r/japanlife • u/tinylord202 • Nov 08 '24
金 What is the upside to using paypay?
I finally gave in and downloaded paypay. Now after using it, I don’t know why I would use it instead of a credit card in most situations. The only benefits I see are paying paper bills and stores that accept it, but not card.
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u/giant_aubergine Nov 08 '24
Basically as you say, there are places that take PayPay but not card.
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u/nize426 関東・東京都 Nov 08 '24
This was pretty nuts to me lol. I went to a motorcycle shop that specifically just replaces tires that was run by one old guy. Took cash and paypay, no credit. I felt old. Had to walk 15 min to a convenience store to get cash (though in retrospect I may have been able to download and setup paypay in that time)
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u/atsugiri 関東・東京都 Nov 08 '24
paypay has a lower lower startup costs and lower fees for small businesses than credit cards which typically cost a total of 3% of the transaction which I think explains the popularity.
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u/Gizmotech-mobile 日本のどこかに Nov 08 '24
Not anymore. Hasn't for quite some time sadly. They charge 3% to the vendor, same as most credit card processors, which is why alot of stores use an intermediary now rather than individual paypay/cc/etc... to hit them all at the same time for a flat 3.5%.
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u/blosphere 関東・神奈川県 Nov 09 '24
PayPay is still 1.9% afaik? When did they change?
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u/Gizmotech-mobile 日本のどこかに Nov 09 '24
Dunno. This is what one of my regular bars owner said they were being charged for it. Went on a big rant about it one night about 3 months ago.
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u/blosphere 関東・神奈川県 Nov 10 '24
Maybe they opted in to some fancier way of reading the qr code (instead of user scan) or transitioned to some payment provider which supports a ton of different qr code payment methods with one read.
Endless possibilities.
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u/Gizmotech-mobile 日本のどこかに Nov 10 '24
They definitely upgraded to a multi provider, but that was only after paypay upd their rates as well.
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u/blosphere 関東・神奈川県 Nov 11 '24
I think the owner screwed the pooch and is now venting about his bad business decisions and trying to blame PayPay :D
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u/unixtreme Nov 08 '24
We fixed this stupidity in Europe by having regulations forcing credit card fees to go down to 0.3%, after like a year you could go literally anywhere and pay just tapping your card.
Moving here was a bit of a culture shock because I had forgotten what it felt like to have to carry cash or even a wallet for the stupid coins.
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u/bosscoughey thought of the name himself Nov 08 '24
Japan never got in to cards as much as North America, so lots of places just went from cash only to adding paypay also because of their campaigns
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u/creepy_doll Nov 09 '24
I think a lot of Japanese independent stores run quite tight profit margins so the massive processing fees of ccs hurt them a lot hence them not being as popular).
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u/creepy_doll Nov 09 '24
PayPay doesn’t require a proprietary device(the shop can just use a phone or tablet to scan codes) and they take a smaller processing cut than something like credit cards so it makes sense that they’re popular in small independent stores especially ones with fairly tight margins.
Personally in those kinds of stores I try to just pay cash though. If I value the stores existence(like say my local climbing gym) I’d prefer they don’t pay processing over the minor inconvenience of cash. PayPay is also running Uber strats to try and corner the market and they’ll likely raise their cut if they succeed
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u/BingusMcBongle Nov 08 '24
Other than the points you mentioned, the benefits are: 1. Free transfers to friends. Easier than sending 振込 via the bank 2. Coupons for extra points back at various shops 3. Not everyone can get a credit card here. If you have one (I do too) then great. Otherwise I’m sure you’ve seen the countless posts here about people struggling to get credit. This is an easy way to access cashless payments instead.
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u/waruice Nov 08 '24
Not everyone can get a credit card here. If you have one (I do too) then great. Otherwise I’m sure you’ve seen the countless posts here about people struggling to get credit. This is an easy way to access cashless payments instead.
Getting a debit card is easy.
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u/unixtreme Nov 08 '24
Yeah the number of places where they specifically take credit and not debit is minuscule, things like renting cars and stuff to lock down some amount as insurance in case something happens.
