No, You Shouldn’t Get An Apple Card, Why Do You Ask?

54
DDMS IconNever Miss Another Deal - Follow DansDeals on Facebook

DansDeals will receive compensation if you are approved for a credit card via a link in this post. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers, visit americanexpress.com to learn more.

Update: DEAD! Don’t miss it if this becomes alive again. Sign up for deal notification alerts here!


Update: Apple is advising not to keep the card in a leather wallet. You can’t make this stuff up 😀


Several readers have emailed and asked me if they should get the new Apple card. A commenter and a DDF member posed the question as well.

In short, the card offers no annual fee, 1% cash back when you use the card, 2% when you pay with Apple Pay, and 3% cash back on Apple Store/iTunes purchases and Uber.

There are other gimmicks. You get the cash back every day in your Apple wallet, but that doesn’t add much real value over waiting for your statement to close to get cash back on other cards. There are no late fees, but that’s something that you should never pay as you should have all of your credit cards set to autopay. Of course you’ll still pay interest, which is their real incentive in waiving late fees. Plus, as it’s a consumer card carrying a balance will hurt your credit score.

There is a hard pull to get the card, but there is no signup bonus.

There are much better options out there.

If you want cash back with no annual fee, you can get the Citi Double Cash® Card. That gives 2% cashback everywhere, not just where you use Apple Pay. That card also has no signup bonus, but it does offer 18 months of 0% interest on balance transfers.

If you want a no annual fee business card, the American Express® Blue Business Cash Card offers 2% back everywhere, though that is capped at $50,000 in annual spending. Personally I prefer The Blue Business℠ Plus Credit Card from American Express. It’s basically the same card offering, but it earns points instead of cash back. It too has no annual fee and earns 2 points per dollar on up to $50,000 of spending per calendar year. As I value AMEX points at about 1.5 cents each, that makes it 50% more valuable than the cash card and means you’ll effectively get 3% back everywhere.

If you’re looking for cash back and a signup bonus to boot, the Capital One® Spark® Cash for Business offers $500 cash back for spending $4,500 in 3 months and offers 2% cash back everywhere. That card has a $95 annual fee, though it’s waived for the first year. There are no foreign transaction fees. You can also convert the cash back into miles if you have the Capital One® Spark® Miles for Business.

But what about 3% back on Uber?

You can do better than that too.

The Chase Ink Business Cash Card offers 5% cash back on $25K in annual telecom, internet, and office supply purchases. It also offers 12 months of 0% interest on purchases. Read more about this card here. You can buy Uber/UberEats gift cards from Staples and get 5 Chase points per dollar, which you can redeem for 5% cash back. Or you can transfer those points to a card (belonging to you or an authorized user) like Chase Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card® Card or Chase Ink Business Preferred where 5 points will be worth 6.25% towards travel or the  Chase Sapphire Reserve® card where 5 points will be worth 7.5% towards travel. Those 3 cards also allow you to transfer points into airline miles and hotel points where 5 points can be worth substantially more than 7.5%!

Amazon typically offers substantial discounts on Apple products. You can also purchase Amazon gift cards from Staples, Office Max, or Office Depot and earn 5 Chase points per dollar spent when using your Chase Ink Business Cash Card.

There are dozens of other stores where you can also earn 5 points per dollar.

The Chase Freedom Unlimited® card has no annual fee, offers $150 in the form of 15K points for spending $500 in 3 months, and earns 1.5 points per dollar everywhere. You can use that for cash back at 1 cent per point, or you can increase the cashback from 1.5 cents per dollar to 2.25 cents or more per dollar on travel by also having a Chase Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card® Card, Chase Ink Business Preferred, or Chase Sapphire Reserve® card.

If you want that card with a bigger signup bonus, the Chase Ink Business Unlimited Card has no annual fee, offers $500 in the form of 50K points for spending $3,000 in 3 months, and 1.5 points per dollar everywhere. Once again, you can use that for cash back at 1 cent per point, or you can increase the cashback from 1.5 cents per dollar to 2.25 cents or more per dollar for travel by also having a Chase Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card® Card, Chase Ink Business Preferred, or Chase Sapphire Reserve® card.

Do you plan on getting the new Apple card?

Leave a Reply

54 Comments On "No, You Shouldn’t Get An Apple Card, Why Do You Ask?"

All opinions expressed below are user generated and the opinions aren’t provided, reviewed or endorsed by any advertiser or DansDeals.

J

Yes!

Gittel

Love these posts. Will need some time to read it thru thoroughly. Thanks Dan.

AC

But it looks nice! And its apple!
Gotta get it!

ktc

right gotta have it!
(good thing I don’t have a single piece of stuff from that company)

Eli

“but that’s something that you should never pay as you should have all of your credit cards set to autopay”
I find it that when signed up for autopay, I never review the statement, at least when doing the payment myself, I run over the statement first.

