Rakuten American Express Credit Card: Not as exciting as it could be

13

Rakuten is a shopping portal that ranks near or at the top for most of us at Frequent Miler (except when we’re getting shut down). It has been around forever, always has competitive rates, and is one of the more reliable portals when it comes to correctly tracking your purchases and paying out the correct rate.

Perhaps the best aspect of Rakuten is the ability to choose to receive your portal rewards as either cashback or as Amex Membership Rewards Points. For example, a 3x offer can either be paid out as 3% cashback or as 3x Membership Rewards. We value Amex points at ~1.55 cents each, so it’s a no-brainer (for us) to choose those in lieu of cash.

Now, Rakuten is back in the credit card market with the release of its new American Express card. It gives you an extra 4X on Rakuten purchases, so any fan of the shopping portal should be jumping at it, right? Well, let’s talk about that.

Rakuten American Express card art

Key Card Details

For more card information and to find an application link, see our dedicated card page by clicking the name of the cards below.

Card Offer and Details
ⓘ $15 1st Yr Value EstimateClick to learn about first year value estimates
$25 cash back Non-AffiliateThis is NOT an affiliate offer. We always present the best offer even when it means less revenue for Frequent Miler
Earn $25 bonus cashback after $500 spend in the first 90 days
No Annual Fee
Information about this card has been collected independently by Frequent Miler. The issuer did not provide the details, nor is it responsible for their accuracy.
FM Mini Review: Earning 4% extra (or 4x Membership Rewards) on purchases via Rakuten is good, but the limit of $7,000 spending limits its usefulness.
Earning rate: 5X extra on Rakuten Dining ✦ 4X extra on Rakuten purchases (limit $7k spend per calendar year) ✦ 2X groceries & restaurants ✦ 1x everywhere else
Base: 1%
Dine: 2%
Grocery: 2%
Brand: 4%
Other: 1%
Card Info: Amex issued by FEB. This card has no foreign currency conversion fees.
Noteworthy perks: If you have another Amex card that earns Membership Rewards, you can change the earning preference on your Rakuten account to Membership Rewards as well. If you do this, the "cash back" earned via this card will be converted to Membership Rewards and deposited into your Amex account.

Rakuten American Express Card Review

For most folks, the primary reason to apply for a Rakuten American Express will be the bonus 4X that you can earn on Rakuten purchases. That’s a great carrot, and something that would be interesting to me…if it wasn’t capped at $7K in purchases annually. That cap means that you can get a maximum of $280/28,000 Amex points per year, minus whatever you might have earned from using another credit card to make your purchase.

That could be an attractive proposition for someone who uses Rakuten fairly frequently, but not enough to cross the $7K barrier. People who use Rakuten for buying groups and/or gift card sales will probably sail past it fairly quickly, while those who use it for meeting welcome offer minimum spending requirements might find it hard to shift all of that spend to the Rakuten card.

For some folks, the limited 4X will make this card worth applying for, especially when combined with the ability to earn 2X at grocery stores with no annual maximum. However, my hunch is that the lack of a good welcome offer, combined with the $7K cap, will be enough to keep most away.

  • Annual Fee: $0
    • Authorized User Annual Fee: Free
  • Foreign Transaction Fee: None
  • What points are worth: If you have another Amex card that earns Membership Rewards, you can change the earning preference on your Rakuten account to Membership Rewards as well. If you do this, the “cash back” earned via this card will be converted to Membership Rewards and deposited into your Amex account. Our current Reasonable Redemption Values have Amex points at 1.55 cents each, so this is undoubtedly the path that we’d recommend using.
  • Best Use for Amex Points: Membership Rewards can be transferred to travel partners at a 1:1 ratio, and this will almost always yield the most value. There are three hotel partners (Choice, Hilton, Marriott), but the transfer ratios make them unappealing most of the time. On the other hand, airline partners are excellent, and include Air Canada AeroplanAir France/KLM Flying Blue, and ANA Mileage Club, among many others. Business Platinum cardholders can also redeem points through Amex Travel for their selected airline, or towards business and first class flights on any airline, at a rate of ~1.54 cents each. These redemptions often represent excellent value since they book as cash fares and so earn elite-qualifying and redeemable miles. You can cash out the points that you earn with the Business Platinum card at 1 cent each, but you need an Amex Business Checking account to do it.
  • Earning Categories: 
    • 5x Rakuten Dining
    • 4X bonus on Rakuten purchases (limit $7k spend per calendar year)
    • 2X groceries & restaurants
    • 1x Everywhere else
  • Travel Protections:
    • None that I could find
  • Purchase Protections:
    • Up to a 12-month extension of the manufacturer’s warranty
    • 90-day purchase protection against theft or damage
  • Who is this card for? Folks who use Rakuten a lot – but not too much. Additionally, some folks will get excited about a no-annual-fee card that can earn uncapped 2X Membership Rewards on grocery purchases.
  • Is the Rakuten Card a keeper? Earning an additional 4X on Rakuten purchases is the reason for the season for most people. If the $7K limit isn’t enough to keep you from getting the card in the first place, there’s no reason not to keep it around.

