The Apple card is good for privacy … and not much else

Now we all know about Apple's marketing, which explains how its products will change everything. Yesterday, at the services event, the company presented the same credit card with its credit card with Goldman Sachs. But now that we have the facts, is it really worth it to get an Apple credit card? Eh.

Let's break it down. In terms of rewards, the Apple Card does not really stand out from the lot of cashback cards that already exist. It's because it's so linked to Apple's ecosystem. If you use Apple Pay, you get 2% back on all your purchases and 3% on Apple purchases. You will only recover one percent if you use the physical card itself. (Of course, Apple offers Apple Pay, and it would be foolish to insist on using the physical card in an Apple store.) Overall, two percent back is pretty standard for reward cards. Nothing mind blows, but also not horrible.

That said, its Apple Pay Centered features are the first hitch. While contactless payments are on the rise and a decent number of stores and apps are running on Apple Pay, this is not yet widespread. A Forrester survey commissioned by JP Morgan in 2017 found that only 16% of US consumers used a digital wallet and 36% of merchants accepted digital wallet payments. So, to get the most out of your rewards, you will have a much narrower use field of using this card. If you prefer to shop online or, say, your local bodega, you will be stuck with the benefit of a 1% refund … which is rather ridiculous.

But let's say that you are immersed in Apple products. Three percent back, say an iPhone XS at $ 1,000. You will only receive $ 30 in return. Yay? This is not really a huge incentive to buy a new gadget. Even watching the model of your monthly Apple rebate is either misleading or crafted by an elitist of the Silicon Valley candle. To get $ 46 in cash per month, at a rate of about 2%, you spend enough a little. Take the $ 15.87 Bloomingdale discount. Since it's not an Apple Pay partner, I guess that person bought his own products using a card. To recover as much, this fictional person would need to spend $ 1,587.

For the rest of us, poor masses piled up, the returns would probably be a lot, a lot less.

This does not mean that the card has no benefits. It's great, there are no fees: annual, late, overseas transactions, penalties or others. That said, Apple's wording on interest rates is somewhat misleading. It indicates that the goal is to provide among the "lowest rates in the sector", but offers rates ranging from 13.24% to 24.24% – again, quite average – based on the solvency.

Nevertheless, it is also convenient to get your money back on a daily basis. Most cards will make you wait for the balance to be refunded or the period of your statement ends. And it is useful that you can then use it to buy items via Apple Pay, reimburse friends via Messages, refund your balance or simply transfer it to your bank account. But apart from the last option, it is highly integrated with the Apple platform.

In addition, in terms of financial awareness, it is good that Apple has integrated machine learning to help you see where you tend to spend. But this raises at least some questions about the data. Apple claims that the card is a beast of privacy, with a special security chip that requires Face ID or Touch ID authorization, as well as a unique dynamic security code. But it is also said that Apple does not know where you shop, what you bought or how much you paid. It also states that Goldman Sachs will not share or sell your data to third parties for marketing and advertising purposes.

The question arises as to how machine learning and Apple Maps data can be color-coded so that you know what your expenses are, without ever knowing it at the same time. According to Apple, if location services are enabled, the place where you are when you make a purchase can be sent anonymously to Apple, but this information is not related to your Apple ID.

This commitment to privacy is a step in the right direction. Currently, credit cards and banks can do a lot with your transaction data, and consumers do not really have a say in the case until better legislation is passed.

In the end, however, this is not a card for everyone. It's so integrated with Apple's hardware and software that Android users have no interest in watching it. Not that much, you see. But if you are an Apple user who may have the idea of ​​switching to a Samsung phone, it is not really a card you want to use in the long run.

There are also a lot of cards out there with similar or better rewards, that do not You lock yourself into a technology platform or limit the areas in which you can shop to maximize the benefits. If you're just starting to create credit and look for a good starter card, that's it. (Perhaps, check one of these answers.) But what if you plan to open your second, third or fourth card? Hey, you could do better. You could also do a lot worse.