Need I say more? No expiration date means no need to worry about forgetting they exist and seeing you have 7 minutes to find a use for all the points you’ve been accumulating before they disappear.

Each point being easily redeemable at 4-4.5 yen per point (4.5 for the statement credits, 4-5 for Amazon gift card, and a huge variety in between for other gift cards) makes them very flexible for converting into pseudo-cashback. The conversion partners are quite nice too, with JAL offering a rate of 200 points -> 500 miles (2.5 miles per point) and ANA offering 100 points -> 600 miles. D Points can also be redeemed at 100 Forever Points -> 450 D Points, which isn’t bad - that’s about the same as the 4.5 yen per point value if used for shopping or statement credits on your Docomo bill.

The Saison Point Mall has a lot of bonus point campaigns for multipliers up to 30 times the standard 1000 yen per point rate. This carries the standard disclaimer that not all shops have super impressive campaigns all the time, but even a 5 or 10 times multiplier means the 0.5% value rate turns into 2.5-5%, which is a respectable return if you find something you were going to buy anyway!

For every 1000 yen you spend, you get 1 point. It’s a decent rate, but it does mean that up to 999 yen doesn’t count for points every month, which could mean 11,998 yen not counting for points in a year if you perfectly avoided the mark every month.

The Saison Card website doesn’t have any English pages, which may prove difficult for getting support or navigating the application or point campaigns.

If you’re looking for a card that includes travel insurance, you unfortunately won’t find that on the standard Saison card, only on the Gold Premium and the Amex branded cards - which carry high annual fees and have high standards for application screening.

The standard Saison Card, and it comes completely digital! It has no annual fee, comes in your choice of brand between Visa, JCB, Mastercard, and Amex, and has an ETC card option for family vacations or road trips. Apply in just a few minutes and use it right after a successful application with contactless payment, including Apple Pay and Google Pay.

The Saison Gold Premium is the next step up, with a metal surface, some great welcome campaigns, and a slew of benefits to justify the 11,000 yen annual fee. But even that disappears forever if you spend 100 man (1 million yen) in a single year!

What you get over the Saison Card Digital includes:

• Up to 5% bonus points at select merchants after spending 30 man (300,000 yen) for the year
• Domestic lounge access and domestic and international travel insurance up to 1,000 man (10 million yen)
• Bonus Forever Points for every 50 man (500,000 yen) you spend in the year