Calculating how much you need to spend per month to break even on the d Card GOLD annual fee (Part 2)

Last time, I wrote about my doubts regarding whether the gold card annual fee is truly worth it.

Today, I will perform the calculations for the d Card GOLD.

Basic information about d Card GOLD

• Annual fee: 11,000 yen (tax included)

• General shopping reward rate: 1%

• Docomo mobile/Docomo Hikari reward rate: 10%

The free d Card offers a 1% reward rate for both general shopping and Docomo charges.

In other words, the only thing that changes by upgrading to Gold is the
reward rate for Docomo charges (from 1% to 10%, a difference of +9%).

For general shopping, there is no difference compared to the free card.

Calculations

Points gained by upgrading to Gold:
Monthly Docomo charges × 9% × 12 months

If this exceeds the 11,000 yen annual fee, you come out ahead.

Calculating this...

Monthly Docomo charges × 9% × 12 ≥ 11,000 yen
Monthly Docomo charges ≥ approx. 10,200 yen

In other words, people who pay 10,200 yen or more to Docomo every month will find the
d Card GOLD to be more cost-effective.

What is the reality?

For a single smartphone, I think many people pay around 3,000 to 7,000 yen per month.

In that case, you cannot break even on the annual fee even with the Gold card.

But what if your whole family uses Docomo and you also have Docomo Hikari?

For example, if you are paying 15,000 yen to Docomo per month...

15,000 yen × 9% × 12 months = 16,200 yen worth of points

Even after paying the 11,000 yen annual fee, you will be 5,200 yen in the black.

Summary

People for whom the d Card GOLD is a good deal:
→ People who pay 10,200 yen or more in Docomo charges every month

For others, a free card might be enough.

Next time, I will calculate the Rakuten Card.

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