One year after the tie-up was announced, the Rakuten Pay Android app was updated yesterday and now supports adding a Rakuten branded Suica card and recharging that earns Rakuten Points, all done within Rakuten Pay. Each ¥200 of a recharge earns 1 Rakuten Point.
Outside of the Rakuten Pay app is confusing: red Rakuten Suica is only seen in Rakuten Pay but everywhere else it looks and acts like a regular green Suica (in Google Wallet, Mobile Suica, Osaifu Keitai app). But the Rakuten Point earning recharge is limited to Rakuten Pay app recharge which only sees the red Rakuten Suica and nothing else. Whew. Details are outlined clear as mud in the Rakuten Suica English press release.
Plugging Suica into the Rakuten Point empire is the whole point of the JR East/Rakuten tie-up but the current implementation is still missing an important point: free Suica recharges with Rakuten Points. This is promised in a future update. Up until now JR East has kept free Suica recharge exclusively for their own JRE POINT system where registered users earn JRE POINT with Suica then use points for free Suica recharge and Green Seat upgrades. The advantage for JR East is that Rakuten Point users outside of JR East’s transit region now have an incentive to use Suica for purchases and local transit as part of the Rakuten Payment experience.
There is no reason why Rakuten Suica couldn’t also work on Apple Pay but Rakuten probably wants to keep their branded Suica in their own app which is not allowed by Apple. Rakuten Suica would have to reside in Wallet just like the Mizuho Suica that recharges via its own app or Apple Pay. If Rakuten can live with that, Rakuten Suica has an Apple Pay future. For now, iOS users can earn Rakuten Points when recharging Suica with a Rakuten credit card but the sign-up process is convoluted and only good for 30 days before you have to sign up again.
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