Apple Card got its first group of public test users today. A limited number of customers who signed up on Apple's website to be notified about the release of Apple Card are now able to apply for the card in their Wallet app as well as order a physical Apple Card (via TechCrunch).
Sign-up invites for Apple Card Preview are going out to a random selection of people who signed up to be notified about Apple Card. Apple hasn't disclosed exactly how many people are part of its preview rollout, but a full rollout of Apple Card is expected later this month.
The Apple Card signup process on iPhone asks for your address, birthday, income level, and the last four digits of your Social Security number. This information is sent to Goldman Sachs, which approves or declines the application in less than a minute. Once the card is approved it shows up immediately in the Wallet app.
TechCrunch's Matthew Panzarino, who has been using Apple Card for a few days, called the card's app interface "multiples better to use than most card apps," thanks to spending categories and clear transaction names (including logos in some cases).
The card on the screen has a clever mechanism that gives you a sort of live heat map of your spending categories. The color of the card will shift and blend according to the kinds of things you buy. Spend a lot at restaurants and the card will take on an orange hue. Shop for entertainment related items and the card shifts into a mix of orange and pink. It's a clever take on the chart based spending category features many other credit cards have built into their websites.
The Verge's Nilay Patel also received a physical titanium card early and had this to say about it.
"I got to hold the card itself and it is very nice, although it is fairly thick and felt a little bit heavier than the typical metal credit card. You can use the card without your phone nearby like any other card, but it doesn’t support contactless payments — Apple obviously wants you to use your phone or watch for that."
Apple Card is limited to the United States at the current time, but may expand to additional countries in the near future. Apple is already in talks with European regulators, and has trademarked Apple Card in Europe, Hong Kong, and Canada.
Apple Card is a no fee credit card. There are no annual fees, international fees, fees for making a late payment, or fees for exceeding your credit limit, which means there are no penalty rates for missing a payment.
As part of its Apple Card Preview, Apple has also shared a series of videos via its YouTube channel explaining how to set up and use Apple Card on iPhone.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said last Tuesday that the Apple Card will launch in August, so the full rollout could be coming any day now. Goldman Sachs last week made its Customer Agreement available providing more detail on the Apple Card. For questions about how everything will work, make sure to check out our Apple Card guide.
Top Rated Comments
so why the hell are you beating it into us? people like myself, dont give a rats @$$ about that. i'm not one of those credit card owners that does all this research to find the credit card that gives me THE MOST cashback or the most miles evar! i'm pretty simple, i have a credit score over 800, and i love my apple ecosystem. I already have a credit card with my bank, i have a great high credit limit with them since i've had the card since 2001. Will i be closing that card for the apple card? hell no. even with my great credit score, they aren't going to give me the same credit limit that i have with my bank.
this card is getting so much hate from the 'credit card god users' out here and for what? how are you benefiting from said attacks on the apple card? this card will be used by many, this card will be appreciated by many, this card will help many with their credit. just like your cards did for you. so why are you crying over who gets this card?
this card has been bashed so hard by so many on youtube and on here, but really, when you think about it this a perfect starter card. for who? i'm so glad you asked. those entering college! because teens are dumb pricks who dont understand how a credit card works even AFTER you explain it to them. they are trying to maintain a social life whilst learning how to maneuver around college and learn how to balance their credit. with all that, you know they'll be late with making payments and look at that, no late fees! college students who own an iphone should and probably will be eating up this card if they know about all the bonuses they will be getting.
the extras that draw college students, or heck, even high school students whose parents want them to learn and build credit are huge. no late fees, for the average white guy, which i'm sure they must come from money right? so they travel a lot with their fam, boom! no foreign transaction fees. another bonus when they decide to go to a family vacay to europe or south africa or japan. dem white boys, so rich >.>
but those perks also interest people like me, i've been traveling a lot more. i've been to Japan and Canada in about a years time and i'm returning back to japan this upcoming february. so the apple card will be used heavily there for me. no foreign transaction fees! mind you, my banks credit card already gave me that, so why is apple card better in this reguard? well because i get same day cash back for every single time i use apple pay. another perk for people like me, and for the teens in high school and college. sure it's cents, pennies. but that balance remains in your apple cash wallet. with it there you can send it to friends whom you owe money to, or you can transfer that balance to your bank account or help pay a little bit of your credit card balance. with ease!
