Today I went to buy my 定期券 (teikiken) at a JR machine (with my physical suica card), and I noticed that it asked me how much I wanted to charge onto my suica. Normally I just ignore that screen, but this time I was curious, so I picked the 500 yen option. To my surprise, it actually charged my credit card the 定期券 price + 500 yen, and added 500 yen to my suica balance.
This was surprising to me because I've always heard that it's not possible to charge a physical suica without cash. This shows that it's definitely possible. That got me wondering if there are any other cashless ways to add money to a physical suica, or if I just stumbled onto a rare "hack". Does anyone know of other ways?
by kitsunegi