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Apple Card Turns Six With Big Change Ahead
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Same boat as others. Have had the Apple Card pretty much since inception. I only use it for Apple purchases and on-going Apple services (iCloud, AppleCare, etc.), and Exxon Mobil gas stations (3%). I used it for awhile for my T-Mobile bill (also 3%).
It's a nice card being no annual fee. And the ability to do Apple Card Monthly Installments (ACMI) to basically get 0% financing on Apple products
At the end of the day though, I prefer the Chase UR network (CSP to get 2-5% upon purchase, and then each point to get 1.5 - 2x return on redemption). So the Apple Card has a place for Apple products, but agree with others, even those who just loosely play the points game, there are better cards where points are much more valuable than the HYSA.
It's a nice card being no annual fee. And the ability to do Apple Card Monthly Installments (ACMI) to basically get 0% financing on Apple products
At the end of the day though, I prefer the Chase UR network (CSP to get 2-5% upon purchase, and then each point to get 1.5 - 2x return on redemption). So the Apple Card has a place for Apple products, but agree with others, even those who just loosely play the points game, there are better cards where points are much more valuable than the HYSA.
There are many better choices for a credit card.
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GS loses money because they’re mismanaged and don’t know how to “do banking” correctly. Why else do you think they can’t handle consumer banking? They can’t even handle mortgages properly.
Chase could essentially run the Apple Card like a charge card instead…. Pay in full requirement. High credit score and income required… Say, 730+ score required and a $100,000 household income requirement. No preset spending limit. An annual fee of $195 with some of that paid to Apple would benefit both parties and minimize risk. 1% back on purchases below $1,000 —- and 2% back on purchases above $1,000. Trip cancellation/interruption insurance. Visa Infinite Benefits. 12 months of 0% financing on Apple Hardware products. Extended warranty on Apple and other products for 2 years. Basic AppleCare included for free every month.
I’ll be honest here —- any bank that could offer me a reward-less credit card that has the old-time benefits would win me over. Screw the 1-2% back in rewards. Give me price protection back, return protection, trip cancellation/interruption insurance back, and 2-3 year extended warranty back.
I love the way the card works. Customer service though iMessage is sometimes annoying but mostly welcome.
All the hate it gets about rewards, for a no fee card, 2% back on pretty much everything you buy when using Apple pay is solid. Most no fee cards that do have a 5% or 3% category are limited and niche. Amazon's Visa has been mentioned. Sure, 5% back at Amazon, 3% back on dining, 1% on everything else... but you can get a dedicated dining card that gives you 6%.
Where Apple Card bothers me is it isn't a higher cash back on Apple purchases.... and the bonus offers usually suck.
All the hate it gets about rewards, for a no fee card, 2% back on pretty much everything you buy when using Apple pay is solid. Most no fee cards that do have a 5% or 3% category are limited and niche. Amazon's Visa has been mentioned. Sure, 5% back at Amazon, 3% back on dining, 1% on everything else... but you can get a dedicated dining card that gives you 6%.
Where Apple Card bothers me is it isn't a higher cash back on Apple purchases.... and the bonus offers usually suck.
Hopefully it gets better.
The card completely overlaps with my Citi Double Cash and that has less strings attached to get the 2% cash back.
The nifty features in the app doesn't matter since I live within my means and always have my cards set to auto pay statement balance at the end of the month. Citi also has virtual account numbers.
If it was a Visa, at least it would have the advantage of being able to use it at Costco. I ended up getting the Fidelity Visa to cover that part.
The card completely overlaps with my Citi Double Cash and that has less strings attached to get the 2% cash back.
The nifty features in the app doesn't matter since I live within my means and always have my cards set to auto pay statement balance at the end of the month. Citi also has virtual account numbers.
If it was a Visa, at least it would have the advantage of being able to use it at Costco. I ended up getting the Fidelity Visa to cover that part.
Cash Preferred. 6% back at grocery stores, streaming services.... 3% on transit (cabs, parking, uber, bus, etc.), 3% back on gas, 1% on everything else plus a healthy list of monthly bonus offers that are useful. $99/annual fee - I make back $250 just at the grocery store. Used to be my gas card till I got the Costo Visa (4% back on gas, 5% at Costco gas stations). The Amex Blue Cash Preferred is one of the best cards imo. It used to offer 3% on drug stores which was lame, so I appreciate the change to transit.
