Marukai JCB 3%

StammesOpfer

Level 2 Member
Charity Forum Mod
I am looking for thoughts on this card and haven't seen it discussed here (FT thread is only 11 pages). I have looked into it before I was doing MS and didn't see a good use for it with limited acceptance of JCB. However it could be good for AP and maybe a few other non-bonuses MS opportunities, might be able to take your 2% up to 3% for $25 a year. Thoughts? Experiences? I know this is geographically restricted to CA, NV, OR, WA and they tend to have low limits and no online acct management (Bad for MS).
 

Matt

Administrator
Staff member
From some distant memory doesn't this run over the discover network? IE if they accept discover and you don't get them excited you are good?
 

Anh

Level 2 Member
From some distant memory doesn't this run over the discover network? IE if they accept discover and you don't get them excited you are good?
Yes this runs over the Discover Network. It can work online to some extent but your best bet would be swiping at the places that take Discover. From my research they're quite OK with MS, it's just that they are quite stingy with CL so you have to charge and pay and wait for the payment to post and rinse, repeat
 

StammesOpfer

Level 2 Member
Charity Forum Mod
From what I have read: in person transactions on Discover work fine, online is hit or miss mostly miss but a lot of the information is old (Payment systems may have been updated with JCB BIN#). AP calls out JCB as accepted. A lot of the information is kind of old. I guess I see this as a gap filler to maximize a few situations and use for everyday spend.
 

StammesOpfer

Level 2 Member
Charity Forum Mod
I see that 3k CL fairly often. If you don't mind did you ever ask for a CLI I know they say you can request after 6 months. Obviously 3k CL makes MS a little difficult.
 

trvl4fs

Level 2 Member
I see that 3k CL fairly often. If you don't mind did you ever ask for a CLI I know they say you can request after 6 months. Obviously 3k CL makes MS a little difficult.
I haven't asked for a CLI. I have a couple of 5x cards that keep me pretty busy so I just use the JCB when its convenient or I don't want to us a "better" card.
 

zceuxbhjutf

Panel 3 Member
They do have online acct management -- added ~Nov 2013. Most folks won't have a gap in categories that the JCB would fill for buying GCs if they already have an Ink and AmexOBC. Fund your Amazon Payments or buy mall GCs if you like. Edit: my Simon and Macerich tests failed
The gotcha is your monthly spend is rounded DOWN to the nearest 100 before the 3% is calculated. So for example if your statement's about to close (ideally early in the month) and you've only spent $99 it is now a 0% card. Do a quick $1 AP to get the $3 LOL.

I think there's currently a $50 bonus for new cardholders, if you call and ask.
 
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StammesOpfer

Level 2 Member
Charity Forum Mod
I was thinking it could be an easy AFT card, fills a gap for my normal shopping at Sam's Club (No AmEx or Visa) too.
 

StammesOpfer

Level 2 Member
Charity Forum Mod
[Update] So I did the paper application, found a stamp and envelope, and sent it off. A couple days later they did a credit pull. Three weeks later (yesterday) I got a response. Started with a rejection, but then the reason was unverified income and employment. Letter said I would be approved if I could provide proof of employment. Easy enough printed out a pay stub and faxed and mailed it to them. I am expecting a $3k limit cause that is what everyone gets. I will probably do double that between AP and AFT hope they are ok with churning your CL. I now have to see if it fits anywhere else in my plan.
 

PainCorp

Level 2.14 on Dining/Travel until 12/15
This could be a pretty good AP/AFT card. You could earn $30 or $20 per thousand, respectively. I'm gonna have to take another look.

Can you BP this at WM?
 
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raccah

Level 2 Member
Regarding AFT - why not just use 5% cards (AKA GC). Now that AGC is dead, we have no way to pad 1x cards, which was the GREATEST feature of the AGC. Now, we only have the cards themselves or the 5% GC, so what value is there, in using this verus a plain old VGC at Target? On AP, I agree do NOT pound them with many 500 dollar VGC - bad idea.
 

