Welcome Suica Reviews

One can simply create and top up a Suica card within the Apple Wallet on every iPhone. Why would I want WelcomeSuica when paying with Apple Wallet on my iPhone and Apple Watch is much faster and more convenient? If WelcomeSuica allowed me to use a pre-existing Suica card (from my Apple Wallet), I might have been persuaded to keep it on my phone, but as it stands, it’s utterly useless. One cannot check WelcomeSuica ’s functionality (passes) without first topping up. That’s like having to first pay in a shop to find out what they sell afterwards. Also, it clearly states in WelcomeSuica that one loses the money in the card after 180 days!? That’s ridiculous. Avoid WelcomeSuica!

I can't even get beyond the first screen to make an account for WelcomeSuica. It says I have the "wrong secret word" even though I haven't even set a password yet; the one I am trying to use meets every rule they set for them.

Based on the other reviews, you're much better off just creating a new Suica card within Apple Wallet. That's what we did and have had no problems with it during our whole 3 weeks in Japan.

This application sounded great. Unfortunately it doesn’t work with Apple wallet and will lock you out after you leave the station. This will require that you return to the last station to have it reactivated. Total failure by the developers.

Balance expires after 180 days ???

This is not cool.. the regular SUICA card does not have have an expiration date on the balance… ☹️

Why would I want to use WelcomeSuica when I can just use a regular SUICA card in Apple Wallet that won’t have this problem?

How would you feel if you visited any other country on earth and their mobile payments app told you that the balance will expire after a set period of time?

This is extremely disappointing..

Two times took money from the card and reissued, so I lost my money, and made the card at least 3-4 times this is the worst thing to buy and you should avoid it!

Genuinely a scam. Unusable funds and no ability to refund

I’ve been in Japan for a week and this version of the SUICA card promised that I could use it for Shinkansen which was not the case at all. Couldn’t use it and still had to top up enough to pay at the ticket counter which was such an inconvenience and now I have 15000 yen sitting there and need to finish it before I leave tomorrow. I can’t use it unless I unlock Apple Pay and the GREEN version overrides anyways which the GREEN doesn’t expire ever. Also saw that this version of SUICA disables in September to expiring is NOT good, use the official one which is GREEN from the government instead.

Could not have been easier to use. It works at all train stations within Tokyo with the tap of your device, even if the battery is dead. I can’t speak to outside of Tokyo as I did not travel there. Very easy to load with Apple Wallet, though you can only load once you’re in the country. 5,000 yen got me through 5 days of frequent train travel and then I topped off a few times to be able to use for payment in convenience stores, restaurants, attractions, etc. It does expire after 180 days, but for most visitors it doesn’t seem like this would be a problem. Just load in small amounts towards the end of your trip and if you have some leftover you can spend it in the airport vending machines to stay hydrated on your flight home.

Felt compelled to write this review given WelcomeSuica had such low ratings and my experience was pretty flawless.

Downloading WelcomeSuica allows you to use the card in your apple wallet so you can tap on and off for all public transit in japan except for special trains like Shinkansen and reserved seating lines where you need a separate ticket even if you had the physical suica card.

I had no issues tapping on, off train and bus lines or adding money to the card and could do it in very short time where if I tried to tap while getting on and didn’t have enough could just step to the side and add the money in less than 10 seconds and be on my way.

The only gotchas I can think of are make sure your phone is charged (does also support tapping without turning on your phone screen and even after you run out of battery for 4-5 hours) and don’t add too much money unless your confident you’re going to use it because there is a use or lose policy.

WOULD HIGHLY RECOMMEND. WelcomeSuica was honestly so delightful to use for the 2 weeks I was bopping around Japan! Easy to download, easy to top up with yen, and incredibly easy to use while traveling the trains, bullet trains, bus, and can be used for luggage storage, vending machines, etc. Some friends got the physical card and it seemed like such a pain to add money to the card. Especially traveling and not knowing how much you’ll need to add on your card, WelcomeSuica was seamless to use and took all of 15 seconds to update with more money.

It’s wonderful there’s finally an english friendly app. Unfortunately you cannot add currency until you’re in Japan.