They used to change the design every 2 releases. They have now moved on to every 3 releases. Not really a big deal it’s a rectangular block.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple Card Launching in August
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
And a Tesla is just a car, and Alexa is just a speaker, and yet they’re transformative. If you don’t get that I wonder why you’re in this forum?
Synchrony does a lot of high interest. It ain't cheap. Peter Thiel don't do cheap. I don't know about the Chase. If they put up the interest, you're not getting any "cash back." What I like is, cashback goes right on the Apple Cash card. You can put that into your bank, or let it hang around for spending cash. It has interest on it, but you don't pay twice.
It's the greatest possible card for those of us heavily dug in to the Apple ecosystem. Plus it's private, secure, smart and organized with a decent rewards program. I plan to reduce my number of cards owned currently down to just 2 or 3 with this being my primary one.
Make sure you stay up for the midnight pre order for a credit card.
Yooo guy. This entire forum knows that there are other credit cards out there. We know. Trust me! If people want the Apple Card with no annual fee, a card with no numbers and an Apple logo with easy integration with Wallet, let them be man.
And get this! Apple knows that there are cards with better rewards too!
So again, to you and every other person that wants to see this fail..... we know. Thank you.
[doublepost=1564546182][/doublepost]
And there are people who think a 50,000 sign up bonus means they’ll get $50,000. No matter what credit card you get people get suckered in. It is what it is.
It’s up to the consumer to be responsible. Apple isn’t doing anything criminal with this card. Business is business.
Amex is a little different now as a result of a successful antitrust suit against Visa and Mastercard in the 2000s. The majority of cards, Amex is the issuing bank, but there are some outside banks (BofA/Merrill Lynch, Fidelity, and even Samsung in Korea). For medium to large merchants, Amex is the merchant's processing service, but for small businesses, their existing service now acts as the processor. Thus when things are aligned, Amex acts as a network just like Visa and Mastercard.
Korean Air-branded Samsung Card-issued Amex:
This will be my main card for Apple Pay, but I will NEVER use the physical card, and anyone who does is dumb in my book... 1% for swipe transactions isn’t enough.
Exclusively. It’s a hard pull on Transunion and shows up as GS Bank. That’s how it is for the current beta testers. It could change, but I doubt it.
Pro tips:
- if you get the card, always pay the balance on the due date,
- set up autopay to ensure GS pulls the balance on the due date, so you don’t forget,
- forgetting causes you to pay interest and eventually risks reporting to credit bureaus that can ding your fico score.
- if you are denied, and you have a long term relationship with your bank, see if they have a FREE card you can get, then use it for as much as you can, better yet, if you are a Costco member try to get their card instead, their reward scheme is quite good (don’t if you plan to drop your membership because your card will be canceled and this will hit your FICO), if neither and you are a student in a university town, check out the university’s credit union, they have much experience in providing cards to students without a credit history.
- then, noting your credit limit, don’t exceed 20% of it (utilization over 30% hurts score), after a month ask CU to increase limit to at minimum cover all your using card for everything possible without going over 25% utilization. It may help to have a direct deposit into the account if you work, or to move your cash there to show liquidity.
- If your parents are organized and reliable, and pay on time, consider asking them to put their utilities on your card, but to reliably put the money into your bank account well in advance of payment date, and use autopay to pay your balance. Reliably moving a certain volume of transactions and paying on time is good for both fico and rewards. If your parents are not reliable, then avoid this as it risks hurting your score.
- after half a year, reapply for the Apple Card if you want it.
- longer-term consider a triad of credit cards, MC, Visa and AMEX (in any case, if your reward is based on a points or miles or nights structure, pick one that doesn’t expire.)
In any case, if you are responsible, credit cards beat cash and debit for convenience and security and they help you build a credit history.
5 years ago, my sister reached her 50’s without ever having a credit card. She had never had a loan. She wanted to eventually finance a new Honda Fit for her job commute. Prior to that she was declined for every credit card she applied for because no history.
So I helped walk her thru the above steps. She works at a univ hospital (earns about $45k/yr), so I moved her acct to the Univ CU. She immediately qualified for their Visa. All of her paychecks went into her chucking with direct deposit.
We put all of her monthly charges, mobile phone, cable, utilities, all her purchases, and annual buys like car insurance on the card. We set card up to autopay out of her checking account to eliminate any late payments, fees or fico hit.
