The Apple card has been available since August 2019, currently in the testing phase only in the United States. It is a credit card in partnership with Goldman Sachs and whose arrival on the market is causing some small emulation in the financial sector.
Intuitive and customizable application:
Firstly, the Apple Card is available in physical form but also in digital version. A very well thought out and very readable application is linked to it and allows you to track all your expenses. It is a direct competitor to Revolut, another very interesting card, especially for purchases in foreign currencies.
The latter are sorted by colors according to what they concern (entertainment, food, bills etc...) and you can see where you made these purchases thanks to Maps.
Thanks to its MasterCard chip, it is possible to make payments where ApplePay is not available.
Everything is secured by fingerprint and facial identification. You will also need to enter a one-time code for each purchase made on the internet.
Of course, the system is designed for an Apple environment and it is impossible to use the card without an iPhone running iOS 12.4 or higher.
Interesting advantages:
First, there are no activation or usage fees. If you exceed your limit (on credit) and are unable to repay on time, you will not be charged any late fees.
Be careful, this does not mean that you will not have interest on this late amount.
It simply means that you won't have to pay any additional fees when you pay off your overdraft.
Attractive Cash-Back:
Cash-back has been around for a while now. However, it is not yet very common around the globe. The Cash-back method consists of receiving an amount of money back in your account for each purchase made using the Apple Card.
With this card, you will receive back 1% of the amount spent when you make a purchase with the physical card, 2% when you make a purchase with the virtual card and 3% when making purchases on Apple platforms (iTunes, AppStore, Apple Store etc...). There is no daily CashBack limit.
However, cash-back is likely to be an unavailable feature for many countries if the Apple Card is launched internationally.
Indeed, it seems that Apple is dipping into the interchange fee reserves to pay out the Cash-back to its users.
As a reminder, the interchange rate is a kind of "commission" that the merchant's bank (the one selling a product or service) must pay to the customer's bank (the one buying) when a card purchase is made.
The problem is that in Switzerland, for example, the rate has been capped at 0.44% since 2017.
In reality, most European countries have a more or less low interchange rate of between 0.2% and 0.5%.
The bad sides of the card:
As for the card itself, it is made entirely of titanium and only the Apple and MasterCard logos and the name and surname of the cardholder are visible.
The Apple Card is a very sober and uncluttered card, as the chewy fruit brand wants.
However, according to testimonies, the fact that the card is made entirely of titanium leads to rather rapid discoloration when in contact with jeans or in a leather purse (soon an "Apple Card protection case" for $150?).
Choosing the Apple Card is like marrying Apple.
To give a concrete example, Apple is your wife and the card is your child, if you divorce and you go back to the side of Samsung or Huawei, Apple will keep the card (fortunately you won't pay alimony) and you won't be able to use it anymore.
How can I benefit from it?
Currently the card is only available in the US, but Goldman Sachs CEO Richard Gnodde announced: "The next step will be Europe. Germany first, then we plan for the UK after that."
Apple expected to make $50 billion in revenue for this service for the period 2020 (without anticipating the coronavirus pandemic which will probably affect consumption and the test phase of the card).
However, if the actual results are still up to par, we may see the map arrive in our regions sooner than expected.
In the meantime, the Revolut solution, which also offers cash-back, is available, free of charge when changing currencies and shopping abroad, and is available on all platforms.
If neither of these two options convinces you, or if you prefer to learn about more basic credit cards and payment methods at the top of technology, don't hesitate to check out this article.