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Apple Debuts Apple Card To Transform the Credit Card Experience (venturebeat.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: iPhone users are already using Apple's Wallet app, Apple Pay, and Apple Pay Cash -- wouldn't they like an Apple credit card, too? The Cupertino company and bank partner Goldman Sachs believe the answer is "yes," so they've teamed up for Apple Card. In addition to offering major rewards for users, the new payment solution promises to improve the credit card experience by offering a healthier approach to spending. The Wallet app will include a more transparent list of transactions, organized in an easy to read format, plus a more flexible way of making payments on outstanding balances.
Apple Card is designed to complement existing Apple-branded payment options, as well as displacing other credit cards that might be in a user's wallet. Though the end goal is to increase Apple's share of the dollars spent by its users, the pinch this time will be felt by rival payment providers, and come with incentives for new card users. Every time you spend with Apple Card, you get 2 percent cash back -- a feature the company calls Daily Cash. Purchases directly from Apple come with 3 percent cash back.
Apple Card is designed to complement existing Apple-branded payment options, as well as displacing other credit cards that might be in a user's wallet. Though the end goal is to increase Apple's share of the dollars spent by its users, the pinch this time will be felt by rival payment providers, and come with incentives for new card users. Every time you spend with Apple Card, you get 2 percent cash back -- a feature the company calls Daily Cash. Purchases directly from Apple come with 3 percent cash back.
What the copy-paste summary omits is more informative:
Every time you spend with Apple Card, you get 2 percent cash back — a feature the company calls Daily Cash. Purchases directly from Apple come with 3 percent cash back. That could lift the company’s sales of its own products, providing a greater incentive to pay “full price” at Apple than seek discounted prices elsewhere.
Additionally, the card has no fees: no late fees or international fees, with unspecified lower interest rates than competitors. The absence of late fees is jaw-dropping; whether it will be sustainable for the long term is yet to be seen.
Apple Card will be accepted via MasterCard’s global payment network and backed by Goldman Sachs. While the card will be digital and connected to an iPhone, there will also be a physical card made from titanium that can be used in stores; purchases made with the physical card are only eligible for 1 percent Daily Cash.
Another reason to sign up for Apple Card: greater transaction privacy. Apple has maintained that its customers are “not the product” with its services, which is to say that it doesn’t harvest or sell their personal information to profit off their data.
In short, usually 1% (with the physical card) or 2% (if you're using an iPhone) cash back, no late fees, and it's accepted as MasterCard. the "unspecified lower interest rates" sure sound enticing, but I'll wait until they're specified to actually care. Otherwise, it's a bog-standard credit card, but this time with a shiny Apple logo!
You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
I was expecting nothing at all from the Apple Card, kind of just a throwaway thing.
But It really is way, way better than most other credit cards, and I say that as someone who has used a lot of different cards for different features.
The thing I like most about it in general is that it is actually for true customer friendly unlike pretty much every other card. I like prominent understanding of how much interest you'll be paying, about making payments not just monthly but more often not reduce interest. I like that there are not things like late fees meant to trap the unwary or the forgetful.
Then on top of that, not just 2% cash back (3% on Apple products/services) but you get that back each day and can use it for anything, not having to remember to navigate through an arcane web interface to make use of cash back credits (like with Spark).
The card itself as a physical manifestation looks great of course, but honestly what I am excited about is how much the way the Apple Card works could possibly start to change how other credit card companies behave....
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Wow, Yet Another Branded Credit Card.
No fees? I'll get one just to get the 3 percent rebate on Apple stuff.
Otherwise - excuse me, my recycle bin is full of credit card solicitation letters.
Cash back on money you're spending anyway, build credit for the purchase of things you really want that also require credit, more security if there are fraudulent charges or theft, extended warranties, trip insurance, accident insurance, price matching, and other side benefits that are included with many?
I guess when a company runs out of good ideas (or their idea cash cow dies) this is the next best way to limp along.
This was a shark jumping presentation, pretty much "Well, we're out of Software and Hardware ideas so... here's services?".
I really appreciate you people who do not use credit cards, you help support the award programs for those of us who do!
It's very kind of you to buy everything at inflated prices to support credit card transaction fees while getting none of the rewards... more for me then!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
This was actually a fairly surprising and somewhat welcome announcement.
