Hi everyone, moving to Japan soon, trying to figure out how much money I can load my Suica on my iPhone / Apple watch with my US based cc and maybe fulfill a signup bonus to fund myself. I know theres a limit on the physical cards, but is there a limit for the virtual cards too?
3 comments
You can only have 20000 yen at a time loaded. You can have a PASMO as well. Suica and PASMO are fairly widely accepted for payments so you can drain that down fairly quickly.
Also, welcome!
Yes if your US credit card gives points etc. then it’s a very good idea to keep it and use it on your iPhone to continually charge your Suica or PASMO to generate US cc points.
Just make sure that your credit card has no foreign transaction fees, otherwise ditch it and get another credit card
Both of them have a ¥20,000 limit. Note that either card can be used all over Japan for trains, buses, taxis and many many shops including pretty much all convenience stores.
Depending on your card, it may be better to use PASMO. I have a chase sapphire preferred which gives two times points for travel related charges. Suica reports back to Chase as shopping, so I would only get one point per dollar, but PASMO reports as travel, so I get two points per dollar.
If you buy an iPhone/Apple Watch outside of Japan, can you still use it for Pasmo? I know with Google Pixels you can’t. You actually have to buy the model that is sold in Japan which has the right chip for FeliCa. I just wanted to bring that up before OP loaded his phone up with money that might not be able to be used.