We’re trying to give more attention to cards that you often don’t hear about in the blogosphere due to them not paying affiliate commissions to bloggers. One of these cards is the JCB Marukai Premium card. Here’s a quick look at the card:
What I Like
- The card earns up to 3% on all purchases. This is the main selling point of this card, the amount you’ll earn depends on how much you spend per year.
- Earn up to 1% Cash Back Points on first $1,000 spent yearly
- Earn up to 2% Cash Back Points on next $2,000 spent yearly
- Earn up to 3% Cash Back Points on over $3,000 spent yearly
- There is an annual spend bonus. If you spend a certain amount annually you’ll receive a cash bonus, I look at this as a sign up bonus that keeps on giving. Here’s the breakdown:
- Earn a $15 bonus when you spend $1,000 or more yearly
- Earn an additional $35 bonus when you spend $5,000 or more yearly (total of $50 bonus)
- They have regular promotions for existing customers. A lot of card issuers focus on new customers so it’s refreshing to see somebody targeting their existing customers. Most of the promotions center around them trying to get their cardholders to use their card at more locations. E.g earlier this year you’d earn $50 reward if you made purchases at 20 or more different locations or a $30 reward if you made purchases at 15 or more different locations. They had the same promotion in 2013.
What I Don’t Like
- This card is severely geographically limited. You can only apply for this card if you live in one of the following states:Â California, Nevada, Oregon, Hawaii or Washington
- Cash back points are given out based on a monthly statement cycle and you can only earn full points. E.g let’s say I spend $99, I would receive 0 points that month and the $99 does not roll onto the next month. If I spent $150, I’d earn up to 3 points depending on how much I’d spent that year.
- You need at least 10 cash back points to redeem. This shouldn’t be a big issue for most people, but it ties in with our next point.
- Cash back points expire. After you earn a cash back point you have until the end of the next calendar year to redeem them. (E.g, earn one point in January 2014 and you have until the end of December 2015 to redeem that point before it expires).
- There is no sign up promotion. Currently this card does not have a sign up promotion attached to it. In 2012/2013 you got a $30 Marukai gift card after approval and $50 cash back after $500 in purchases.
- There is an annual fee of $25 which is not waived year two onwards.
- Low credit limits. Most people find themselves getting a lower than expected credit limit on this card (e.g the average is ~$2,700 and that’s with a high of $7,000).
What do you think of this card? Will you consider applying for it? What other cards do you think don’t get enough attention?
$150 spend gives three points? Why not 1 since 100 increments ? And what is the relation to the $150 for YEARLY spend ??
Think the percentages reset every month as my understanding of T&Cs is spend is not cumulative. So need to get over $3K every month just to average 2%. And CL are notoriously low, so makes it difficult to get much more than 2%. Most would be better off with Fido 2% and avoid the hassle. Its not just because of limited geography that few talk about JCB (despite having perhaps 1/5th of US population eligible).
I don’t think the percentages reset monthly, I’m almost certain they are on a yearly basis. Taken directly from the website (emphasis mine):
Earn up to 3% Cash Back Points on over $3,000 spent yearly
like it till I got to this:
This card is severely geographically limited. You can only apply for this card if you live in one of the following states: California, Nevada, Oregon, Hawaii or Washington
live on the east coast, but would like to hear more about it and hope to find a similar opportunity here. good post
What do you mean by getting no points if you spend $99? Are you saying transactions/statements under $100 don’t generate CB? Is there a cap to the amount of 3% CB one can receive annually?
You receive cash back points, you need $100 in spend to receive 1 point. Points are issued on a monthly cycle, so you need to spend $100 in a month to receive the points. At least that’s how I understand the program works, happy to be proven wrong by somebody who has the card.
I applied and was rejected. I may try again in a couple of months, though it may end with the same result. They were not pleased with my excessive quantity of new accounts. This would make for a good MS card in my situation. That way I could easily control the points and not leave any in the table. I am not a big fan of their archaic system. That could become a nuisance.
How many inquiries do you have? Did you try calling reconsideration (if so, what number did you use?).