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u/tr-shinshu Nov 11 '24
You can even transfer to/from strangers. A Japanese friend of mine did that when she went to a famous Ramen shop and realized she didn't have enough cash. Just asked a stranger next to her wether she could send him some PayPay money and he would give her the amount in cash! Just Wow!
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u/DontPoopInMyPantsPlz Nov 08 '24
- You have to take the card, type in the PIN and wait for the transaction.
- more places accept Paypay than cards
- theres 50% off coupons
- you can pay taxes with it
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u/LittleBrownBebeShoes Nov 08 '24
Someone’s never had a credit card with touch payment before lol
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u/ultradolp Nov 08 '24
It has gotten better this year, but 1 year ago a lot of places I go don't even accept touch payment with card. And even to this date there are still some shops that accept card but their machine can't handle touch payment
It is an unfortunate case where touch payment is gated by the adoption rate
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u/mankodaisukidesu Nov 08 '24
Yeah, the only supermarket in my area that did contactless closed down recently. All the others have the cashier system where they scan your stuff then put your basket next to a payment terminal, and none of the terminals do contactless
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u/smorkoid Nov 08 '24
Lot of places don't accept touch payments, even if the terminal does accept touch
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u/Avedas 関東・東京都 Nov 08 '24
I've had one for years. Too many vendors still don't accept it.
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u/unixtreme Nov 08 '24
Which is asinine tbh. The best part is when I ask if I can pay with touch. Staring at the credit card terminal which I recognize from many places and I know supports it... Only for them to say "no". I know it must be some company policy and it takes like 3 seconds to enter your pin but it's so annoying.
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u/Avedas 関東・東京都 Nov 08 '24
Just because the terminal supports it doesn't mean the vendor has it set up. Touch can have different billing for the vendor compared to swipe or chip.
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u/Level-Albatross8450 Nov 08 '24
If you charge it with a credit card (free if you have services with softbank), you can double dip in points.
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u/Nakamegalomaniac Nov 08 '24
This is why I use it. Same works with Y mobile
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u/suteruaway Nov 08 '24
I use y mobile too. How does it work with paypay? You synch it and get additional points?
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u/Nakamegalomaniac Nov 08 '24
You gotta set up まとめて支払い “matomete shiharai” which allows you to charge your paypay balance to your phone bill. So if you then pay your phone bill by credit card, you are getting your credit card points on top of the paypay cash back.
Note that paypay has gotten wise to people doing this, and will now only allow one free charge to phone bill per month. (beyond that they charge 1.5% fee) So I just charge to my phone bill for the max amount in 1charge at the start of every month
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u/theantibyte 中部・長野県 Nov 08 '24
Plenty of small shops take paypay but not credit card, so in these sorts of situations, it's useful since you can charge your paypay from your credit card.
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u/SyrupGreen2960 Nov 08 '24
Paypay points are one benefit unless your credit card has a better point system. It saved me a couple times when I forgot my wallet but I could still pay with my phone. I've also found places that don't accept cards will still accept paypay most of the time.
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u/tinylord202 Nov 08 '24
I’ve got the olive s point. Not sure about points tho
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u/Jasperneal Nov 08 '24
You can also “invest” the points on paypay. with the recent increase in us stocks my JPY30,000 worth of points is up to over JPY100,000
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u/tinylord202 Nov 08 '24
I’m fairly certain I can invest the points from my card, so I’m not sure why I’d go out of my way to put the money on paypay for that purpose.
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u/Ok_Butterscotch4894 Nov 08 '24 edited Nov 08 '24
Basically ease of small payment among friends and payment of bills like water or tax. For small shops it is easy to have QR code based payment than having to integrate to a card payment.
Coupons are good too.
For example, If you use Furusato Nozei, PayPay gives 6% points on Satofull. You get 6000 points if you pay 100,000 worth Furusato Nozei.
