your invitation to get early access to Apple Card you wanted to be one of the
first to get Apple Card a new kind of credit card created by Apple not a bank
actually shouldn't that be created by Apple and a bank but we're not gonna do
that I think that we can do better by maximizing our earn via the Sapphire
Freedom duo for the sake of this video I'm not even going to use my personal
valuation of Ultimate Rewards which currently stands at two point one nine
cents per point instead I'll undervalue and claim they're only worth one cent
each this is the rate one receives if one elects to convert points to cash or
statement credits before talking chase let's run over the Apple Card basics
we've got a current signup bonus of $0 which is pretty lame one will further
earn 3% cashback on Apple purchases a just announced 3% on uber two on all
transactions made via Apple Pay and one on everything else
these earn categories lead us to a question that friends and family members
always ask when they hear I play the points in miles game so what kind of
credit card should I get my answer to this is always the same
good question give me a percentage breakdown of your previous full year's
spend by category and whether or not you anticipate any spending pattern changes
they usually look confused I look smug it's a bad time all around
the point being there is no universal answer it's kind of like asking what
kind of vehicle to get with no other information do you have a family to haul
do you need to haul things do you want to wear a bag over your head for fear of
being seen in your truck the point being is that our personal requirements
the decision as it pertains to the Apple Card one person could claim the earn
rate is great while another could claim is terrible and they both be correct it
just depends on your spend do you spend $20,000 per year on Apple products if
yes then this card makes sense do you spend 20,000 a year on overseas travel
if yes then the Sapphire Preferred is the better option taking a look at the
Apple Card's terms and conditions and we see some pretty standard stuff an APR of
twelve point nine nine to twenty three point nine nine percent a 28-day grace
period and most excellently no fees I'm assuming this includes foreign
transaction ones but would like to see that explicitly stated somewhere like
everything Apple they're going for simplicity here it appears to be an
Apple Wallet based virtual card first and a titanium physical one second
so it looks nice appear simple to use and has a totally respectable earn rate
not too bad representing Chase we've got the Sapphire Preferred and we'll be
matching it to the Freedom Unlimited before getting into the raw numbers
let's talk about why we picked these two cards the Chase Sapphire Preferred many
players have lost their points and miles of virginity to this piece of plastic
this card is included because it provides one access to Chase's
outstanding Ultimate Rewards program and provides a nice everyday bonus on travel
and dining what's more Chase's definition of travel is broad everything
from Ubers trains airfare hotels it's all included and it's a worldwide bonus
category finally use of this card overseas won't trigger any obnoxious
foreign transaction fees I chose the $95 Sapphire Preferred over the $450
Sapphire Reserve because I'm assuming those looking at the fee-free Apple card
have no interest in the premium credit card market
even though I could make a value case for the more expensive option the chase
Freedom Unlimited is used for everything else it earns a flat 1.5 percent on all
purchases now I get it managing even two cards might come
across as cumbersome especially for those who value the Apple Card for its
simplicity but it's really not that hard and once you learn the basics it becomes
second nature the basic rules are if we're outside of the country or paying
for travel or dining we're using our Sapphire Preferred for everything else
we use our freedom unlimited learning the points in miles game is a bit like
when you're first learning to drive a car as someone who's presumably been
doing it for some time it's probably all muscle memory by now but when you were
15 or 16 there were a ton of things to learn how to manipulate the clutch who
has the right-of-way what do all the signs mean what's the proper signal
distance but once it becomes part of your daily routine you don't think about
it any longer and that's really how the points in miles game is played easy
right so like I've done before I want to show
you guys some real-world numbers and what kind of earning we can expect when
using either option I'm going to use my personal 2018 fully your spending
patterns and apply those percentages to a hypothetical twenty thousand dollars
annually this time around it gets a little tricky
because I don't have good data surrounding Apple pay usage rates to
fill in for this gap the number 65 comes into play this is the percentage of US
retailers which currently accept phone based payments at least according to a
January 2019 Apple press release accordingly I'll use that as the number
of merchants who would have earned apples cards two points per dollar had I
really been trying to put this another way we're going to say that the Apple
card earns one point six five cents per dollar on everyday purchases with these
assumptions in mind let's look at the results
we have a gross urn of 330 2.26 cents on the Apple card and 314 dollars to cents
