Long story short, recently moved to Japan from Canada for work. Trying to transition some online purchases to a new credit card as I’m in the process of trying to figure out how to transfer funds from my JP account to my CAD one. Recently went to a convenience store to pick up a little prepaid visa. Didn’t see a visa, but saw a JCB Premo card. Assumed they were basically the same after a bit of googling (my first mistake).
I’m unable to use this card ANYWHERE. Can’t use it on Steam. Doesn’t work on Amazon, despite the packaging saying it works on Amazon (won’t accept the card number).
Have I just made a huge mistake getting this prepaid card? Where do you use it? How do you use it? I’d contact their customer support but my Japanese is basic at best. At this point, I don’t even care enough to try and refund it, I just want to be able to spend the fifty bucks or so I spent on this card on SOMETHING. Any help would be massively appreciated.
2 comments
Spend it at the convenience store.
Quick solution: Using JCB Premo on Amazon works [differently](https://www.global.jcb/ja/products/cards/issuer-japan/premo/orderonline.html) than when using a regular JCB card. Pick “conbini/ATM/online banking/e-money” and you’ll get a separate e-mail with payment instructions, and you’ll be able to pick JCB Premo from there.
Longer story: Yes, JCB Premo is *not* what you want if you want to do online purchases. It works at a lot of stores that take JCB (but not all) but it’s not ideal. If you want a prepaid card you can start using online right away, download the Kyash or Mixi M app and sign up. All you need is a Japanese phone number. You’ll get a virtual Visa card number right away with the option to order a physical card (no ID required with Kyash for a “light” card that works for up to 120k yen deposited/spent a month, ID required to get a physical card from Mixi M).