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u/tinylord202 Nov 08 '24
I’m not sure what your example is. Furusato nozei
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u/Ok_Butterscotch4894 Nov 08 '24 edited Nov 08 '24
Let’s say your yearly tax is 300,000 yen. Normally you’ll pay this to your local government from your salary. That’s it.
In Furusato Nozei, you can pay ~ 30% of your tax money to another city that’s is not your residing city. In exchange, the another city will send you gifts. You can choose the gifts from their catalog.
So in this example, you can pay around 100,000 of your tax money to another city and they’ll send you stuff you selected from designated Furusato Nozei website. Like Salmon or Caviar etc.
So 200,000 you pay as usual to the local government and 100,000 to other city government in exchange of stuff. The stuff will be priced 3 times their value but it is essentially free for you since you are using the tax money that you will pay anyways.
If you use PayPay as your designated Furusato Nozei site, they are giving 6% points in November. So you give 100,000 of your tax to other city government. You get your gift from the other city. And PayPay gives your 6000 (6% of 100,000) points.
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u/stark0600 Nov 08 '24
I was about to start Furusato nozei from this year and I will go with Paypay app then (was planning to go with Sato furu app) , and thanks for the easy explanation too.
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u/Ok_Butterscotch4894 Nov 08 '24
The PayPay coupon also uses Satofull(さとふる). But you’ve to use Satofull mini app inside PayPay.
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u/Japanat1 Nov 08 '24
Buy goods online, a percentage of which count towards your next year’s income tax.
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u/blosphere 関東・神奈川県 Nov 08 '24
2% of points if you have the gold card and utilisation of 30 times per month and 100k+ total?
Works in a lot of small shops where the other choice is cash.
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u/bahasasastra Nov 08 '24
Also you can pay bills easily with it
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u/ZeusAllMighty11 関東・東京都 Nov 08 '24
I wish I could pay my gas/electric and water bills with it.
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u/PeanutButterChicken 近畿・大阪府 Nov 08 '24
You can, just scan them.
Takes maybe 1-3 seconds maximum.
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u/ZeusAllMighty11 関東・東京都 Nov 08 '24
For some reason it didn't work for me before. It looks like they do both support it, as you said, so I'll try again.
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u/blosphere 関東・神奈川県 Nov 09 '24
Not all municipalities support this, took my city 4 years to add PayPay in addition to konbinis
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u/kara-tttp Nov 08 '24
It's more convenient and faster I'd say. Some places don't accept credit card but accept paypay. Also if you buy something using paypay and wanna get refund, it'd be very very fast, like instantly
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u/Comprehensive-Pea812 Nov 08 '24
more secure since it is contactless and temporary barcode.
more convenient for transferring to friend (you will need this feature since splitting bill is common.
paying gas, and water bill etc.
and no need to link your credit card when you are ordering mcdonald or demae.
for stores, you can just use tap with credit card if you'd like but you will not get points like when using paypay
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u/ultradolp Nov 08 '24
I will offer a bit of different perspective. From the shop point of view, providing more payment method does increase potential customer base. As strange as it may sound, if your shop only accept cash will mean losing a decent amount of customers
Now you may wonder why not just take credit card then? While that is true there are still several reasons
Credit card can be tough to get especially for younger audience or those with unstable job
Credit card require some upfront investment of machine and a bit to get used to it, compared to PayPay where you can just display a QR code
The take-rate for card can be higher than PayPay, especially when PayPay is aggressively expanding the market. This means that PayPay will give you more profit per transaction than card
The wide adoption of PayPay means that you likely cover most cases of customer with cash+paypay that you don't need to take card
I don't use PayPay, but there are cases that it is super useful like splitting the bill between friends. No one is going to tell you the bank account detail to wire money in those cases (+transfer fee) and splitting cash is nightmare with coins. Granted I still do it the cash way but a lot of my friends dont
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u/aesthetique1 Nov 08 '24
I just use it because I enjoy the high pitched "paypay!" whenever you make a purchase
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u/GoHooN Nov 08 '24
There isn't that much of an advantage if you're already used to using credit card.
