After a number of huge announcements, Apple has also announced that they will be releasing a credit card this summer.
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, lower interest rates, and better rewards.
To get an Apple Card, you will have to sign up on their iPhone in the Apple Wallet app and get a digital card that they can use anywhere using Apple Pay. By all accounts you will be accepted “within minutes.” Within the wallet app, you’ll also be able to track purchases, check balances, and see when your bill is due right from the app. Most excitingly, Apple have designed a slick off-white physical titanium credit card, that has no credit card number, CVV, expiration date, or signature. All of that authorisation information will be stored directly in the Apple Wallet app.
Instead of a points based reward program, the Apple Card gives cash back rewards in the form of Daily Cash, which is applied straight to your Apple Card to spend or put toward your purchases. Apple is offering 2 percent cash back on purchases made through Apple Pay using an Apple Card, and purchases from Apple will get 3 percent cash back. But purchases made through the physical card will get just 1 percent cash back.
As with other Apple products, privacy is one of the main things considered during the development of the product. “Apple doesn’t know what you bought, where you bought it, and how much you paid for it,” said Jennifer Bailey, VP of Apple Pay. All of the spending tracking and other information is stored on your device, not Apple’s servers. They also say that “Goldman Sachs will never sell your data to third parties for marketing and advertising.”
I’m personally very excited for the Apple Card, but in a weird way, everything seems to good to be true. I guess we’ll just have to see what the future holds, but if this card is commercially successful it has the possibility to pave the way and set the standard for future credit cards worldwide.
