At Apple’s “show time” services event today, it announced a new Apple Card credit card, promising to improve things about the credit card experience with simpler applications, no fees, lowering interest rates, and offering better rewards.
To get an Apple Card, users will be able to sign up on their phone in the Apple Wallet app and get a digital card that they can use anywhere Apple Pay is accepted “within minutes.” Customers will also be able to track purchases, check balances, and see when their bill is due right from the app. There will be a physical, titanium card too — but there’s no credit card number, CVV, expiration date, or signature, with all that authorization information stored directly in the Apple Wallet app.
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Apple also says that it’ll be using machine learning and Apple Maps together to help label stores that you use in the app, and use that data to track purchases across categories like “food and drink” or “shopping.”
Instead of a points-based reward program, Apple Card gives cash-back rewards in the form of “Daily Cash,” which is applied straight back toward your Apple Card to spend or put toward your purchases. Apple is offering a straight 2 percent cash back on purchases made through Apple Pay using an Apple Card, and purchases from Apple will get 3 percent back. Purchases made through the physical card will get just 1 percent cash back, though.
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As rumored, Apple is partnering with Goldman Sachs for Apple Card, with Mastercard handling payment processing. Additionally, the company is promising that there will be “no late fees, no annual fees, no international fees, and no over limit fees” with Apple Card — and “lower interest rates” with no penalties for missing payments, although it hasn’t said what those rates will be. (The company also notes that “late or missed payments will result in additional interest accumulating toward the customer’s balance.”)
Like many of Apple’s products, privacy is a big push here: “Apple doesn’t know what you bought, where you bought it, and how much you paid for it,” says Jennifer Bailey, VP of Apple Pay. All the spending tracking and other information is stored directly on the device, not Apple’s servers. The company also promises that “Goldman Sachs will never sell your data to third parties for marketing and advertising,” either.
Developing. Check out our “show time” Apple event live blog for the latest updates!