Half year later qualified for then Costco AMEX. A few months later got her a Delta AMEX platinum card (200$/yr was worth for free annual 2 for 1 ticket offer). At this point the Costco AMEX went in the sock drawer. Everything went in Amex, where not possible went on CU Visa.
Somewhere around this time Costco moved from AMEX to Visa and I moved her to our family CU (because they had better car loan rate than Univ CU) and closed her Univ CU cancelled that Visa.
In late 2016 we arranged a 20k$ car loan from the family CU. I bumped he AMEX limit from ca 10k$ to 25k$ and she bought the car using her AMEX platinum on her Apple Watch (got 21,000 + 10,000 bonus Skymiles). Immediately paid off the AMEX balance with the CU car loan.
In the meantime, she moved to the free Amex Delta Blue card, cancelled the 200$/yr platinum card. All Cashflow as described above runs over her AMEX and Visa. Her FICO score is ca 830.
I’ll have her add the Apple Card to get a MC leg under her stool and also to put her monthly iCloud storage and Apple Music on to get the 3% Apple rebate.
For Costco shopping, and has, she’ll use her Visa because 2% and 4% rebates. (Note this card is discontinuing the supplemental price-rewind and travel cancellation and disruption insurance programs.)
For travel and restaurants she’ll use her AMEX because double miles and I think better supplemental travel insurance (tbd and to be compared against whatever supplementals on Apple Card.)
So I hope these ideas and warnings for new playing the credit game are helpful. Of course one size doesn’t fit all and YMMV. Good luck. (If these tips were helpful, and you decide to apply for the AMEX, let me know and I’ll have her send you an invite link she can get a few Skymiles for the referral.)
Edit: on the other end of the spectrum is my 86yo mom. A decade ago, she had like 30 credit cards, a car loan and a mortgage. To simplify things for her then as she was approaching her 80’s, I whittled her cards down to her oldest free MC and her Costco AMEX. Also paid off her car loan. In the meantime Costco is a Visa, and she also has the Amex Blue Delta.
Did same program as with sister (did I mention that they don’t have to bother writing cheques anymore either?), with income direct deposits and all autopays running thru cards and the cards being autopayed from bank.
Every few years I sign her up for some free the first year card with an interesting signing bonus, earn bonus and then close it before the first annual fee comes due. (Haven’t done in a while as her current cards have decent rewards and I’ve less time to play the churn game.)
Even though her memory is not as good as it was, she now never misses any payments, gets tidy cash back and Skymiles. And only occasionally mislays her cards when she is at a merchant not yet on nfc.
Her Experian & Equifax FICO went from (year, lo/hi):
- 2015: none, 728/736
- 2016: 706/842, 734/858
- 2017: 745/841, 841/861
- 2018: 824/845, 826/853
- 2019: 842/847, 854/858
- current 847, 858
Both use Apple Pay as much as possible, paying with their watches.
Last edited:
Will probably replace my Amex Cashback card with this once it launches in the UK as the cashback is pretty much the same and obviously better for Apple Purchases, plus its more likely to be accepted than Amex over here.
There are much bigger long term plays here than you seem to realize
Thanks. To make it work, one has to be responsible, and a bit organized. (Look for my other post explaining how someone can enter the credit market and do things that accrue to their benefit.) My sis is even more so now that everything runs thru her cards. She has racked up oodles of Skymiles, and more than enough cash back to pay her Costco membership and pocket a nice but too.)
Create a business for not winning??
Jesus and water is wet
I can hear that one grandparent already,?the garage burns down or a tornado hits, it will be both God’s will and the government’s fault. LoL.
Fully agree. Card is a “loss” leader to lock customers into the Apple ecosystem. If they are risk tolerant, they can pick up new entrants into the credit market (young in USA, debit card using adults in USA and Europe).
Apple can use it as a bridge to financing its portfolio, and offering car loans if they do a full car. Goldman will use as a springboard into consumer banking in the USA and any foreign markets it deems interesting.
Given Apple wants to use as an ecosystem lock in, and Goldman would like to expand, they both have a strong shared interest to roll out internationally.
[doublepost=1564557715][/doublepost]
Apple is counting on consumers wanting that extra percent to push their favorite stores to add secure nfc terminal technology for Apple Pay.
If that were the case, then the could up each cash back category by 1% and really make an impact. At the announced benefit levels it’s not really exciting. 1% for swiped purchased isn’t even worth using... I won’t be carrying the physical card that’s for sure.
It is ironic btw that they want us to go card less AND then they make the biggest heaviest card to go with it.
