Marukai Premium JCB Card Review - 3% Cash Back On All Purchases

Saving money on marukai premium jcb card does not have to be complicated. We rounded up the essentials so you can spend less and skip the guesswork.

Key Takeaways

• This card is no longer accepting new applications.
• It looks like JCB will end all US operations in May.
• The JCB Maurkai card earns up to 3% cash back on all purchases, it’s only available to people in the following states: California, Neva...

This card is no longer accepting new applications. It looks like JCB will end all US operations in May.

The JCB Maurkai card earns up to 3% cash back on all purchases, it’s only available to people in the following states: California, Nevada, Oregon, Hawaii or Washington. In this review we will be looking at how to get the most out of this card.

 

Interest Rates

Fees

Card Pros

• Up to 3% cash back on all purchases
• Up to $50 annual cash bonus

Card Cons

• Only available in selected states
• JCB is not accepted everywhere

APR: 13.15% Annual Fee: $15 waived first year, also must pay Marukai one time membership fee of $1 Introductory APR: None Balance Transfer Fee: Balance transfers not possible Introductory APR Length: None Cash Advance Fee: $2 or 2% whichever is higher Cash Advance APR: 13.15% Foreign Transaction Fee: 1.1% on each transaction before conversion to U.S dollars Penalty APR: Not listed Late Payment Fee: up to $15 (varies by state) Grace Period: 27 days Over The Credit Line: $0 Minimum Interest Charge: 3-5% or $15 whichever is greater. Varies by location Returned Payment: Not listed

Contents

• 0.1 Interest Rates
• 0.2 Fees
• 0.3 Card Pros
• 0.4 Card Cons
• 1 Application Information
  • 1.1 What Credit Score Is Required
  • 1.2 What Credit Bureau Does JCB Pull For The Marukai Premium Card?
  • 1.3 What Credit Limit Will I Receive?
• 2 Rewards Program
  • 2.1 Earning Rewards
    • 2.1.1 Sign Up Bonus
    • 2.1.2 Sign up Bonus History
    • 2.1.3
  • 2.2 Redeeming Your Rewards
• 3 Card Acceptance
• 4 F.A.Q’s
• 5 Card Benefits
  • 5.1 JCB Plaza’s
  • 5.2 Travel Insurance
• 6 Card Alternatives

The JCB Marukai card has the highest cash back bonus on all spending on the market at a massive 3%, you do need to spend $3,000 before you start earning at this rate but if you spend $5,000 there is also a $50 bonus which makes this card very attractive for everyday spend.

The downside to this card is that it’s a processed and issued by JCB and they don’t have a big market share in the United States. Thankfully they have an agreement with Discover and JCB cards are accepted at most places that Discover is accepted.

For those that live in an area that can get this card, it’s well worth getting as long as you spend at least $5,000 per year on everyday expenses. If you don’t, you’ll be better off with the American Express Fidelity card.

Application Information

JCB typically requires applicants to submit proof of residence and income verification (1040 form or pay stubs), this is especially true if you’re self-employed. It’s not possible to apply online or via phone, you must fill out an application form and then mail it to JCB (different addresses for different states). It’s also possible to pick up an application form at any Marukai store. You also must live in one of the following states to be approved: California, Nevada, Oregon, Hawaii or Washington.

What Credit Score Is Required

Credit Karma doesn’t provided any information on this card so we’re only looking at data found in the credit boards credit pull application and information found in various forum threads.

Credit Boards Lowest approved score 600 Average approved score 683

 

Common Reasons For Denial:

• Bankruptcy on file.  Although there is one data point in which somebody was approved with a bankruptcy on file.

What Credit Bureau Does JCB Pull For The Marukai Premium Card?

It depends on location but it looks like they will typically pull either TransUnion or Experian, in some cases they will pull both of these bureaus.

What Credit Limit Will I Receive?

JCB is known for issuing extremely small credit limits. There doesn’t seem to be a correlation between a persons credit score and their limit. There might be a connection between their income & limit. It’s key to note that this information is based off the 7 data points we could find, the average credit limit is much higher than most people received due to the $7,000 limit bringing the average up.

Minimum Credit Limit Highest Reported Credit Limit Average Credit Limit $500 $7,000 $2,786

Rewards Program

Earning Rewards

This card has a tiered cash back program and earns at the following rates:

• 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

It’s not a strict cash back program though. Here is how it actually works:

• For every $100 you spend you’ll receive 1-3 JCB cash back points, depending on which tier you’re currently in (see above). This is calculated on a per month basis (e.g if you make $99 in purchases for a month you’ll receive no cash back points).
• JCB cash back points are worth $1
• You need a minimum of 10 JCB cash back points ($10) to redeem
• Points earned in one calendar year expire at the end of the following calendar year (e.g if you earn one point in January 2014 it will not expire until the end of December 2015)

This shouldn’t be an issue for most people, just make sure you have at least 10 points at the end of each year so you don’t miss out on any cash back. Also try to make sure you stay as close to as possible to $100 increments each statement cycle.

