Notice: this post describes the situation of December 2023, latest updates here.
The very long non-JP VISA credit card block by the VISA payment network for adding money to Suica in Wallet app via In-App Apple Pay was finally lifted with the iOS 17.2 update, with conditions. The block started back in August 2022 and quickly extended to PASMO and ICOCA cards, a very frustrating situation for inbound visitors who wanted to add Suica to iPhone. The problem was compounded by the temporary suspension of plastic Suica and PASMO card sales due to chip shortages that started in June 2023 right after the Suica 2.0 rollout in the Tohoku region.
While there had been a few small blips of some VISA transactions slipping through the blockage (usually after a major system maintenance that inadvertently reset some server flags), there was no sign of credit cards coming back en mass. On the debit card side things were a little better though chaotic, a VISA debit card that worked would suddenly stop working and vice versa.
The first sign that things were changing appeared in mid-October when inbound users discovered that VISA credit cards that didn’t work for Apple Pay In-App Suica Wallet recharge, worked for Apple Pay In-App Suica recharge in Suica App. On the Mobile Suica system side JR East executed some extra long late night maintenance downtimes focused on the payments side in late November. They also released a mandatory Suica App maintenance update (v3.2.2) on November 22 that did nothing expect block non-JP VISA card Apple Pay In-App recharge for 24 hours. Something was clearly going on.
Apple also did some Apple Pay maintenance that caused an outage centered on transit card recharge on December 7. After the system maintenance (if it was that), non-JP VISA credit cards suddenly worked for Suica, PASMO and ICOCA for a short time but were quickly blocked again. Then, finally, with the iOS 17.2 update released on December 11 (December 12 in Japan), VISA credit cards started working again for Suica recharge in Wallet app.
It’s not across the board, even for all VISA credit cards from the same issuer but all transactions, successful and unsuccessful were finally routing from merchant acquirer to the card issuer. A recharge attempt you with a fraud alert or temporary decline from the card issuer that needs clearing is actually a good sign because it means it means transactions are finally routing to your card issuer account again and you can do something about it. The downside is that the iOS 17.2 requirement effectively limits VISA use with Suica to iPhone XS/XR and later modes.
As of this writing readers report the following VISA issuers work after updating to iOS 17.2: Wells Fargo Signature, Chase Sapphire, Bank of America, Capital One, Citibank, Hyundai Card MC, Hong Kong HSCB, Ambank Malaysia VISA Infinite. Apple Watch Wallet app Suica recharge is still NG but recharge via iPhone Watch App (iOS 17.2) is working: select the Suica card in Wallet, tap card details then tap Add Money. PASMO and ICOCA are still blocked, however I suspect they will follow the same rebound once their mobile backends and apps are updated.
It’s pretty clear that JR East and Apple did backend work to ‘fix’ whatever VISA was asking them to fix. And it’s not the EMV 3-D Secure v2 2FA/onetime password support that everybody assumed was the holdup: Apple Pay, Google Pay and other digital wallet platforms don’t use it. The only guess I can make is that might be something along the lines of Enhanced Fraud Prevention to better track the money going into Apple Pay Suica, i.e. more private data forked over to VISA, less privacy for you. another data grab in the name of very broadly defined ‘fraud prevention’.
With modifications in place, the VISA payment network merchant acquirer is authorizing non-JP VISA transactions again for Apple Pay In-App Suica recharge. We’ll never know what those modifications are as nobody in the entire payment chain: JR East, Apple, VISA merchant acquirer, VISA issuer, etc., has said nothing publicly the entire year, and everything is NDA. Oh wait, JR East and Apple did say, ‘some cards may not work for adding money to Suica, please contact your card company.’ Ha, ha, ha, have fun as the card issuers are in the dark about merchant acquirer payment network issues and customer support reps only give scripted responses.
Nevertheless it’s a welcome development that inbound visitors can add Suica to iPhone with a VISA credit cards…again. Plastic Suica cards are slowly coming back too. They aren’t loaded in station ticket machines yet but major Tokyo area JR East Travel Service Centers (Tokyo, Shinjuku, Shinagawa, Ueno, Shibuya, Ikebukuro) have them available at counters. A merry little Suica Christmas present. Happy transit in 2024.
Check the Apple Pay Recharge guide for latest developments
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