Agreed. Chase has the worse savings... but maybe they will carve out the savings to a web bank instead of Chase and only give them the credit card? I have 2 other high yield savings, but do like that my daily cash automatically is nesting in one because I never think to transfer the funds to one of my others, which I should do because compounding....
So you are describing automatic payment.... we have that too. They automatically take the payment out of your account which is what 80% of people do. Also, Europeans carry credit balances mate. All the time. Europeans just tend to lean on debit and paying their balances in full more frequently than Americans.
It sounds like the charge cards that were prevalent in the US in the 50's and 60's that had no spending limit and had to be paid off monthly. Some of the American Express cards are still charge cards, but credit cards from the various banks are much more common. US consumer credit debt is getting absurd. It's up to something like $1.2 trillion. It's very common for interest rates on revolving credit to be 20-30%.
I live in London, UK. Despite rumours (sic) Apple Card has yet to arrive in Europe and I am not really sure why.
I have a US address to get the account, but use it almost exclusively outside the US. Most in-person transactions are routed through Apple Pay and get 3% cashback, the others are 2%. It's a net benefit considering the tiny loss on forex conversion.
I think the idea was Goldman wanted to partner with Apple to increase retail presence... back when they wanted a retail business.
No, there's no difference. All credit cards in Europe and US give you the option to establish auto-pay of the full balance, or to pay manually the value you choose. That's the whole point of interest - to compensate them on the outstanding credit (outside the grace period).
That is much less true with the program rules changes and the partners they have lost. Curious which Chase card you have and what your thoughts on their increasing “coupon-book-ifcation of their products”? Not sure I can justify a Sapphire Reserve any more with the elimination of the 1.5 redemption value, raising the price to $795, the drop in value of United MP miles, and all the other coupons that I will never use.
I love using the Apple Card and the reason is because it’s easy. Straight 2% back and unlike some of my other cards, like the Sapphire Reserve, I don’t have to “track” all of the different promotions to get the most out of the card. I don’t want to make sure that I use up some promotional credit every month or every quarter…instead with Apple, I just get 2% back. Sometimes the easy button is the best thing going….
If they came to the UK, I would probably look at getting one, if it was appealing, however, I bank with Chase in the UK, and our savings options are tied to the BoE. Outside of a 6 month promotion, our AER is 2.5% far from a HYSA. I would prefer it to be Chase or AMEX, so it is a company I am familiar with, but I can't see a HYSA coming to the UK with the card.
TL;DR - Apple Card with its current benefits is never going to happen in Europe (or maybe anywhere else outside of the US) as US consumers pay for the perks with higher card transaction fees.
In the US, interchange/merchant fees on credit card transactions are about 2% whereas in other countries they're typically a lot lower - for example in the UK and most of Europe it's capped at 0.3% which is pretty close to the actual processing costs incurred by the banks. Therefore US banks/card issuers are making a nice 2% on every transaction (which the consumer is ultimately paying for) to be able to offer things like cashback, discounts, points schemes and linked savings accounts whereas in other countries this isn't going to happen as there's not enough being skimmed off every transaction to fund it.
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I don't think it's that different, certainly in the UK (and it was the same when we were still in the EU), I can choose to pay my monthly credit card bill manually rather than by direct debit, and can pay anything between the minimum payment (carrying the rest over, bearing interest) and the full amount. Even if I pay by direct debit, I can set this up to automatically either pay off the full amount or the minimum amount every month.
If European credit card companies just took the full amount every month and their was no option to carry money over, card interest rates would be meaningless, credit card debt wouldn't be a thing and the Banks would make no money from credit cards, which are in fact a major source of income for them.
I'm also intrigued at your comment that "credit cards don't have much appeal [in Europe]". I've only really seen that evident in Germany, where they seem more reluctant to move away from cash compared to other countries, but certainly in Western Europe credit (as opposed to debit) card usage seems widespread.
I love my Apple Card, even had it since it was in a beta test in June 2019 before it went publicly available. It’s the credit card I use the most even to this day.
