points.

[adamu]

I have a bad habit of accumulating points

You never know when the rules about where points can be used will change, so I think using them all as soon as possible is the best strategy. Get out of the funny money ASAP, and back into cold, hard cash.

[pfdsa]

Thank you guys for the insight. That looks like the best way to deal with the points.

[OwenM]

Buy using regular points to reduce your credit card bill, don't you in turn reduce the number of points awarded for the payment of that bill?

50000 yen bill (100 yen paid with regular points - points awarded 499 instead of 500)

[adamu]

Buy using regular points to reduce your credit card bill, don't you in turn reduce the number of points awarded for the payment of that bill?

No, points are awarded based on card spending, not on paying off the balance.