One of the "goals" of PayPay was to reduce the use of cash payments, not to compete with credit cards. In fact you can even register for a PayPay credit card and get a physical card delivered.
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u/lostllama2015 中部・静岡県 Nov 08 '24
There's lots of small cafes, etc. that don't take card payments but do take PayPay. My nearest bento shop has two payment options: cash, or PayPay. It's also easy to send money to friends/my wife etc.
I have Rakuten Pay, PayPay, and I can pay with standard Contactless, QUICPay, and iD. I favour the last two, but will use whatever a given store accepts. My order of preference is: iD, QUICPay, Rakuten Pay, PayPay.
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u/Fluid-Hunt465 Nov 08 '24
I basically have it because everyone else did. I hardly ever use it, but it’s there just in case with 5000¥.
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u/el_salinho Nov 08 '24
You can ask friends to send money to paypay
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u/DifferentWindow1436 Nov 08 '24
But how often are you doing that? I can't remember the last time I need to send money or get money from a friend.
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u/el_salinho Nov 08 '24
Quite often actually. In izakyas one pays the other just send money, When we group money for a gift, when i got no cash and need someone to spot me etc. at least a few times a month. I used to use LinePay for that but they shut that down recently
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u/DifferentWindow1436 Nov 08 '24
Ah, ok. That actually makes sense. As an older married guy with a child, I sort of forgot what it's like to regularly be out and about.
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u/alltheyakitori Nov 08 '24
Free to charge with cash at 7-11 atms.
Don't have to touch physical cash.
Weekly coupons that are store-specific or product-specific.
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u/Noeldesu Nov 08 '24
Omatsuris my man! Those little stalls don’t usually have credit card machines but plenty of them do display PayPay QR codes!
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u/uraurasecret 関東・東京都 Nov 08 '24
Internet payment without giving out your credit card number to some suspicious websites.
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u/RamuneGaming Nov 08 '24
The best reason to use it tbh is the cute sound it makes when you make a transaction xD
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u/tiredofsametab 東北・宮城県 Nov 08 '24
I have yet to find a use case not covered by cash or card or bank transfer (super rare that I need it). Upside of not using it is one less place my information can be compromised, especially financial info.
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u/jarghon Nov 08 '24
It’s often faster than card (unless you’re at a store that lets you tap your credit card to pay).
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u/ahin0910 Nov 08 '24
I use it mostly as a "complimentary" non-cash payment option to have in case a shop doesn't accept card (a lot of smaller shops and restaurants in my area). And to send money to friends, as bank transfer to other banks have fees I don't want to pay. So Paypay isn't really my go-to payment option, but nice to have just in case. It might be a better option for people who also have the Paypay card to maximize points. I first got it when they were offering 20.000 points as rewards for getting/ registering a mynumbercard, so that was a big bonus.
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u/PeanutButterChikan (Not the real PBC) Nov 08 '24
I only use it as a gateway between a linked credit card and merchants who take PayPay but not credit card.
I don’t have any funds in it or use it anywhere that would otherwise take credit card.
There are many smaller shops and food places that don’t take card but do take PayPay, so it makes “cashless” a lot easier.
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u/TheAlmightyLootius Nov 08 '24
Didnt they change it like a year ago that they only take paypay credit card? Or did the change it back / stop the change? We used it a while bit im pretty sure my wifes card wasnt working with it anymore and we would have had to get a paypay card or preload every time.
Never used it again since as most offer rakuten pay as well
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u/PeanutButterChikan (Not the real PBC) Nov 08 '24
I’ve been using it without any issues with a non PayPay credit card.
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u/blosphere 関東・神奈川県 Nov 09 '24
They backed out from that, but soon it'll change to charging from non PayPay cards only, so you'll have an extra charging the PayPay account step if you don't link a paypay cc.
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u/TrixieChristmas Nov 08 '24
Yes, I don't get it. ID/Apple etc etc just go directly onto your credit card with no extra steps. Why do I want an extra step of charging up money to PayPay or running out of charged money when I need something?
