I’ve been using my Apple Card for a little over a week now and I’m really enjoying the experience. The sign up process was quick and painless.
What do I like most about the card? Something I never thought about much before, but getting real time alerts every time I make a purchase. I know some credit card apps offer this feature, but Apple goes one step further is having a map for the location. This makes it very clear where and when I made the purchase. I was driving 200 miles this past week and made some purchases along the way. Even though I don’t recognize all the merchant names, I do recognize the map locations on the way to my destination. Just the other day I had a line on another credit card that I didn’t recognize. I had to call the number to find out that it was in fact something I bought. I won’t have this problem anymore with the way Apple does it.
I also love the daily cash back. My prior card were all point based and it was always a bit of a mystery as to how much they are worth. I also hate that they forced my to sign up once a month to get points on certain merchants that Chase was pushing. What Apple does is very straightforward, clear and transparent.
I got the physical card in the mail 2 days ago and have been using it in places that don’t accept Apple Pay.
I get a lot more 2% back using Apple Pay and the Apple Card with normal purchases than my previous main card, a Visa card that only gives back 2% with restaurants, gas stations, and drugstores, 1% everywhere else. So I’m happy to make it my main card for non-tech purchases. (For expensive items I use my AmEx card which doubles the warranty and covers for damage/theft in the first 90 days.)
I’m learning how many local stores don’t take Apple Pay now, lol. Still, I find that when swiping I get the same 1% as my other cards.
I was shocked that my non-techie mother asked me the other day about the Apple Card as she’d somehow heard about its 3% cash back on Apple products. Now she’s planning to get the Apple Card, trade in her iPhone 7, and use the AC to save 3% monthly on the Apple Upgrade Program when new iPhones are announced.
Sign up was a little bit of a problem. They deliver the card by fedex so they want my physical address, not my mailing address. I had to call to find that out. Received the card yesterday but can’t activate it because card services are temporarily unavailable.
I never keep anything in Apple Cash, nor do I recommend it; it earns no interest, but it does earn Apple the float. That can be a great business for Apple: for example, on the Starbucks balance sheet it notes ~$1.6 billion in ‘stored value card liabilities’ i.e. the Starbucks Card. That’s $1.6b of coffee addicts paying 0% for the privilege of lending to their supplier.
Since it only takes a couple of seconds to transfer $$ to the bank account already associated with the Apple Card (which does earn interest) that should be where one’s money live.
FYI I thought this article made an interesting point: that the Apple Card can be used as a debit-card-with-cash-back, so the author dumped her debit card:
I just applied and accepted the Apple Card. If I want to upgrade to the iPhone XR by using the upgrade program and trading in my 7, will my payment be the same as Apple quotes when going through the upgrade?
For example if I upgrade, my monthly payment would be let’s say $20/month for 24 months. Would my payment be the same through Apple Card or would they apply the APR to the balance every month thus could make my payment higher?
How does the daily cash work anyways? Like if I bought the new phone through Apple Card I would receive 3% cash back that day? And if I use my card for everyday purchases I would essentially get cash back every single day?
Your payments remain the same, but within 24 hours of making a purchase (or paying your monthly subscription) your Wallet’s Apple Cash card will be credited 3% of the purchase price, even before being billed for the purchase.
You can use accumulated funds in Apple Cash to purchase items, or you can tap the three-dot ‘more’ button then click ‘Transfer To Bank’ and the funds will go immediately into the bank account associated with your Apple Pay/Apple Card account.
Well, the U.S. can be kinda third-world, financially (and not just financially, of course.) E.g., today I thought I’d see if I could use Apple Pay at lunchtime. The sandwich place is definitely no – they want a credit card and with long lines they don’t even like the time penalty of paying cash. On the other hand the newsstand where I get a drink the contactless payment minimum is $5.00, so also a no go.
Here in New York cash is still king … often, I’m sure, because of the different accounting books being kept.
Before 2010 minimums were impermissible under stipulations set forth in the processing agreement with Visa, MasterCard and Discover. After that it was made legal to permit minimum credit card purchases of $10.
Not $5. (Not that it stops them. But neither does it stop you from complaining to your credit card company, which has its own departments that have nice chats with vendors who stray from contractual obligations.)
And FYI it remains illegal to require minimum purchase made with debit cards.
In the Netherlands they have “chipknip” witch is the SIM on your card pre-loaded with cash. No authentication required (its like cash) very fast and efficient (Dutch…) and intended for small transactions.
They have it since decades, here in the US we are soooooo far behind the rest of the modernized world
The guys who work that newsstand are hardworking, there every day, and spot me a penny or three when I’m short the 15 cent part of $3.15. I’m sure that the percentage grab from their revenue for small purchases adds up, so I don’t sweat it. Part of the whole “tip large on small bills” outlook.
Still working with the assumption that using debit cards for anything isn’t worth the risk of, e.g., a card reader or something skimming the card and someone subsequently stealing from the attached bank account.
The other month I deposited – in the bank’s drop-off box, inside* – a large check, that was subsequently somehow forged and used to fraudulently steal from my client who gave me the check. I can’t figure out how it could have happened; but I do know it’s caused my client a lot of bother.
*normally I only do this at a teller, but the line was stupid-long. Like I said, we’re often quite backward here in New York.
@jcarucci, @bowline, et. al. You can pay down the Apple Card balance with Apple Cash. Just make a one-time payment. The instructions are here https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT209226 but not awesomely clear. I did manage to do it, though.
Good stuff. But my Apple Cash balances are so small I just transfer them to my bank once I accumulate $6-$10; given that I have credit cards I really don’t have any use for it (besides very occasionally sending a new iPhone switcher $1 just to show off the feature).
Thanks, that finally worked. One thing that isn’t clear in the instructions though, is that you have to setup your bank account in Apple Card first, even if you aren’t going to use it for this payment. I was trying it without a bank account setup yet, and that doesn’t work.
I just made a purchase at Lowes with my AC. Didn’t use my membership card. Just inserted the chip.
Choose email receipt and somehow it knew my email!
WTF?
and paying was done with a click!
But my Apple Cash balances are so small I just transfer them to my bank once I accumulate $6-$10; given that I have credit cards I really don’t have any use for it (besides very occasionally sending a new iPhone switcher $1 just to show off the feature).