The Apple credit card is coming this summer and will supposedly change all of this. You sign up directly on your iPhone and get a usable digital version immediately. You can use it directly from the Wallet app of your phone, powered by Apple Pay.
This is brilliant. There are no numbers printed on the Apple-designed titanium card. Its laser-etched with your name, and the Apple and the MasterCard logos. That’s it.
Contrast that with my current bank card, with worn, but still visible numbers. Your credit card numbers are fairly exposed. They sit there on a table as you wait for your card and bill to be collected at a restaurant or bar. If you credit card gets stolen, the thief has access to your numbers for much longer.
This sort of credit card theft is rare, but it can and does happened Apple keeps the numbers locked to the Wallet app in your iPhone.
The Wallet app also does a lot of simple financial tracking for you displaying a breakdown of your spending, in soothing pink and teal gradients and tying each purchase to its location in Apple Maps. It can supposedly make “financial health” recommendations for you and calculate various monthly payment options, while showing you how much interest each will result in over time. You can also text for help in iMessage (“You don’t have to wait on hold or remember your mother’s maiden name.”)
Most importantly, Apple boasts the card’s rewards program, which is called Daily Cash. “It’s cash, like real cash,” vice president of Apple Pay Jennifer Bailey explained. Apple Card-holders get 2 percent back on all purchases made with a digital card, and 3 percent back when they’re spending money in an Apple Store or on an Apple service. The card will be available this summer, though Apple didn’t say anything about who will be eligible for it. (Historically, cards with perks this good have required extremely high credit scores for approval.)
There is a physical Apple Card as well, which was introduced with a music video about spray-painting a titanium credit card and etching an Apple logo into it with a laser. It has no number and requires no signature; payments can only be validated through your iPhone (using Touch ID and Face ID), which makes it more like a totem of a credit card than an actual credit card. Oddly, using the physical card results in a penalty of sorts, as the cash back rate diminishes to 1 percent for those purchases. Presumably this will incentive making payments through your iPhone (and more people making payments through their iPhones means more businesses accepting Apple Pay).
Apple Card ideas
Daily Cash: I like this idea of up to 3% back on Apple purchases (from the Apple Store and also the App Store and iTunes), 2% back on all Apple Pay transactions, and 1% on everything else and it goes right in my Apple Cash account so I can spend it daily. There are other cards with as much as 5% cash back at their stores (Amazon is one), but it all depends on how much you shop at specific stores vs use Apple Pay.
Interest calculator: This is something I could have used when I was younger when I was care free and would have helped. It spells out how much interest you’d pay if you can’t pay everything on your card. It’s way more upfront with this information than I’ve experienced with other credit cards.
Payments due on the last day of the month: It’s not set for random a date you always forget, and the Wallet app has a payments daily countdown to your next bill. There are also push notifications. I feel like the credit card companies I’ve used in the past didn’t want me know this information.
No international or annual fees: My current credit card stings me every time I make a transaction during trips abroad even with a money card still get fees. The Apple Card doesn’t have fees – except for interest fees higher than the average but I am ok with this as I tend to clear my card each month.
Apple Maps location data: This tracks down where your Point of Sale happened. No more having to Google why you made a transaction.