StammesOpfer

Level 2 Member
Charity Forum Mod
My source for $500 VGCs at grocery is kind of tight as far a scaling. It takes a lot just to feed 2x Serve and 1x GoBank. Also on VGC the fee is 1.18% so there is a 0.82% advantage to using VGC which would be eaten by my time/gas to acquire the VGC and the hassle for dealing with untrained/overcautious cashiers trying to do split payments.

Though it might be worth trying the find some OV/Amex at Phramacy and see if I can scale that easily enough to make it worth the time. I am not using that since my major liquidation method for VGC is Walmart based currently. So it could be an option. Thanks for making me think a little harder about it. Gotta get me out of my rut sometimes.

Throw Simon Mall VGC in as good ideas for this JCB card.
 

StammesOpfer

Level 2 Member
Charity Forum Mod
Can you BP this at WM?
I don't know I'll give it a shot after I get my first bill. That might be a while though.
USAA Billpay and Serve BP are sending paper checks. Check.me syncs the account but wont let me billpay, I assume because they only do EFT BP. So I don't think WM BP will work since I don't think they don't do paper checks. Unfortunately it looks like I can only set up one checking account on JCB's website to pull from.
 

zceuxbhjutf

Panel 3 Member
CLI Datapoint

Got CC Aug 2013 5kCL.

Asked for CLI over phone ~24 Oct 2014. Asked for 15k and she kinda giggled, said doubtful. Haven't received letter yet but finally online I see they bumped me up 1k so I now have 6kCL. Experian hard pull was 28 Oct.

I do seem to have an MS Guardian Angel for almost everything else, so I'm okay with this BS LOL.
 

PNW-MSSER

Level 2 Member
When do they do the hardpull ? Its been 10 days since I sent my app via First Class mail, wondering if I should call.
 

PNW-MSSER

Level 2 Member
So the HP hit Experian today :

JCB INTERNATIONAL CREDITCRD CO
800 W 6TH ST STE 200
LOS ANGELES, CA 900172705

Lets see if the MS Gods like me :)
 

zceuxbhjutf

Panel 3 Member
Unbelievable BS yesterday at a Pavilions (Safeway).

This particular store's POS is one of the few that can still activate ReloadIts. Cashier checks with (new?) manager if CC is okay, takes forever but I guess he finds the sheet that says Yes. Now I swipe JCB and cashier needs to track him down again for the override card. For some reason she grabs my JCB and ID (I guess to demonstrate to manager that she's being thorough, fine with me cuz I always whip them out at the start of the transaction anyway).

Again takes forever and now the manager says that even though the system's processing everything just fine, they can't accept non-V/MC/Disc AFTER DARK or something. (I've used JCB often at Vons/Pavilions/Safeway.) Aye, Serenity Now...
 

zceuxbhjutf

Panel 3 Member
Must be a resident of the state of California, Nevada, Oregon or Washington. There's a similar 3% card requiring Hawaii residence.
 

zceuxbhjutf

Panel 3 Member
The Special Campaign is back on 10 Jan to 15 Mar. $50 bonus to all who swipe at 20 different stores, so if you're sure you'll achieve 20 then it's $2.50 per store (fwiw you don't even have to spend $2.50, of course, just swipe for anything).

P.S. JCB-to-Serve via online? Doubtful. JCB is widely accepted in-store, but conversely it's widely refused online. Bueller?
 
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zceuxbhjutf

Panel 3 Member
JCB FAQs from other threads

- takes 5 wks to get card (CLI consideration=similar)

- I've cycled CL maybe 1.8x

- clunky website example: only one ACH source is possible and if you change it, prepare to wait ~8 days while you're completely in limbo (solution=ACH-push)

- rewards-to-statement credit is via phone robot (totally automated)

- MS Suitability? can probably earn a couple hundred a month in statement credits
 
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Codename47

Level 2 Member
Data point:
$1000 credit line - I've churned through it 3X in a month and never heard a peep. It is one of my favorite cards.