Sign Up Bonus

This card does not have a sign up bonus. It does have an annual spending bonus though which earns as follows:

• Earn an additional $15 bonus when you spend $1,000 or more yearly OR
• Earn an additional $50 bonus when you spend $5,000 or more yearly

You can only get one of these bonuses per year.

Sign up Bonus History

In addition to the annual bonus above, this card has also had a sign up promotion once which was as follows:

• December 1, 2012 through March 31, 2013: Receive a $30 Marukai gift card after first purchase and $50 cash back after you make $500 or more in purchases.

Redeeming Your Rewards

To redeem points you need to call JCB cardmember services (1-800-366-4522). Cash back will be received as statement credit against your bill.

Card Acceptance

You’re probably familiar with other card processors such as Visa, MasterCard, Diner’s Club & Discover. JCB is another card processor that is extremely popular in Japan. Discover & JCB have an reciprocal agreement in place where Discover cards are can run on the JCB network and JCB cards can run on the Discover network.

Unfortunately this agreement doesn’t always work out, it can be difficult to explain to cashiers that this agreement is in place as JCB cards do not have the Discover logo on the back (they do have the Cirrus & Star logos). The payment terminal will also need to have the JCB/UnionPay add-on enabled for it to work (a lot of smaller merchants do not have this add on enabled). It also doesn’t work for a lot of online merchants. Below are a list of places where this card does & doesn’t work. If you have additional data points then please contact us and we will add them.

When making payments online you’ll need to select “Discover Network” as the card type unless there is an option to select JCB directly.

Works:

• Stores:
  • 7-11
  • Arbys
  • Alaska Airlines (in flight)
  • Amazon.com
  •  AT&T
  •  Barnes & Noble
  • Bartell Drugstore
  • Baskin Robbins
  • Boston Market
  • Buc-ee’s convenience stores (certain locations only)
  • Burger King
  • Canteen Vending Machines
  • Carl’s Jr.
  • Cheddar’s Steakhouse
  • Chevron
  • Coca Cola Vending Machines
  • Cole Haan
  • CVS
  • Dollar Tree
  • Domino’s Pizza (online & in person)
  • Dunkin Donuts
  • Earth Class Mail
  • Eat24hours.com
  • Fry’s Electronics
  • Gap.com
  • Genki Sushi
  • Google Wallet / Play
  • H-Mart
  • Hertz.com
  • Hotels.com
  • All merchants in SEA Airport
  • IKEA
  • J.Crew
  • Kinonuniya Bookstore
  • Kroger/QFC, L’Occitane
  • McDonald’s
  • Menchie’s
  • Most fuel stations (you might have to go inside for a lot of these)
  •  Nordstrom
  • Office Depot
  • Old Navy
  • Panera Bread
  • Powell’s bookstore
  • Radionshack
  • Ruby Thai
  • Safeway (self checkout and regular cashier checkout)
  • Sears
  • Shloosl.com,
  • Sony Store
  • Specialty’s Cafe & Bakery
  • Square
  • Starbucks
  • Subway
  • Taco Bell
  • Taco Del Mar
  • Target
  • Telecharge.com
  • The North Face Outlet Store
  • Total Wine & More
  • Toys R Us
  • Trade Joe’s
  • USPS
  • Union 76 Gas Stations
  • Walmart
  • Whole Foods
  • Wendys
• Official payments: Can be used for paying State & Federal taxes. Fees should be less than 3% (varies) so this could be a profitable way of making these payments.
• Giftcardmall

Doesn’t work:

• American Express Gift Cards: Unfortunately this won’t work to purchase American Express gift cards (which frequently have a high cash back rate on portals).
• American Express Serve
• Stores: Safeway (gas pump)
• Paypal. Brings up an error message and contacting support doesn’t seem to help. Paypal blames this on incorrect information (e.g wrong billing address) when this information has been confirmed as correct by JCB.
• WilliamPaid
• ValueTaxPayment
• Yoshinoya
• PayUSATax: Accepts Discover

  Final Thoughts

  Before you check out, double-check marukai premium jcb card against current offers and any coupons you can stack. Small habits like this add up to real savings over a year.

  Originally published at doctorofcredit.com.