I recently got an email from SBI net bank promoting their platinum debit card which costs 11,000 per year (currently I just have the regular debit card which is free), and I'm wondering if it's worth it. The major advantages are:
- higher cashback percentage, from current 0.8% with regular to 1.25% base and up to 2.5% depending on how much money is in your account
- various insurances (mobile, shopping) and travel insurance (if tickets are bought through the card I assume?)
By my calculations, the higher cashback percentage would be worth it if I spend around 2,500,000 on the card per year (at the base cashback level).
Aside from that I'm wondering about the travel insurance – would the travel insurance included in the card be enough to avoid getting standalone insurance on an overseas trip?
Is anyone here using the SBI platinum debit card and do you find it worth it?
by Mayfly9
7 comments
For reference, here’s the travel insurance I got when recently travelling for a few weeks, myself and 2 children. It seems somewhat comparable to the insurance from the platinum card, the biggest difference being for family members – with standalone travel insurance everyone has the same coverage, with the platinum card coverage family members have lower coverage. Aside from that the card one says “up to X amount” a lot so it’s a bit hard to compare directly.
|契約プラン|スタンダード|
|:-|:-|
|保険金額|傷害死亡|1,000万円|
|傷害後遺障害|1,000万円|
|治療・救援費用|1,000万円|
|疾病死亡|1,000万円|
|賠償責任|1億円|
|携行品損害|10万円|
|特約|戦争危険等免責に関する一部修正特約・インターネット等による通信販売に関する特約・クレジットカードによる保険料支払に関する特約・保険証券等の不発行に関する特約・変更届出書面省略に関する特約・共同保険に関する特約・保険料の払込みにおけるポイントの使用に関する特約|
|1名あたりの保険料|12,170円|
|合計保険料|36,510円|
Got the same mail
Haven’t looked into details yet
Will follow this post
I use it.
It’s a good deal for the electronics insurance alone.
(As long as you properly opt out of Apple Care and the like.)
Travel insurance is also nice.
20 free furikomi is great for banks that don’t support Kotora transfers.
Extra points add up and are automatically put towards purchases on the debit card so you don’t need to think about “managing points” at all. No monthly ritual of searching for hard to find links to redeem points towards the next billing cycle like SOME credit cards…
Incremental value seems negligible given annual fee. You’d need to spend quite a lot per year to make the incremental cash back worth it. As for travel insurance, the key thing to know is how hard is it to get a claim filed – which would be very difficult to know, (unless they note exact partner and tier of coverage/service that is comparable to an existing service with extensive history). Else it’s hard to evaluate the insurance benefit. So, probably not worth it assuming you already have an existing card that offers ~1% cash back already.
Thanks for sharing. I was reflecting that there are a lot of credit card posts (either how to get one or what is the best one), and there does not seems to me there is a solid consensus on what gold/plat card to recommend for points.
This one might be attractive, but I wonder how the fact it is a debit and not a credit may be bothersome for usage (esp online).
It would be helpful if you changed the flair to the [Credit Card one](https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanFinance/?f=flair_name%3A%22Personal%20Finance%20%C2%BB%20Credit%20Cards%20%26%20Scores%22), even if not actually a credit one
I grabbed this one last year when they did a campaign that waived the first year annual fee. However I do believe the card has significantly changed since that last year (I don’t hold it anymore).
Changes since 2024:
* Point rate 1% -> 1.25%+ (previously was flat 1% regardless of spend)
* Added insurance for travel/mobile/shopping etc
As I didn’t have it when it offered travel insurance I can’t speak to that, although the lounge passes were nice and the flexiroam data was also helpful. The points are somewhat irrelevant as many cards offer similar or slightly better.
Frankly as it was, I wouldn’t have paid for another year. I got some free eSim data and 5 priority pass entries on it for free and so I’d say I’m glad I got it but I don’t think it’s worth 11k yen honestly.
If you can get it, the [Miraino Travellers Gold](https://www.netbk.co.jp/contents/mirainocard/master/card/gold.html) is essentially the same but offers more lounge access as a credit card.
Just to clarify for everyone, this is: SBI NeoBank/Net Bank
OP: please revise post title to reflect this. “SBI” has a number of brands/meanings under it (e.g. Shinsei which this is not).
My wife and I both have this card exclusively for the international travel insurance. We have used it a few times and it works well (luggage damage, doctor visits, etc.)
If anyone here is familiar with US credit card travel insurance, this travel insurance is much easier to actually use and get things approved.
The biggest benefit: you do not need to purchase an airline ticket with this card to receive the benefits of the international travel insurance (Japan domestic I am not sure). This is something that many other cards in the US and Japan have changed over time (they require that the ticket be purchased with said card for coverage).
It also comes with a limited variation of Priority Pass, which is worth between zero and perhaps slightly above zero, depending on how/where used.
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