Topping up suica with iphone

Hello,
I have seen in a youtube tutorial that using a credit card to top up the digital Suica card is not a good idea. It was mentioned that credit card companies can see this as a cash advance vs a credit card payment. Has anybody faced this issue?

In general you cannot use a credit card to recharge an IC card (there is an exception for Japan issued linked View cards). And, yes, recharging a card is essentially a cash advance.
For the app on apple, you would be funding from an apple wallet with an appropriately linked card. Says it is possible, but as a cash advance, the fees might be higher than a cash alternative.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207154
An article that delves a bit more into the issue is here:
https://atadistance.net/all-about-apple-pay-suica-recharge/

Thanks. Just when I thougth I was ready to go and I find myself trying to understand all this. Wanny cry …

And I still love my tatty, dog-eared physical IC card.
Physical cards are being made available again in Tokyo (since January - limited locations). For the app (I have a comp sci degree, but I avoid them) you can still top up with cash. Just note it might get treated as cash advance depending on how you have your wallet set up.

I wonder if apple try to swipe 30% off JR for the payment?

When I was there last November I used my Suica on my iPhone and was able to add funds via Apple Pay using my Mastercard with no problems. I just made sure to alert the card company beforehand about my travel plans so the charges would not be questioned. I don't think Visa or Discover worked.

In looking back at what was charged to my credit card account, it looks like for me the fees were pretty small - for a $33 charge (probably a 5000 yen recharge based on the exchange rate back then) I was charged a $1 foreign transaction fee.

For me it worked really well since I could recharge on the fly wherever I was and didn't have to seek out a machine to do it with cash, which more than made up for the small transaction fees.

I just topped off my wife's and my mobile Suica in our Apple Wallets for our April trip and...

...Citibank Mastercard charged me an effective exchange rate of Y148.1 to $1 USD (for a Y16,000 top off of each Suica card).

...the interbank exchange rate on the day of the transaction was Y149.06 to $1 USD or about .06% difference from what Citi charged us.

...there was NO cash advance charge of any type, Citi just considered it a regular credit card transaction (my card has no foreign transaction fees added).

So, I would say that the answer to your question is "it depends" on your bank, card used, how the bank and card treat the transaction and the fees associated with it.

In our case, it was just like buying something from a store or conducting a transaction at a restaurant in Japan or USA.

Hope this helps.

Stan

Thanks for the replies. I totally overlooked this important aspect. I always assumed this was the easiest part … ha ha, let’s see.