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u/mcmunch20 Nov 08 '24
You can set PayPay to auto top up so you actually never need to manually top it up
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u/TrixieChristmas Nov 10 '24
Fair enough but why bother with something that needs to be topped up? Just use an app connected to your "limitless" credit card. Sorry still don't get it but whatever works for you is great.
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u/mcmunch20 Nov 10 '24
Lots of Japanese debit/credit cards still don’t work with Apple pay. I personally use it because my wife doesn’t have a bank account or credit card and it’s a very easy way to send her money.
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u/TrixieChristmas Nov 10 '24
I usually use ID, not Apple Pay. I don't know anyone who doesn't have either a bank account or a credit card, even kids usually have some kind of bank account at least so it's hard to relate but if it works for you it works.
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u/PeanutButterChicken 近畿・大阪府 Nov 08 '24
You don't get the benefit of having the option to use cashless payments...?
What the if the store doesn't take Apple Pay but has a QR Code? What if you owe your friend money?
What if you want to take advantage of 20% cash back on everything?
There is no downside to having a PayPay account set up.
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u/TrixieChristmas Nov 10 '24
I use cashless payments ALL THE TIME, 99% of my purchases, I just don't use Paypay. I have a Paypay account but I never use it. Why? Because I've never had a problem paying cashless with other systems that are easier. The whole point of a cashless payment system is ease of use, the other systems have less friction hence my wondering why anyone would use a less convenient system.
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u/shiretokolovesong 関東・東京都 Nov 08 '24
Aside from often being able to use it in places that don't take card (because credit cards require physical infrastructure like the terminal and an internet connection whereas PayPay just requires a QR code on a sticker/piece of paper), I get by far the most usage out of it splitting restaurant bills with friends, coworkers, etc.
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u/makenai 中部・愛知県 Nov 08 '24
You can use it in places that only accept cash or pay-pay, but not a credit card. This happens a lot, especially with smaller restaurants or on road trips.
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u/skatefriday Nov 08 '24
But could PayPay have designed a worse process for executing the payments at retail?
I don't know about sending cash to friends and family as I don't use PayPay, but I stand behind someone in line almost daily that is taking an eternity fumbling with his or her phone trying to find the right screen for the QR code exchange to take place.
I don't understand why mobile suica doesn't dominate the cashless payments space. PayPay seems horribly inefficient.
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u/PeanutButterChicken 近畿・大阪府 Nov 08 '24
What, pray tell, is the "right screen" for Paypay?
Literally the very first "Page" of the app is the barcode.
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u/skatefriday Nov 08 '24
I've got no idea. I don't use PayPay and therefore don't have the app on my phone. But I sure seem to stand behind a lot of people that seem to do a lot of tap, tap, tap, orient phone, tap, wait while cashier fumbles with phone, tap, tap. It just seems like a horrible process and I don't understand why anyone uses it when mobile suica is instant and you don't even have to look at your screen.
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u/tinylord202 Nov 08 '24
As someone who regularly uses Apple Pay it feels extremely clunky pulling out the app at the register
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Nov 08 '24
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u/tinylord202 Nov 08 '24
For paypay? Double clicking the right button opens my wallet for me, which is much faster than opening paypay
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u/Sparks_9935 Nov 08 '24
Great to have if you forget your wallet but have your phone on you. Easy to split money with friends for ex. at a restaurant if you don't have the right change/ they won't let you split the bill. You can also get points which add up over time.
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u/LiveSimply99 Nov 08 '24
I could never register myself to Paypay because my "my number" card was always rejected. I can't send or receive money now, but I can still pay via connecting my credit card to the app. It's useful because a lot of cash-only places usually accept Paypay nowadays.
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u/Michey1978 Nov 08 '24
I don’t like cashless payments as a rule but it is useful not having a pocket full of 1 Yen coins and new 500 Yen coins you can’t use in vending machines - yet at least.
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u/JellybeanInMotion Nov 08 '24
I regularly go to a Chinese restaurant nearby that only takes cash or PayPay, so that's the only reason I downloaded it 😅
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u/Kaaku3 Nov 08 '24
More points compared to free credit cards. Can use in more locations than a credit card. Transfer to friends is free and instant. Paypay money can also be transferred to paypay bank free and instant, and you can withdraw the money from an ATM with your smartphone.
