Foreign issue VISA card holders using Apple Pay Suica beware, you might be in for a rude surprise when you get the monthly statement. A reader sent some very interesting information:
JR East started processing these Visa transactions differently on foreign cards. Previously, these were processed as ‘SUICA MOBILE PAYMENT’ and the merchant category was passenger railways (travel). Since around May 11 or 12, these are now processed as ‘MOBILE SUICA APPLE V’ and the merchant category is catalog merchants (shopping). This is an unfortunate change as the merchant category change from travel to shopping downgrades the points earning capability on several American cards (eg. from 3x points on the Chase Sapphire Reserve to 1x).
Chase Sapphire Reserve has been a popular choice for Apple Pay Suica recharge because of the 3x rewards. The VISA JP Apple Pay agreement has changed how foreign issue VISA brand card payments made with Apple Pay in Japan are processed obviously, but the merchant category change from railways/travel to catalog/online shopping is a mystery. JR East or VISA JP? On the surface JR East as they are the merchant but why this and why now? Another backend change: JR East is starting 3-D Secure credit card checks in iOS Suica App and Mobile Suica (Android) from May 26.
I do not know if Apple Pay PASMO is in the same boat but suspect so. Foreign issue VISA holders may want to consider using a different credit card for Suica recharge for the best reward points. There are too many reward point differences to make any definitive recommendation. The best long term strategy is to examine your spending patterns and select a JP issue card that fits your needs. Reward point empires to consider: JRE POINT (BIC CAMERA View), Rakuten POINT (Rakuten Card) and V POINT (SMBC Numberless Instant issue).
I will update this post as more information comes in, reader feedback is appreciated.
Update: Good news: a reader reports Apple Pay PASMO recharge still codes as travel for Chase Sapphire VISA 3x travel points. Reader and user comments:
I setup Pasmo in Apple Pay and ran a test transaction with my Chase Sapphire Reserve. Good news, Pasmo is being processed differently and coding as passenger railways (travel).
I also noticed JRE’s category change for GooglePay Suica a few months ago.
With US credit cards, the Chase Sapphire Reserve (CSR) and the Chase Business Ink Preferred both had 3x points on Travel. If you had used them to charge your Suica via Apple Pay or Google Pay, the charge would show up as ‘travel’ or ‘jr east’. So you were effectively earning 3% cashback (technically more with the multiplier of 1.25 or 1.5 based on the card). The wonderful thing was that you could pay for almost everything in daily life with Google or Apple pay here in Japan. It does seem this has changed. I dropped my CSR a while ago – now it is time to let my Ink go too.
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