Apple’s Credit Card Will Be Released in August

[Tsing]

Echoing Bloomberg's report from last week, Tim Cook has confirmed that Apple's shiny new credit card will be debuting in August. It isn't clear when the card will be released in other countries, but those who are stateside will be able to sign up through the Wallet app next month.

Aside from interest charges (ranging from 13.4% to 24.4%), the Apple Card has no fees. It also forgoes standard reward schemes for a simpler cashback system dubbed "Daily Cash."

Users can get 3% cashback on any Apple purchases made with the Apple Card, 2% cashback on purchases made with Apple Pay, and 1% cashback with purchases made using the physical titanium credit card. Cashback is paid daily into the user’s Apple Cash account, which they can send to their bank, spend directly, or send to friends.

 

[Brian_B]

I think it has interesting security ideas... but the last thing I need is another credit card, no matter how neat it possibly is. And it has a pretty steep interest rate.

I can get many of the same security features just by using my current cards with Apple Pay.

 

[Niner51]

I think it has interesting security ideas... but the last thing I need is another credit card, no matter how neat it possibly is. And it has a pretty steep interest rate.

I can get many of the same security features just by using my current cards with Apple Pay.

I agree.

 

[Nanobot]

I like some of the features, but my iphone is just about dead and I'm not too keen on getting another one. As for the interest rate, I don't carry a balance so I could care less what they make it.

 

[Grimlakin]

So... Apple is getting into the financial company business. This credit card isn't a Visa, or MasterCard, or American Express sort of thing. Unless they have specific contracts with vendors they won't be usable at many places... Unless....

Unless they made it a part of using Apple Pay at Vendors. You want to use Apple Pay you have to accept the Apple Credit Card. With whatever % they elect to take from the vendor.

Has anyone seen information stating what that % will be?

 

[David_Schroth]

So... Apple is getting into the financial company business. This credit card isn't a Visa, or MasterCard, or American Express sort of thing. Unless they have specific contracts with vendors they won't be usable at many places... Unless....

Unless they made it a part of using Apple Pay at Vendors. You want to use Apple Pay you have to accept the Apple Credit Card. With whatever % they elect to take from the vendor.

Has anyone seen information stating what that % will be?

It has to be a Visa/MC sort of thing - that's why Goldman Sachs is involved. Apple can't just create its own payment rail this quickly - it's going to run on Visa or MC (or both or even Amex/Discover too - probably depending on a real time bid of lowest cost to them). They already put the technology for this to work into their trojan horse Apple Pay product, negotiated bigger percentages with merchants in exchange for taking on fraud risk, so now they can just run their card as another card on the same platform. The tokenization of card numbers is already happening with it. The retailer will pay the same to Apple for Apple's card or to any other card processed through Apple Pay (note this is a guess).

 

[Strelok]

I think it has interesting security ideas... but the last thing I need is another credit card, no matter how neat it possibly is. And it has a pretty steep interest rate.

I can get many of the same security features just by using my current cards with Apple Pay.

Why does interest rate matter? If you aren't paying off your card completely every month, you're doing it wrong.

 

[Brian_B]

Why does interest rate matter? If you aren't paying off your card completely every month, you're doing it wrong.

Despite my best intentions, it happens more often than I'd like to admit. And my current interest rate, while it's still a positive number, isn't so large that I'm terribly concerned about the amount I'm paying in interest... just the fact that occasionally I do end up paying interest is irksome.

Wife and kids certainly don't help, but if I'm honest most of it is me.

 

[Nanobot]

I have excellent credit and have held the same card for almost 22 years. I'm currently at 17.49%. At one time I was under 10%. But like I said, they could raise it to whatever the **** the greedy bastards want because they aren't getting a dime of interest out of me.

 

[Valve1138]

If you don't have the cash, don't buy it. Put it on a points earning card because points are kewl!

No seriously, I love our points cards, Amazon Visa, and Amex Platinum,.

Booked a couple flights on Jetblue with miles, then Amex credited back the $22 in airline fees. Free flights!

They payed for my drink on the plane one time too.