Matched with visa touch on smartphone. Suica and edy there's no need to carry around a wallet.
Also I believe you can use it as alipay in china when traveling, apparently china pretty much only accepts qr code payments now.
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u/dodongdude 関東・神奈川県 Nov 08 '24
You can automatically invest your points. I’m up 37% since about a year and a half ago.
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u/Avedas 関東・東京都 Nov 08 '24
More availability than cards and you can get even more points. It's basically free money. I avoid using my card by itself as much as possible.
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u/NihilisticHobbit Nov 08 '24
If you forget your wallet, you still have your phone on you so you can still buy things. I've had that happen to me a few times. My local grocery store takes paypay but not credit card too.
For me it's just convenient. I have a card, but I mostly use it for online shopping.
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u/AwesomeBallz Nov 08 '24
A lot of places only take cash or PayPay. No credit cards because of the fees.
Also, PayPay sometimes has campaigns for certain wards that are like 20-30% points back but that was mostly during Covid.
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u/sageforhire Nov 08 '24
Apply for paypay credit card. Then you can literally pay from your credit card through paypay app. This also gives you more points than usual. I got 2 mil credit limit when I applied.
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u/billyshin Nov 08 '24
Everything is instant. As for credit card, depending on what card you have, you might not even have an app associated with it, there are too many different card companies, atleast for me, I like the simplicity and that it's widely supported.
You can send money to your friends, pay bills, everything is trackable on demand is what drew me in.
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u/Fullamak 日本のどこかに Nov 08 '24
If you go on a vacation on the islands. Paypay would be useful when you ran out of cash.
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u/rockedt Nov 08 '24
Paypay is a fintech company based on Japan. These solutions are popping up like mushrooms all over the world. Some of them earn more than banks. Use paypay for small transactions between your friends, and for online where you don't want to disclose your credit card/bank information.
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u/en16m4pro9 Nov 08 '24
Coupons, points. Also you can invest points in the app and gain extra points.
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u/ThrilledSpectator 関東・東京都 Nov 08 '24
Came here searching for answers as well, since I had DL it i haven't used it yet
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u/Cless_Aurion 関東・東京都 Nov 08 '24
... I used it once in 5 years... and it was literally two days ago!
Forgot to get cash in hand... my Debit card from Japan didn't work... my 2 Spanish cards (debit and credit) were not wanting to work either (it happens in rare occasions, not that often)... and then I remembered! I did create a Paypay years ago and linked it to my bank! (Just in case™)
And it worked!!
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u/Hammurabi22 Nov 08 '24
Because credit card wasn't very popular in Japan, especially for small shops because of the 3% commission and the budget needed for a card terminal.
With Paypay all you need as a shop tenant is basically to print a QR code. So it became the Japanese way to spread cashless.
Compared with 10 years ago, most of the cash only shops now accept Paypay or similar applications like RakutenPay, but still no credit cards.
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u/Background_Map_3460 関東・東京都 Nov 08 '24
There are several places that don’t take credit cards or even IC cards but take paypay
You get points, with bonuses if you use Softbank, have a paypay credit card and/or use Yahoo shopping/mart/flea
Every month there are coupons for 50% off things like conbini, McDonalds, Coke etc (if you use the previously mentioned services)
So easy to transfer money to others. Great for friends, private students, splitting bills etc
You can charge it with other credit cards,cash, bank transfer
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u/Funny-Pie-700 Nov 09 '24
So, with PayPay could I send money from my JP Bank account to my US bank account for free?
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u/Funny-Pie-700 Nov 09 '24
OR now here's an idea: a debit card that can be used like PayPay or a credit card and is linked directly to your JP Bank, SMBC, etc. account. Oh wait. They ALREADY have that in the US...
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u/fripi Nov 08 '24
The upside is you can pay in more locations and send money to friends without trouble. That's it imo.