Rakuten Pay, Cash and the likes - can someone explain?

[adamu]

my name there is registered

I said contact details, not just name. Address and phone number too.

Sounds like you need to contact support. Hope it's all worth it for that 2,500 yen.

[Viralriver]

Yeah it seems everything does match, but will contact support as I'd like to be able to get the points on future purchases too.

Found out they have an English support line, so called that and spent 10 minutes speaking to someone to verify my account details in Japanese, a requirement before being transferred to the English line haha. They said they'll call me back within 5 days, so I probably should have just continued in Japanese but didn't want any chance of not being understood!

On another note, the Rakuten ecosystem is just insane, and I have no idea how people understand it and make the most out of it. Was searching for a product I'm hoping to buy from them sometime next year, around 350k JPY. It comes with 10x points, and I see an advert saying if I search for it on Rakuten I'll get 2x points. So I look into this naturally, and I find that I need to enter, so I do, but the points that I see on that specific product page doesn't change. No idea how all the campaigns work together, and how it mixes with points from your credit card, pay, cash etc. It's a wonder how their software engineers keep up with it too lol.

[KCLenny]

I don’t know about the pay and cash apps much but in terms of the points, check the rakuten ichiba app. They have a breakdown of how many points you’ll get from ordering through the rakuten ichiba app (DONT use the website, it’s just throwing away points as you get extra points (0.5x) just for using the app.

For the money side,
My understanding is where possible, use the rakuten credit card as you get more points for using that. Unless there’s a campaign on that means giving other systems more points. I’ve never seen a benefit in using rakuten pay or cash as I can just use my credit card everywhere. And wherever I can’t, I use my rakuten EDY card (there’s an app for charging it but I don’t think there’s an app for use as an EDY card yet (please tell me if I’m wrong)).

Below is a screenshot from my rakuten ichiba app showing my point multiplier. Mine is 8.5 currently. It’s usually 6.5, but the extra 2 are from a current campaign (the marathon I think). The usual 6.5 are just from having all their services: gas, electric, mobile, home internet, credit card, bank account, and using the app.

[Viralriver]

I don’t know about the pay and cash apps much but in terms of the points, check the rakuten ichiba app. They have a breakdown of how many points you’ll get from ordering through the rakuten ichiba app (DONT use the website, it’s just throwing away points as you get extra points (0.5x) just for using the app.

For the money side,
My understanding is where possible, use the rakuten credit card as you get more points for using that. Unless there’s a campaign on that means giving other systems more points. I’ve never seen a benefit in using rakuten pay or cash as I can just use my credit card everywhere. And wherever I can’t, I use my rakuten EDY card (there’s an app for charging it but I don’t think there’s an app for use as an EDY card yet (please tell me if I’m wrong)).

Below is a screenshot from my rakuten ichiba app showing my point multiplier. Mine is 8.5 currently. It’s usually 6.5, but the extra 2 are from a current campaign (the marathon I think). The usual 6.5 are just from having all their services: gas, electric, mobile, home internet, credit card, bank account, and using the app.

Thanks for that, will use the app from now on.

As for Pay over CC, my understanding is that if you use the Cash -> Pay method, and have Cash pull from your credit card, you can get 1.5% of points from this.

Anyway, I got a response back from Rakuten over the phone (it ended up having to be in Japanese in the end because Rakuten, Rakuten Pay App and Rakuten Pay Online are all different companies apparently... They told me that it's likely I hit my max limit (which I've tested to now be under 100 yen, thanks Rakuten). They can't tell me what my limit is, and it will vary from store to store. I've put 10,000 JPY into Rakuten Cash to use via Pay, and since I can't access it I've asked what to do, she told me to buy some stuff on Rakuten Ichiba instead. Literally as unhelpful as anyone could be, and they've now tied my 10k into their system and forcing me to buy stuff I wouldn't need ^^'.

I have sent an email for more info since she wasn't very helpful, and asking why it's possible to top up more than my max spending limit without any warning message, and to see if there's any way to increase my imposed limit. For reference, my (Japanese) girlfriend opened her account same time as me, but doesn't use her Rakuten stuff that much, and has no limits that she can see. Strange .

[adamu]

DONT use the website, it’s just throwing away points as you get extra points (0.5x) just for using the app.

I’ve never seen a benefit in using rakuten pay or cash as I can just use my credit card everywhere.

These are contradictory. Card->Cash->Pay gives you +0.5% points over just Card. The way it breaks down is 0.5% from Card (usually you get 1% for Card transactions, but Rakuten Cash charges get 0.5%), 1% from Pay. You don't get the extra 0.5% by letting Pay take from Card directly, you have to go via Cash.

Personally I don't bother because 0.5% points isn't worth converting yen into Rakuten Cash, and as viralriver discovered, that's less flexible than "real" cash...

[KCLenny]

DONT use the website, it’s just throwing away points as you get extra points (0.5x) just for using the app.

I’ve never seen a benefit in using rakuten pay or cash as I can just use my credit card everywhere.

These are contradictory. Card->Cash->Pay gives you +0.5% points over just Card. The way it breaks down is 0.5% from Card (usually you get 1% for Card transactions, but Rakuten Cash charges get 0.5%), 1% from Pay. You don't get the extra 0.5% by letting Pay take from Card directly, you have to go via Cash.

Personally I don't bother because 0.5% points isn't worth converting yen into Rakuten Cash, and as viralriver discovered, that's less flexible than "real" cash...

Fair enough. Thanks for the correction. I actually didn’t know there was any benefit for using the cash or pay services.

However, I stand by the original statement. Using the website over the app for ichiba is throwing away an easy amount of points. It’s just an app. Whereas going from card, to cash, to pay just seems like a bloody unnecessary hassle.
Who’s idea was that though anyway?!

[adamu]

The app is probably doing all sorts of horrific tracking of your usage patterns. That's why they give you points for using it

[zeroshiki]

It follows you around through Google/Criteo ads. Thats the extent of what they do as far as I know. Rakuten's big data is pretty bad compared to the real big boys in Silicon Valley.

You shouldn't go out of your way to earn points but if its all the same then its better to earn points on the stuff you would normally do anyway than not.

[KCLenny]

The app is probably doing all sorts of horrific tracking of your usage patterns. That's why they give you points for using it

All they are going to be seeing is that I’m watching anime and buying the stuff I need. Couldn’t care less that they’re tracking that. If it gives me a discount on the things I need/want I’m okay with that. It’s not like it doesn’t have all of my important personal info already anyways (as I said, I have all my utilities and all my banking with them, I don’t see a problem with them being able to see that I’ve searching for a new fridge or some plant seeds on ichiba. And outside of that they can’t track anything because I’ve turned off tracking outside the app through iPhone).

[mighty58]

All this just goes to show you can never underestimate how much people are willing to pay for some free points.