As a physical card, it's made of titanium and has nothing more than your name and the chip. No security code, no expiration date, no signature, etc. that can be copied or stolen. You get 1% cash back on everything you purchase with the physical card, it automatically redeems the cash back every single day, and the cash back is available to you for immediate use either as cash or as credit towards your statement. It also randomly generates a new credit card number for every transaction, ensuring that your card can't be used for anything beyond the transaction you're actively engaging in, and Apple apparently collects no information on you about where, when, or how much you're purchasing, while also requiring privacy by default (i.e. you don't have to write in to ask them to not use your info for marketing purposes) from their financial industry partners. There's also no late fees, overage fees, or other fees that you'd typically expect, and you can apply and get approved from directly within the app.
When used via Apple Pay either in-person, in-app, or online, the cash back goes up to 2% (3% for purchases from Apple), with all the same perks.
All of which is to say, they carved away some of the typical cruft and gave it a nice UI to try and make the statements easier to read (e.g. human-readable store names and locations instead of ALL-CAPS abbreviations) and they tried to make understanding payments easier (e.g. interactive calculations for interest payments).
Not sure that this will really change much in the industry, but it's a nice looking card, nonetheless.
A friend and I talked about the Apple Card during the announcement. My friend wants the Apple Card and justifies getting yet another credit card by saying that the average American has five credit cards. He only has one. *facepalm*
2% cards aren't hard to find, though. I have one from fidelity, and my brother has one from discover (which surprised me; the last time I bothered with them, there were so many caps and fractions on its 1%that it wasn't worth keeping.
And it drops to 1% when you use the card out in the real world. I've tried Apple Pay a couple of times, but haven't succeeded yet.
And it's not clear whether online purchases are 1% or 2%.
I don't care about interest rates; I pay my card off a couple of times a week. The only reason I even have it is the kickbacks.
The no currency fees is nice, but my 1.5% capital one already does that.
And the extra 1% on apple stuff doesn't really add up to enough to worry about -- certainly not enough to deal with an extra card.
hawk
As an AAPL shareholder, I'll get one - even if the overall benefit to me is negligible, I'd rather help Apple than Citi, Chase, etc.
Related note - I recently discovered my Chase Amazon Prime card offers an extra 1% on Apple Pay purchases. I wonder if that will change when this new card comes out.
Funny, you know, I"ve found it entirely possible to pay my monthly credit card bills in full, and never have to pay a cent in interest fees.
I also have some protection on the purchases, and I often get cash back, etc on my purchases which help with the costs of things.
You've never heard of this "personal responsibility' things and "self-control' nor budgeting?
Did your family and even schools teach you nothing about money management?
Earning a dollar is hard, you need to be careful in how you save and spend them.
However, it isn't rocket surgery.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Now I don't mind 2% cash back. However this seems like American Express or Discovery Card, where having such a card means hit or miss in terms of availability. Sorry they Don't take Discover or they don't take American Express. Right now MasterCard or Visa is the only near universal card offered.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
I agree that this isn't exactly "cutting edge stuff" from Apple, here. But it's not too bad either. Seems like a nice, logical extension after offering Apple Pay and the Apple Pay Cash functionality to make all your typical financial transactions happen right from your phone.
I do like the way the cash back bonus is just automatic and paid back within 24 hours of a purchase. Most others make you jump through some hoops to collect them - which surely helps them avoid paying them out to a certain percentage of their customers who forget to do those extra steps.
And issuing a physical card to go with it that has no identifying card info printed on it? That's smart too.
Oh, and BTW: To the people who keep ridiculing Americans and their need to have multiple credit cards? The FICO scores get calculated, in part, based on how much credit you have available to you vs. how much you actually use. So having more cards, even if they sit there unused, benefits you by improving that ratio -- since no one card company is likely to extend you a line of credit as big as you'd have in sum total, spanning 4 or 5 cards.
Maybe you can get one and us it to pay for a course in how to communicate effectively.
The list of things you determine to make it "way, way better than most other credit cards" is really a list of things that make it marginally better than most credit cards
Did you watch the announcement video? Do you use many other credit cards?
I have been doing a lot with credit card reward programs for a while.
Sure other cards have cashback (some even more percentage wise). Who else gives it to you daily? What other credit cards help encourage people to make payments more often to reduce interest charges if they cannot make the payment in full? How many other cards with significant features do not feature an annual fee? How many other cards do not charge late fees when you forget and make a payment a few days late? How many other cards like you simply text to correct issues with your card account???
It's life by a thousand cuts.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
It's a Master Card so if they don't take Apple Pay you can use the physical card and get 1%.
I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
... transaction details with third parties."
BAHAHAHAAHAHAAAAAA
Good one.