Reuven

This was quite useful. Thank you.

Carded by Apple

This posted just after I applied for the Apple Card. Ugh, the timing.

J

same here, lol

AK770

If Apple offers you a better WAY to pay, look into it. If they’re just looking to jump in the CC game, avoid them. It’s not their specialty.

Peretz770

I may be a lone dissenter but I love the Apple Card. The convenience of it being in the wallet app (so you don’t have to log into your cc’s individual app), the speed of cash back availability, and encouragement of the use of Apple Pay (which I never used before I got the card), plus they’re going to add more companies to the 3% deal, is why I love this card. It’s way more user friendly and convenient than any other card I’ve ever had.

lindnuck

I have an Amex and a Chase in my wallet app, and I use those to source Apple Pay. I don’t have to log into anything, it releases them with Face ID.

Annoyed

The most annoying part about the Apple Card is that it will not link up to third party software such as mint or YNAB which is a deal breaker for me

Bob dole

The Fidelity Visa has no annual fee and 2% cash back, which are deposited directly into your Fidelity account. Not too sure about the other perks.

Ejb

Where do they advise you not to keep in leaner wallet? I just see message that leather may cause discoloration.

JJ

Who said leaner?

3li

I prefer a fat wallet anyway.
And of course all Apple Fanboys & Fangirls will hate to see their new slick card look discolored… appearance (and being seen as hip & cool) are all that matters for the Apple crowd.

Eli Cohen

What’s your thought of the citi DC vs PayPal Mastercard, from what I know citi is slashing benefits, but the PayPal card also has problems with dealing with synchrony.

Applepie

I have had the PayPal MasterCard for two years now, and have never had any issues with synchrony. I just took the card to Israel for well over a month, and rarely had to use cash, as my card was accepted everywhere cards were accepted, with no fees whatsoever. Plus, it’s got 2% back. Great card overall.

SBL

The paypal card has 2 options when payment is due, 2nd of month or 16th. That can be limiting depending on your situation.

Applepie

I did not know that. The one serious con I do know it has, is that there is no app, and you have to go through PayPal/Synchrony’s website to pay it off.

Michael

Another cool looking plastic that doesn’t really compete with the credit card cashback offers, uber 3%? really, i use lyft and i save instantly 5%

Mikey

Lyft doesn’t give me 5% savings. (Uber does).
How do you get “save instant 5%” with Lyft ?

AK770

If not a leather wallet does this mean Apple is coming out w/ their own proprietary wallet? 🙂

yair

it won’t be a wallet. It’ll be a $20 adapter for your current wallet.

Daniele

@yair . . .

Mark

Me, to my son: Should I get an Apple Card?

My son to me: Do you want Apple to track your every move even more than they already do?

He’s a smart kid.

yuneeq

Apple is by far the best tech company when it comes to privacy and protecting user data. But regardless, listen to Dan, this card is not useful.

Jay jay

I’m gonna wait for the Apple Card 2 😉

yair

So it’s more expensive, has less features, and breaks easily, but it’s shiny and white (or “space white” or some nonsense like that). Like everything else apple makes, evidently.

Sam

I’m looking for an airline card, which is the better card- Alaska’s or the Chase United explorer? or something else? Thank you!

Yossi

it may be worth for people with subprime credit as they seem to approve even with a 600 score

Mike

Of course you should get the Apple Card. I got it last week, best ninja throwing star ever!

vague

For the record, there is no hard pull unless you accept the “offer” for the card at the end of the application and actually open the account. The application itself is a soft pull.

DanFan

“Apple is advising against keeping your Apple Card in a leather wallet”

Is Apple worried if it goes into your wallet it may become one of the cards, and not be your go to card for your everything and anything shopping??

Applefan

I applied because it’s titanium. No plans to use it.

promo

Millions will sign up cuz it’s apple.

I think they will make promos for cardholders. Like the BR luxe card. Those that got it early have it for life.

Jacob

Honestly I love all the hating on apple. I tend to find that all the people who hate on it have never tried it, or are just jealous that they cannot afford premium products. #TOP1%

Steve Klein

The claim that “Apple is advising not to keep the card in a leather wallet” is patently untrue.

Here’s a link to Apple’s statement on the issue: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210399

You’ll note that it doesn’t say not to keep the card in a leather wallet. It simply warns users that some fabrics, “like leather and denim,” can cause discoloration. This is true for ANY card made of titanium, whether or not the card has an Apple logo.

If you don’t care about the staining, then it doesn’t matter how you store it.

Of course, if Apple hadn’t issued that warning, then the press (and Apple haters) would have a field day when people started whining about their discolored titanium cards.

So Apple is simply trying to forestall the whining.

Great perk

But which other card has 2% cash back with no af and no foreign transaction ??? As someone who travels often this is a great default card to use when Im not trying to hit a spend threshold

wpDiscuz