For this news, I would love to see an actual Wallet app on iPad, even though iPad does not have NFC chip of its own. As for the Apple Card, if the cash back for most purchases are 1% or 2%, I’d say that is not really attractive for me.
For the entire “financial advise” and “should we use cash” debate, allow me to go through my points.
First, there are two definitions: financially secure and financially insecure.
For people without financial security and find themselves constantly or a bit often on their back struggling to complete payments and pay their bill, using credit card is a terrible idea for them, because it will give those people a false sense of having a lot of money when they don't have. Some people will not apply for credit card upon realising their financial hardship, but other people, especially some teenagers, won’t know that and overspend with a CC.
For people with financial security, they can easily pay almost everything they want with full payment, and they have emergency fund to cover the unfortunate. In this scenario, using CC to finish the payment is using money to work for them, with the help of attractive bank perks and promotion period, sometimes good policies as well. For me, this should be the scenario when applying for a CC is actually beneficial than using cash or debit card to complete a payment.
The sad fact is, most people don’t have such financial security. They don't have a habit of saving money for emergency, and they overspend by applying for credit card without thinking how to pay it back. Credit card company realises this, and then heavily promote people to apply for credit card and spend money that way. They have succeeded and customers start to pay everything with credit card. And bam, when statement is mailed to their house, some will be like “oh snap. How to pay this $4000 bill before next month”. And then try to pay it in full but fail. Then the interest starts to build up, and bank earns a ton of extra interest.
Now back to using credit card, I don't have much knowledge of how CC works in America, but it seems that CC can provide some level of security that debit card cannot provide. This depends heavily on bank policy and how bank will Honor their policy when accident happens. In China, bank don’t take responsibility of a fraudulent transaction, meaning credit card loses one of the biggest attractive features: safeguard for unauthorised transactions. Customers who get their credit card drained because of a stolen card will still have to pay for that drained amount. As for the perks, this one obviously vary greatly from bank to bank, sometimes maybe branch from branch.
In Australia, bank also issues credit/debit card. But, everyone with a credit/debit card also has a bank account that is separate from your credit/debit card. When you want to use your card, you transfer money from a “savings” account that is not linked to your card to an account that is linked to your card, and then spend it. This means even if your bank card is lost or stolen, the other guy cannot use too much of your money if you don’t have much money on your bank account that is linked to your card.
Another difference from USA I think is bank treats transaction through debit card like a transaction through credit card, waiting a few days to clear the payments. This means if I spot a fraudulent payment quick enough, I can call the bank and ask for freezing the account to stop the money from going out of my account. Also, Australian banks usually Honor their policy and eat the losses to protect customers. I have heard several cases regarding this and they do get their money back while bank trying to trace the lost money. So, for me, even if I don’t have credit card, I still enjoy the security of using a credit card without worrying too much about credit score or something like that.
One more fun fact is Australian bank will not borrow you money for mortgage if you use credit card to buy stuff with payments too much, or use any sort of “buy now pay after” third party services too much. They will consider yourself a risk and suspect you don’t have the capability to satisfy your monthly mortgage payment, and refuse your house loan application. I haven’t Heard about a real case but this has become a thing recently.
Ok, that is my opinion regarding the entire saga in this thread.