2% cards aren't hard to find, though. I have one from fidelity
And the annual fee (which Apple does not charge)???
And it's not clear whether online purchases are 1% or 2%.
The exact percentage does not matter that much though. What is really interesting about this is you get that cash back daily. It's that you don't have to request a check, or go have to go through the website figuring out how to use the cash back in some other way.
my brother has one from discover
I have a Discover card also, that I never use... but you can't use that everywhere (which is why I stopped carrying it), Apple's card will work where you can use MasterCard (which is everywhere).
And the extra 1% on apple stuff doesn't really add up to enough to worry about -- certainly not enough to deal with an extra card.
It would if you were getting a laptop (free $60 back on a $2k laptop). But basically since there is no annual fee the question is why not get one and enjoy the benefits they offer you, along with a true customer focused experience that no other card has?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Why I would want to use a credit card. And please be *precise*.
Credit cards save money for consumers because of the decreased security risk over carrying cash and the built-in fraud redress.
Not so well known is that they also save money for businesses. Businesses love to bellyache about the fee charged for credit cards, but the competitive VISA/Mastercard universe actually save money over the security risk of dealing in cash. Read up on what the newly legal marijuana businesses have to go through because they cannot legally do normal banking and have to deal in cash. Mountains of paper that makes them targets for robbery and embezzlement and is a nightmare for accountants.
Hey, why not fuck over your local merchants a bit more, and use an Apple card! I bet it'll be white, and it'll charge your merchants one of the highest interchange rates on the market. Go ahead! As we say in the US, "I've got mine. Fuck you!"
I don't respond to AC's.
Now with rounded corners, and no headphone jack! Works almost anywhere Mastercard is accepted. As long as you're not holding it wrong.
Eloi are stupid, throw morlocks at them!
Kickback incentives to get people to use a payment brand should be treated as an anti-trust issue as sellers are effectively being held captive by perverse incentives on the back end. It's guaranteed suicide for many vendors to refuse to accept a known card brand.
Also there is no justification for bankers to extract percentages of every transaction for themselves in the first place. This is just a tax extracting value from the system for no benefit in return. Credit cards need to be phased out and banking systems improved to handle push based personal instant payments without transaction fees.
They're proud to announce their titanium card doesn't show the number or expiration date which makes it more safe, but which is required to make online purchases.
Now my iPhone will let me use apple pay with some online vendors (papa johns) and I PRESUME that, via Safari, I'll be able to access the Apple Card in someway to get that info. But if I'm on my Windows machine? I think I'm SOL... by design?
Think different.
is undercut MasterCard / Visa / Et. Al by a couple of percentage points for " transaction processing fees " and everyone and their brother will sign up for this card.
Merchants would even come up with some extra rewards to entice folks to use it.
I would expect some push back from the established folks because Apple is now putting those easy profits at risk.
( It would also not surprise me to see the Great Hoover of Information ( Google ) get into the same game. )
Cannabis business doesn't have problems because of being unbanked. At least not entirely. There are plenty of businesses that can deal with that. Cannabis businesses have an unusually large amount of cash and are usually forced by zoning into dark corners of the neighborhood.
Monopoly on WHAT, exactly?
They're not the only one selling computers.
They're not the only one selling cell phones.
They're not the only one selling tablets.
They're not not the only place to try to sell your apps
They're not the only place from which to buy/rent media of various kinds.
What exactly are they supposed to have a monopoly ON? Apple didn't invent vertical integration, nor is it the only company that profits from it. It also isn't a monopoly.
The APR is actually 13.24% to 24.24%
(Scroll down to very end and read fine print to see)
That seems about average to me, but I still think the other features are exciting and helpful enough they will get good traction.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
So, did you enjoy your time in band camp?
If you pay interest, you're doing it wrong.
March 25th, 2019 - A day in finical history - Apple invents a new concept, called the 'credit card' that allows you to make purchases on so-called 'credit' to be paid back at a later date.
Truly a day for the ages.
However, in my decades of credit card usage, I've never paid a late fee>
Neither have I but I know credit card companies make a bundle on various fees. That's why I say the Apple Card is such an awesome product, it's not that it changes my life much in terms of card use, but I think it could overall help a ton of people out from being skimmed by credit card companies, all of the people who sometimes pay late (which I don't) or those people who carry a balance (which I almost never do).
In a way it's almost an educational tool about using credit cards because it displays so much information so clearly about what is going on. It's a bit like letting everyone have a fancy business card with improved visualization features, but also training them how much interest really affects what they truly pay, and encouraging them to pay more often to reduce it...