Rakuten American Express Card Pros and Cons

Pros

  • 4X bonus points on all Rakuten purchases
  • If you choose Membership Rewards as your Rakuten earning preference, cash back from this card will be converted into Amex points and become transferable to travel partners.
  • The opportunity to get uncapped 2X Amex points on grocery purchases will be exciting for some folks.

Cons

  • 4X Rakuten bonus is limited to a total of $7,000 in purchases per year
  • No travel and minimal purchase protections
  • Poor welcome offer
Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

13 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Matt

The cap and bonus are both too low to be worth it. Kind of a shame. I’d get this if it wasn’t so limited. Idk who this card is for.

Repeat Offender Captain Greg

$25 signup bonus, lol

Tom

I think you missed a big point. For Rakuten Dining its 5% for the card plus 5% for it being a Rakuten Dining which is really 10%

Will

You could earn that 5% from using any cards as long as it’s linked to Rakuten. For example, if you use Citi Custom Cash linked to Rakuten and you use that card on one of their venue, you would earn 5x ThankYou points and 5% cashback/5x Amex points. So it’s really 5% from using Rakuten card

Komma

5x on Rakuten dining restaurants is nice. But also, too much of a hassle to get 5x on specific places and 2x elsewhere, for me at least.

Last edited 8 hours ago by Komma
ECR12

Wish I hadn’t gotten shut down from Rakuten…

YoniPDX

Wonder if its a “Credit card” that counts against 5 card limit or a “charge card” that doesn’t take a slot.

Not super interesting on three fronts:

1st it seems that the past 12 months the auto-tracking of completed shops (check mark) and having to submit missing point request has gotten really annoying as well.

2nd Pending points posting as “Confirmed” to be deposited on the next Transfer has been slow rolled – and they are really taking extra time i.e. Chase Sapphire application approval (30k to be transferred on 11/15/2025 6 months after the approval and application). CSP application 3-14 Weeks for points to go from pending to Confirmed

” Viator Points are Typically confirmed 6-17 weeks after the Trip/Experience taken is take”

3rd Not worth a 5/24 Personal card slot for 28k max MR – we typically are using rolling MSR from SUBs to pay for Viator tours/experiences – so even less appealing (we have gone this route since 2022 with no issues).

Lrdx

It’s not issued by AmEx.

YoniPDX

“Amex issued by FEB” – didn’t read all the fine print – I suppose its like the Navy CU Amex and other secondary issuers –

That said – the other Three issues are actually the true problems I have. But evem if it was an Amex issued card wouldn’t give up one my 5 Branded/Amex cards that have have annual Free nights or Delta CP.(BonvoyAspire/Brilliant/Delta Biz Plat)

Keith

Cut that limit in half when you consider you would alternately get 2x on all purchases with Blue Biz Plus

Whitney

This makes me miss the days of the Rakuten visa and Rakuten gift card shop – I was regularly getting close to 40x MR on my pets’ food by buying PetSmart gift cards with my Rakuten visa and then using those to purchase the food via PetSmart (also clicking through Rakuten).

Jack

Mechanically, Rakuten Dining is a hassle. Buggy.

Ben

“What’s wrong with the Rakuten welcome offer?”

-Guy about to apply for the Home Depot card because they’re offering him a free 5 gallon bucket