Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com.
Today let's talk about Apple's newest piece of hardware, the Apple Card.
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So I've been using my Apple Card for about a week now.
I signed up for the early notification email, got that email, and then signed up for it.
Now it's available to anybody.
The way you get the Apple Card is you just use your iPhone.
You have to have the latest iOS, 12.4, and you go into the Wallet app and there request
an Apple Card.
I got to it by saying I wanted to add a new card to Apple Pay and one of the options there
was an Apple Card.
Then it walked me through the process which was really simple.
Probably the easiest way to signup for a credit card ever.
It already had my name and address and just asked me to confirm those things.
I entered the last four digits of my Social and then I gave Goldman Sachs an estimate
of how much I make per year.
That was pretty much it.
After that it gave me a screen that showed my rate, and my limit.
If I wanted to accept that then, pretty much immediately, I had the Apple Card.
At least the digital version on my iPhone.
In fact less than a hour later I went out to lunch and I was able to use Apple Pay at
one of my favorite restaurants and I used the Apple Card as my Apple Pay source.
So not only did the payment go smoothly but I got 2% cash back.
So that's the main benefit of the Apple Card is you get a base 1% cash back but you get
2% if you use Apple Pay and 3% if you're at the Apple Store and some other places.
Apple added Uber here at the last minute as a 3% retailer and they may add more.
So using the Apple Card with Apple Pay is just like using Apple Pay before.
It's just another payment source in Apple Pay.
You can also use the Apple Card as a regular credit card.
So I was able to go into the app and there's a place there where you can get your number.
Your credit card number for the Apple Card and I was able to enter that into, say, Amazon
and use that as a regular MasterCard on Amazon.
For that I was only getting 1% cash, but that was what I got on my credit card before.
What's cool is the advance functionality inside of the Wallet app.
For instance, I can request a new card number.
So if I think that number has been compromised I can just do that within the app and get
a new number.
I don't have to call anybody or anything.
You also can contact Support inside the app and you can see all your purchases and they
appear immediately.
They don't appear as some cryptic, you know, eight character little code.
You can actually see the name of the business.
It grabs the logo for the business if it can find it.
You see a location.
Everything.
So it's really easy to keep track of your purchases in there.
This is also where you can go for support.
You get support through messaging in here.
You can pay the card off in here as well.
You get this little circle interface where you can choose how much to pay.
You can pay on time or pay early.
You can pay multiple times during the month.
You can use that to basically bring your amount of interest you're paying down if you're carrying
a balance.
You can also do security things like lock the card here in the app.
Then there's the physical card.
A week later I got the physical card which is metal, made out of titanium.
It's really interesting because it has my name on it and that's it.
The Apple logo, Goldman Sachs, MasterCard.
It's got the chip there.
It's got the strip to swipe.
But there's really no identifying information beyond my name on the card.
So there's no number on it.
There's no place for a signature.
There's no pin.
So I was a little nervous the first time I used this.
I purposely went to a restaurant that I know not only doesn't take Apple Pay but they don't
even have a chip reader.
They still swipe cards.
The cashier looked at the card.
Actually did look for the signature for a second but didn't say anything when she didn't
see it.
She went ahead, swiped it and I didn't have a problem.
I was a little nervous about this because every once in awhile I still get somebody
examining my card closely, looking at my signature, asking to see my ID and what's going to happen
when they get this card and there's not even a signature for them to compare it to.
They're supposed to not need it anymore.
That changed last year but some places are a little bit behind the times.
So I'm definitely still carrying a second credit card with me whenever I go out because
I don't want to end up washing dishes somewhere.
But I would bet that I probably don't run into this situation.
I'll have to see how it goes over the next few months.
Now you're going to be getting a lot of bloggers and YouTubers talking about the financials
behind the Apple Card.
They're going to compare it to their favorite credit card.
They always seem to have a favorite and how that one has more benefits and more extras
and things like that.
I like the idea that there's really just cash back.
You get that percentage cash back on each purchase.
You get it the next day so you don't have to wait a month.
It's just there in your Apple Pay cash to use for paying for other things.
Usually I find that all the benefits and points and all that stuff that you get it doesn't
pay as well as just getting cash.
So for my other cards I always end up just converting the points to cash anyway.
Now some cards offer things like purchase warranties, they offer special, like, travel
sites or shopping sites.
Things like that.
You don't have any of that with the Apple Card but we'll have to see what happens a
year or two from now after the initial group of signups and Apple maybe wants to get more
people on the card.
Just the same there's a lot of people that just don't use that stuff.
Maybe keeping it simple and just offering cash back and good customer service might
be all that's really needed for a decent credit card.
Let me know if you have any questions about the Apple Card.
I'll be using it as much as I can for the next few months and I'm sure to get a lot
of good information about how well this card works and how it compares to my other cards.