for the Chase Sapphire freedom duo so for some people this may be enough to
call it the new card from Apple beats the duo from Chase when just looking at
earn from every day spend however I think it's a bit more complicated I know
I said earlier that I'd limit the value of an ultimate reward to its cashback
value just one cent but what what if we were to get a little crazy and
acknowledge the fact the chase allows Sapphire Preferred card holders to
redeem for 1.25 cents per point via the Expedia power ultimate rewards travel
portal our new earnings looks something like this we're still looking at three
hundred thirty two dollars in value from the Apple card and three hundred ninety
two dollars from the chase duo because there are so many valuables I created a
little calculator which does a bit of the work for you it's available on my
website it's still a beta test so I would appreciate any feedback link is
below I plan on rolling them out for future
comparisons as well anywho you'll be able to input annual spend and adjust
for any potential bonus purchasing you'll also be able to vary the value of
an ultimate reward to whatever you think is appropriate so yeah let me know what
you think moving on from return on spend let's talk purchase protection the Apple
card is lacking in both execution and information here Apple's website doesn't
mention the topic neither does the Terms of Service
the only data I could find it comes from the cards payment processor Master Card
it looks about as bare-bones as one could imagine we've got some basic
liability protection some ID theft coverage a shop runner membership and
some other dumb things like priceless cities and golf that will most likely go
unused overall a big disappointment quite oppositely the Chase Sapphire
freedom duo has some of the best card benefits
available ten thousand dollars per person trip interruption coverage a
primary rental car collision damage waiver baggage delay insurance $500 per
trip delay coverage $500 per claim purchase protection and warranty
extensions of one year in other words when it comes to card provided peace of
mind the Apple card doesn't even feel like it's playing in the same league as
the Chase Sapphire freedom duo now before we start wrapping things up let's
look at net year one value the chase setup is going to come with some annual
fees but we'll make up for that with signup bonuses the Apple card has
neither which I suppose is both good and bad the Sapphire Preferred is currently
offering 60,000 ultimate rewards for a kind of high four thousand dollar
minimum spend the chase freedom unlimited is offering three points per
dollar on the first twenty thousand dollars and here we go
we've got an intro bonus of zero dollars on the Apple card and $600 from the
Sapphire Preferred the year one return on spend is the previously mentioned
three hundred thirty two dollars on the Apple card and five hundred sixty
dollars on the duo the latter's increase is due to the
freedom Unlimited's year one three point per dollar sign up bonus I'm assigning a
value of $0 to the Apple carts purchase protection or lack thereof and $50 to
the sapphire duo it's a bit arbitrary but more than anything I wanted to just
acknowledge how much better it is the cost of the cards is next zero dollars
for the Apple card and ninety five dollars for the Sapphire Preferred okay
dear one is a blowout the Chase Sapphire freedom duo beats the Apple card by
seven hundred eighty two dollars to be honest this isn't all unexpected
that's what signup bonuses will do they massively skew year one net evaluations
also keep in mind this is with an undervalue of Ultimate Rewards
I personally pegged them at two point one nine cents per point at that
valuation level instead of beating the Apple card by seven hundred eighty two
dollars chase wins by two thousand one hundred
sixty three this is like the major leagues versus Little League it's not
even close moving on to year two and things even
out with intro bonus is gone and ultimate rewards valued at one cent each
the Apple card wins by sixty three dollars so final thoughts I like the
Apple card but it's not for me it's got some great features from everything I
read Apple is trying to make keeping track of spending as easy as looking
through some I messages for some there might be a lot of value in this Apple
also makes earnings available immediately via daily cash I like that
but feel it's more of a novelty than a decision altering feature furthermore I
really like the fact that help is just an SMS away I really wish chase would do
that when it comes to second year earnings and cash out valuations of
ultimate rewards the Apple card does very well beating the chase duo but to
get to that point we had to drop the value of chase points below what I
believe they're worth in the end the Apple card versus the Chase Sapphire
freedom duo is a bit like the old Mac versus Windows to date you might get
more for your money with the Microsoft based platform but the Mac and its iOS
integration sure makes life easy and that's exactly who I think the apple
cart is great for people who just say look I want a card that doesn't screw me
over earnings wise and that I don't even have
to think about the points game does take some work and for people like me who
play it can be kind of fun but others might have different priorities for me
I'm sticking with Chase but I definitely won't be rolling my eyes at anyone
breaking they're Apple card