I honesty believe it will be a transformational product, in that it will affect how other credit card companies do business eventually. It will force some movement for the better in an industry that has hardly changed in decades.
To me, the Apple Card was by far the best new product they announced today... followed closely by Apple Arcade.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
There are already some 2% cash back cards -- off the top of my head, Fidelity and Capital One (Venture card) both offer them. Although, the Capital One card has a $60/year annual fee.
I think there are some other 2% cash back cards in the market.
Your eligibility for these cards may depend on a great credit score and they tend to have high interest rates. They are mostly designed for people who have high monthly charges and pay their bills in full each month.
Or maybe you're a soulless shill?
Pay the entire bill at the end of the month, never pay a cent of interest.
If you're letting your balance roll over, you are doing it wrong.
Credit cards can be a very handy tool, both for getting cash back as well as protecting yourself when purchasing items. Things like chargebacks and all the additional protections the card issuer grants are way better than walking around with a bunch of cash.
"Well kids, you tried your best, and you failed. The lesson is, never try." -Homer Simpson
A company like Apple with a huge hoard of capital and something like a monopoly on its products soon begins to act and think like a financial services company.
There is too much risk actually innovating within its field, and because of its monopoly-like control over its products, it doesn't actually need to innovate. The risk of innovation is of course failing, and the capital it spent on the innovation project being wasted in comparison to some other use, such as holding T-bills.
Thus management stops thinking about product innovation and starts thinking about capital innovation, and usually this winds up being some kind of financial service business since it tends to have the same low level of risk as other highly liquid financial instrument, except with slightly higher margins.
...by offering a healthier approach to spending.
I feel just a little stupider after reading that statement...
It's a Master Card so if they don't take Apple Pay you can use the physical card and get 1%.
Which I can do with my existing Costco Visa already (whether I use the physical card or Apple Pay). Heck, I get 4% back on gas and 2% on my Costco purchases, which is pretty much all I use a credit card for nowadays.
Nothing against Apple, and I can see why they want me to go into Apple Debt... but I'm not seeing a compelling reason to shift over to this new offering.
#DeleteChrome
My friend wants the Apple Card and justifies getting yet another credit card by saying that the average American has five credit cards. He only has one.
That's actually a really good reason. What if one is stolen? It's great to have a backup.
It also improves your credit score to have another account open, even if he never uses it.
Sounds like he's pretty smart about this, you should not ridicule him.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Funny, you know, I"ve found it entirely possible to pay my monthly credit card bills in full, and never have to pay a cent in interest fees.
And your exactly the kind of person the Credit Card Industry calls a "Deadbeat".
https://www.nationaldebtrelief.com/credit-card-revolver-hacker/
It's not a bad thing, but your not the customer they want as your not making them the profit they want.
MacOS isn't the only operating system.
iOS isn't the only mobile operating system.
That's like complaining that the Tesla OS is only available if you buy a Tesla, and you can only use apps on the Tesla in car dashboard that Tesla has approved. So? Doesn't make Tesla a monopoly, you can always buy a different car.
the competitive VISA/Mastercard universe actually save money over the security risk of dealing in cash.
Even for individual merchants at yard/garage sales, whose average transaction is $5 or much less?
Cool story but what does this have to do with where the card is accepted?
I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
Where were you when Microsoft was getting reamed for shipping Windows with IE?
Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
Only more expensive.
L'Idiot
That's a nice idea in theory, but the credit card companies are betting that your luck will run out at some point when you lose your job or have a medical emergency. At that point, you'll be paying 20% interest on your credit card balance along with all the other people who were too poor or too naive to pay off their balances on time.
Considering the annual profits the credit card companies make, it seems to be a pretty safe bet for them.
Yeah? So what? There are plenty of companies selling only their brand of shit.
That's a dumb question, considering you have all those videos and could check for yourself.
But they result in everything costing 3% more, whether you use them or not. We are effectively handing over 3% of our entire economies to credit card companies. Does that sound sane?
I'm not going to suggest that defending Apple is the easiest task in the world... but surely you can do better than that.
Who gives a shit what the card looks like? You could have the most awesome looking card in the universe but if the terms on the account suck I'm never using it.
Give me a low interest card with no fees (international or otherwise) and some perks like cash back, and then color it pink and purple with holographic glitter and Hello Kitty branding and I'll use it over a card that "looks good" and screws you with your pants on every transaction.
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
None of those things are a monopoly, as defined under federal law. And that's the only definition that matters.
