NEW CREDIT CARD: Apple Card Review

NEW CREDIT CARD: Apple Card Review

Apple recently announced the coming announcement of their Apple Card credit card. As per rumors that this card is expected to be launched through a partnership together with Goldman Sachs, and it will be a Mastercard. As for availability, you’ll be qualified to get an Apple Card sometime this summer. NEW CREDIT CARD: Apple 

Interesting Features, But Not A Game-Changer

Based on the announcement today at Apple’s product and service “Special Event” it appears that the Apple Card will have some exciting features, but it’s not nearly as interesting as the live-streamed promo would like you to believe.

Let’s take a look at the specifics…

Made to work with Apple Pay

This no-annual-fee Apple Card is built to be used in conjunction with Apple Pay from the Wallet app on your iPhone. This is not just because the most convenient method of obtaining the card is through using the application, but because you’ll get higher rewards for purchases via Apple Pay than with the physical credit card.

In particular, you’ll receive a cashback of 2% for all purchases made using Pay Pay in addition to purchases made with Apple products that will earn you a rebate of 3. In contrast in the event that you use the physical card without Apple Pay, it will only give you 1percent cashback. This is a huge disadvantage to using this card.

Daily Cash

One feature that many customers with credit cards will appreciate is this: the Apple Card will give out cashback rewards every day. Instead of waiting for the next statement from your card, or worse waiting until you’ve earned $25 rewards to withdraw the cash you have earned, it will be available to you it to you instantly through the Wallet application.

Other Information to Learn:

• Instant Approval and Instant Use – You’ll be capable of applying for the card using the Wallet application and, if approved immediately and you are able to use the card for purchases instantly through Apple Pay.
• Transparent transactions – This feature remains to be seen, however, Apple claims that they’ll utilize machine learning as well as Apple Maps to give you more information about your transactions, in terms of exactly the name of the merchant as well as the location of the merchant. If you’ve ever had an account transaction listed in the form of “EXC FEDALLOC ORK” on your statements and wondered if it was genuine or if you’ve been the victim of fraud, you’ll see the value of this new feature.
• No Fees – No annual fee, no late fees, no foreign transaction fees. The company also claims that the card will offer lower interest rates as compared to other cards, however, there are no proofs to support the claim.
• No Information Selling/Mining – Apple assures you that your personal information is not sold or traded to any other marketers, nor will it be used by Apple to promote to you in the future.
• Intelligent Physical Card Physical Apple Card will have no credit card number on it, there is no expiration date and no CVV in the reverse, and no Signature line printed on its front — all the information is only accessible through the Wallet application. This permits Apple to create an attractive credit card that has consistency in terms of a clear interface, but it’s not clear if prospective card customers will consider this to be beneficial.
• Aucune Up-front Benefit at least in the sense that we can tell. It’s not surprising considering that this card offers a 2% flat cash-back rate on all purchases and is a good returns rate in today’s marketplace.

What do we think?

Although Apple has taken some time to create the card somewhat different from other credit cards in the market It is also unique because the Apple Card also is constructed to connect you in the Apple ecosystem, even penalizing you for using the card in any other way, such as by reducing the reward to just one percent for non-Apple Pay transactions. The 2% reward on Apple Pay transactions is an excellent amount but the 3% reward on Apple purchases is ideal for the ardent Apple lover, but perhaps not a lot of fun for those who do not use Apple frequently.

In our opinion, however, there are two percent cash-back credit card out there that could similarly be utilized using Apple Pay AND be given the 2% rate on all purchases, not only Apple Pay purchases. By making the card more restricted, Apple is being self-serving and hoping that cardholders don’t know the difference or don’t want to take the time to study (and they could be correct).

Overall it’s not a bad purchase from Apple but it’s certainly not a game-changer. We’ll be interested to find out what the market is thinking about.