Apple Card

Apple Card is a payments experience first and a rewards card second. The application takes a minute inside the Wallet app, spending categorizes itself, Daily Cash arrives the day after a purchase rather than at the end of a statement cycle, and the fee schedule is genuinely empty: no annual fee, no foreign transaction fee and no late fees. Goldman Sachs issues it today, with a transition to Chase underway, and it runs on Mastercard. Approval targets good credit, roughly 670 or higher, though underwriting has historically been more accommodating than that number suggests. Earning depends entirely on how you pay. You get 3% at Apple and at a set list of partner merchants when you use Apple Pay, 2% on all other Apple Pay purchases, and 1% when you use the physical titanium card. That last tier is where the card quietly underperforms. Every merchant that does not accept Apple Pay turns a 2% card into a 1% card, and there is no way to recover the difference afterward. A household that pays with the phone nearly everywhere does well here. One that regularly hands over a piece of plastic is earning half of what a flat 2% cash back card would pay on the same spending. There is nothing to earn back, which makes this an easy card to hold indefinitely, and that is a genuine part of its value, since an old free account keeps supporting your average account age. The offset is that there is no standing welcome bonus, only periodic targeted offers, while competing no-fee cards routinely pay a few hundred dollars for modest spending. For a light spender, one skipped bonus can outweigh a year of rate differences. The regular APR is 17.49% to 27.74% variable. Apple presents interest more clearly than most issuers, with a payment wheel showing what paying less will cost you, but clear presentation does not make the rate cheap. Skip it if you are on Android, since the card cannot be used the way it was designed. Skip it if you are optimizing rewards, because flat 2% cards pay more on non-Apple Pay spending and points cards can be worth more when redeemed carefully. Skip it if you want transferable points, travel benefits or a large signup bonus, none of which exist here. The pending move from Goldman Sachs to Chase is one more reason to check current terms at application, since a change of issuer can bring changes to pricing and features. It fits an iPhone-first household that pays in full, values zero fees and same-day cash back, and does not mind leaving some rewards on the table in exchange for a cleaner experience.