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
Hint: you only pay interest on ANY credit card if you maintain a balance on the account for more than one accrual period. Don't buy more than you can afford, or budget in the interest on a high priced purchase as the cost of credit access.
That's how it works.
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
And those situations are exactly why credit cards exist - access to credit without seeing a loan officer should you incur a large expense such as appliance failure or car repairs. So yes you will pay a few tens of dollars in interest, but practice some financial responsibility and actually pay it off and don't buy shit you don't need on it and it's a small convenience fee for access to instant credit.
Stop buying a new phone every year and put some god damn money into savings if you are so worried about unexpected expenses.
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
There was a lot more to it than that. Microsoft had a long history of attacking anything that threatened their market position and were rightly sanctioned for it.
As stated in the story "Apple Card will be accepted by vendors who participate in MasterCard’s global payment network" So no it's not like those things, it's like a MasterCard with the Apple logo pasted on it.
I wish I had a lawn.
Let's take a look at what the Apple card offers:
1) No annual fee. I won't use any credit card that has a fee. So far so good.
2) No late fees. This is actually a pretty big deal. Someone with otherwise spotless credit can get dinged with a $40 late fee on a $5 balance. Late fees are a ripoff plain and simple.
3) No foreign transaction fees. This is a pretty big deal too. The only other card I know that does this is Discover, and they are not as widely accepted as MasterCard.
4) 2% cash back. The card I have now does that and if you pay your bills on time and avoid all other fees you actually come out ahead. Reading the fine print though, you only get 1% if you use the physical card rather than the iPhone app. But you get 3% for "Apple products". I wonder if you can get 3% off the News app if use the apple credit card to pay for it? Hmm.
All in all I don't see any real downside to this. Yes, you can get other cards with no annual fee and 2% cashback. But none of those cards have done away with late fees as far as I know.
Sure, you need an iPhone to take full advantage of everything it offers but all Apple stuff is like that.
Exactly - why does nobody see this? Where do people think all this "cash back" comes from? These companies charge merchants a fair portion of every transaction to accept the card. The merchant doesn't have much choice since cash has been largely eliminated as a purchase medium for anything over $10. If they charge an additional fee for using credit, customers are turned off. Instead, they just mark up the prices on everything to cover the fees they have to give the credit card companies. As a result everything is more expensive. People feel great about their cash back when they could have simply paid less in the first place.
The situation is worse for people who don't qualify for such accounts. They get to pay more for everything without the benefit of cash back. The poor end up paying extra so those who are well off can get a discount on their iPhone.
Dislaimer: Living in Belgium
Here is what I do: If I get my monthly bill for my credit card, I pay it in whole. That means no interest.
I have been in a situation where I was without income due to reasons for a period of several months. One thing I did not do was use my credit card. The monet I had was not enough to last me the whole period, so I went in debt on my bank account. That amount was not even close to what it would have been on the credit card.
But then the EU banking system is completly different from the US. In Belgium, not having any credit is the best credit score you can get.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
Pay the entire bill at the end of the month, never pay a cent of interest.
Such naivety.
You are paying for your credit card... You just don't know it.
You see for a merchant to accept a credit card or any card with a transaction done via credit, they have to pay a percentage of the transaction to at least three different parties, the issuing bank, the network provider (Mastercard/Visa/AMEX) and the merchants bank. Apple is trying to add a fourth party in here, they aren't the first, any branded card takes a chunk, supermarket, airline, tech company.
The merchant passes this cost on to you in the form of higher prices as the T&C's say that the merchant is not permitted to list these costs separately to a purchase price.
If you're letting your balance roll over, you are doing it wrong.
Credit cards can be a very handy tool, both for getting cash back as well as protecting yourself when purchasing items. Things like chargebacks and all the additional protections the card issuer grants are way better than walking around with a bunch of cash.
You actually think a bank is giving you free money?
Really?
I suppose right now your cognitive dissonance is fighting the fact that you've blindly believed that you're getting free money when in fact they're only returning a pittance of the money they took from you in the purchase in order to keep you using your card.
The thing about using other people's money is that they'll want their money back, plus some.
If you look at the EU, you'll find few of these cashback schemes exist because the EU has capped the percentage that are permitted to be charged to merchants at 1%. Banks are not going to give me 1% back when they aren't making at least 1.1% from me in the first place. Then again, so many other systems for instantaneous funds transfer exist here in the UK like debit cards and Faster Payments (instant direct bank transfers) that I haven't had to use a credit card here in almost 3 years.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.