They are sort of stingy on the credit line (I have 120k/year HHI and 720 TransUnion score).
 

MrMcBean

Level 2 Member
Has anyone been able to buy gift cards directly form American Express with JCB? I want to stack with Simply Best Coupons 2% cashback on American Express Business gift cards on June 5, 2015.
 

StammesOpfer

Level 2 Member
Charity Forum Mod
Has anyone been able to buy gift cards directly form American Express with JCB? I want to stack with Simply Best Coupons 2% cashback on American Express Business gift cards on June 5, 2015.
I just tried with my card and it did not accept the card number as valid. In general JCB online acceptance is very unlikely unless they display the JCB logo (mostly Amazon Checkout). The only online site that didn't list JCB that has accepted it through the discover network is GEICO.
 

PNW-MSSER

Level 2 Member
I just tried with my card and it did not accept the card number as valid. In general JCB online acceptance is very unlikely unless they display the JCB logo (mostly Amazon Checkout). The only online site that didn't list JCB that has accepted it through the discover network is GEICO.
GEICO does some super shady stuff, I remember it checked me out as a pin purchase when I used my paypal card.

And on cue, I got a letter today about irregular account activity, probably gonna be shut down.
 
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zceuxbhjutf

Panel 3 Member
JCB/SimonGC failure report...

I asked if they took Discover, yes.
What about my JCB that runs on the Discover network?
He looked at it under a blacklight then nixed the plan cuz it doesn't have a Discover Network Acceptance Mark.
Code:
https://www.discovernetwork.com/common/pdf/JCBCardIdentificationGuide.pdf
I asked if we could give it a try anyway, no.

If I try with a different cashier, I'll just test $500 to reduce the test variables. Anybody else test this?
 

StammesOpfer

Level 2 Member
Charity Forum Mod
I never ask people if they accept JCB. I just hand it to them and they don't even think twice or notice it isn't something more common if it works. The first time they notice it isn't a Visa/MC etc is when the register displays a message they have never seen before. JCB acceptance is super weird. I have had places that have we accept JCB stickers along with Visa, MC, Amex, Discover and my JCB doesn't work. I usually point it out then switch to a 2% card cause it's not like the employee behind the register has any clue about card networks.

As for Simon specifically. I would imagine some of them would be setup for JCB especially the Simon Outlet malls and Simon malls in tourist areas. They are more likely to encounter tourist from Japan trying to use JCB. Only time I met someone who actually knew what a JCB card was, was in Las Vegas at a high end retailer in Caesars Palace.
 

linda nguyen

Level 2 Member
I am looking for thoughts on this card and haven't seen it discussed here (FT thread is only 11 pages). I have looked into it before I was doing MS and didn't see a good use for it with limited acceptance of JCB. However it could be good for AP and maybe a few other non-bonuses MS opportunities, might be able to take your 2% up to 3% for $25 a year. Thoughts? Experiences? I know this is geographically restricted to CA, NV, OR, WA and they tend to have low limits and no online acct management (Bad for MS).

I called JCB the other day. I spoke to a representative to see if there was any insight that they would add as far as the CL's they give out. I didn't want to get a credit card that had such low limits that it wouldn't be useful. She basically said that you just had to apply to see what happens. So not much use. Based on others data of saying they have low CL's, I optioned to not send in my PAPER application.
 

StammesOpfer

Level 2 Member
Charity Forum Mod
I called JCB the other day. I spoke to a representative to see if there was any insight that they would add as far as the CL's they give out. I didn't want to get a credit card that had such low limits that it wouldn't be useful. She basically said that you just had to apply to see what happens. So not much use. Based on others data of saying they have low CL's, I optioned to not send in my PAPER application.
Yeah low credit limits for sure. They gave me a $2500 limit with $65k income. I have never heard of them going higher than $7k limit. I used it as more of an everyday card, I go for 5x on MS. I did churn the limit a couple times in a month but not on a regular basis. They did start allowing payments online in the last couple years :) and I think you can FAX that application in lol.
 
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