the other bonus i just thought up of is how to pay the card. say your a citibank user, you have a citibank checking account, but you have a bank of america credit card, because you like their perks (i know it doesn't make sense but just listen). how do you typically pay your bank of america credit card with your citibank checking account? well you have to set it up via billpay right? enter the routing and checking number on your credit card payment section, twice, enter your name, confirm it all etc. well with apple card, those steps are pretty much done for you if you've been using apple cash for some time now. why? it already has your checking account info, so when you pay your apple card balance, you just choose your bank account to transfer funds from when you pay. theres a video on it at apple's youtube page and that is so much easier to pay the card off.
i could probably keep going a bit more but i'll stop here. this is why we want the card. hearing you guys keep throwing in our faces how citi or chase are better for rewards, is kinda dumb and annoying. we dont really care about those things too much. we love the daily cashback, the ease of making payments, the fact that we can see how much interest is being paid when we select how much we want to pay each week or each month, the security of the card having no credit card numbers on the back of the physical card, the disposable credit card numbers we can generate at will, the integration of apple maps with where we made said purchases, etc. this is why we want the apple card, so please, shut the front door already about how your card is better. your just annoying as frak.
jesus.
signed,
by everyone who doesn't care about YOUR card.
**EDIT**
Screenshot for proof.
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Dear mother,
It's our third day without receiving an AppleCard invite. Spirits are growing weaker by the hour. We are rationing our other card balances, and despite our best efforts of clicking links and random plus signs, the card remains just out of reach. Amy is doing her best to decrease her debt to income ratio, and she sends her regards.
Hope all is well with your Amazon Prime rewards card,
Michael
When you break it down, it's not that hard to see why.
First and foremost, it's a new Apple product- and remember which site you're on. We're some of the most diehard Apple fans here, and anything new from Apple is guaranteed to generate buzz and excitement.
The way Apple has marketed the card also has an aura of "fun" about it. Take a look at the page on Apple.com and see how it breaks down using an Apple card and analyzing your finances. They advertise it just like they would an iPhone or iPad. Say what you will about the card, but they did give it that "Apple feel".
The security and convenience of this thing is also a big plus. Apple is known for simplifying complex things so that you don't really have to think about it, and even the least tech-savvy users can enjoy it. That's no different here. Everything is built right into the iPhone, you've got color-coordinated spending charts, transactions spelled out clearly instead of those confusing statement codes, exact locations of where the card was used right in Maps, and that little wheel that lets you choose how much you pay and tells you exactly how much interest, if any, will be owed. It's extremely user-friendly, and people trust Apple. For some, I'm sure getting a credit card from Apple 'feels better' than getting one from a bank or directly from a CC company.
If you're an avid Apple shopper or Apple Pay user, the rewards also make sense. It's got 1% cashback on everything which is pretty standard, but doubling that for Apple Pay uses is a huge plus- especially now that NFC terminals are finally prevalent here in the US. This is big for me personally because I now use Apple Pay at over 90% of the places I shop. For me, the 2% cash-back will essentially be standard which is already a bigger gain than my current cards. Then you factor in the 3% when you shop with Apple directly. This is also huge for some because again, we're Apple diehards and already shop quite a bit with them. Plus, it applies to iTunes, the App Store, and in-app purchases. I have a Discover card which offered 5% cashback at Apple.com... but iPhones, iPads, Macs, Beats headphones... just about anything that wasn't a simple accessory- was excluded. There may be better reward cards out there but for a lot of us, this combined with the "instant" cashback is a huge deal.
And lastly, the titanium card is a pretty appealing part of the deal too. Sure, it's gimmicky, but seeing as how metal cards are fairly rare, (apparently I’m in the minority as people keep pointing out how common metal credit cards are. But I digress) this is just one more way to make the Apple Card feel unique and have that Apple-premium quality to it.