Pros
- No membership fees
- 0% intro APR on purchases
- High rewards rate
- No foreign fee
Cons
- No initial rewards bonus
- No balance transfers allowed
- High regular APR
- Requires good/excellent credit
Apple Card
- Every time customers use Apple Card with Apple Pay, they will receive 2% Daily Cash.
- Customers will also get 3% Daily Cash on all purchases made directly with Apple, including at Apple Stores, on the App Store and for Apple services. You also get 3% cash back on purchases you make at select merchants like Exxon, T-Mobile, Nike, Uber and more.
- Apple has also designed a titanium Apple Card for shopping at locations where Apple Pay is not accepted yet. For purchases made with the titanium Apple Card, customers will get 1% Daily Cash.
Rewards Details
- Every time customers use Apple Card with Apple Pay, they will receive 2% Daily Cash.
- Customers will also get 3% Daily Cash on all purchases made directly with Apple, including at Apple Stores, on the App Store and for Apple services. You also get 3% cash back on purchases you make at select merchants like Exxon, T-Mobile, Nike, Uber and more.
- Apple has also designed a titanium Apple Card for shopping at locations where Apple Pay is not accepted yet. For purchases made with the titanium Apple Card, customers will get 1% Daily Cash.
Additional Info
- Apple Card gives customers easy-to-understand, real-time views of their latest transactions and balance right in Wallet, and Apple Card support is available 24/7 by simply sending a text from Messages.
- Equal Monthly Payment Financing: 0% APR for 6, 12 or 24 months on qualifying Apple purchases.
- More Details & Reviews About Apple Card
Is the Apple Card Worth It?
The Apple Card is worth it for frequent Apple customers who use Apple Pay for purchases and have at least good credit. The card gives bonus rewards when shopping directly with Apple and select other merchants, as well as when using the card through Apple Pay, but it has lackluster rewards on other purchases.
The Apple Card has a $0 annual fee and provides some interest-free financing opportunities on qualifying Apple purchases. Its regular APR can be quite high, however.
What You Need to Do to Make the Apple Card Worthwhile
To make the Apple Card worthwhile, you should strive to pay for your purchases in full every month because the card has a 19.24% - 29.49% (V) APR, which can eat into your savings from rewards if you carry a balance. The exception is during the introductory period of 0% for 6 - 24 months on qualifying Apple purchases that you pay for using Apple Card Monthly Installments. This lets you pay off Apple purchases over time with equal monthly payments and no interest added.
Since the card has a $0 annual fee and no initial bonus, there aren’t any spending requirements you need to meet to make it worthwhile. Just keep in mind that the Apple Card is not the best everyday credit card for the average person. As popular as the Apple brand is, having rewards so dependent on Apple-centric spending means the population it will work well for is limited.
Apple Credit Card Highlights
3% Cash Back with Apple & Apple Partners
Using the Apple Card to make purchases directly through Apple gets you 3% back on those purchases. That’s $60 on a $2,000 MacBook Pro, for example. The Apple Card’s 3% rewards rate also extends to purchases made with a select group of brands that have partnered with Apple. They include Uber, UberEATS, T-Mobile, Nike, Duane Reade and Walgreens.
To help put the Apple Card’s rewards rates in perspective, the average cash rewards credit card gives a bit more than 1% back on all purchases. However, some cards offer 5% back or even more in certain spending categories.
2% Cash Back Using Apple Pay
If you already use Apple Pay all the time, or you could easily commit to it, you’ll love this part of the Apple Card offer. The 2% cash back that you will earn using the Apple Card through Apple Pay is nearly double the market average, and a growing number of retailers accept Apple Pay. That makes the card worth using for more than just Apple-related spending.
But if you don’t plan on using Apple Pay much, that alone could tip the scales in favor of other rewards credit card offers.
No Major Fees
The Apple Card has a $0 annual fee, a 0% foreign transaction fee, and zero other fees to worry about. Part of the reason for that is the Apple Card simply does not allow you to make certain transactions that would ordinarily come with a fee, such as balance transfers and cash advances. Still, not having to pay an annual fee itself will save you about $22.29 per year, compared to the average credit card offer. But since so much of the Apple Card’s rewards value hinges on Apple-centric spending, getting average rewards on everything else figures to be more impactful than usual.
Plus, without an annual fee to worry about, you won’t feel pressured into spending more than you ordinarily would or closing your account earlier than you’d like. This could in turn benefit your credit score, considering that account age is a contributing factor.
Apple Credit Card Lowlights
1% Cash Back on Non-Apple Purchases
The Apple Card’s 1% base rewards-earning rate is not unusual. In fact, it’s just about average. That might not be a big issue on a card with broader bonus rewards categories – gas, groceries or travel, for example. But since so much of the Apple Card’s rewards value hinges on Apple-centric spending, getting average rewards on everything else figures to be more impactful than usual
Potential for a High Regular APR
Depending on your overall creditworthiness, the interest rate that you’re assigned could be anywhere from a low of 19.24% to 29.49% (V) at the most. The average credit card offer currently has a regular APR of roughly 22.89%. The average among credit cards for people with good credit is about 24.12%.
Other Things to Consider About the Apple Credit Card
Financing Options
The Apple Card offers an introductory rate of 0% for 6 - 24 months on select Apple product purchases. But many credit cards for people with good credit or better offer 0% introductory APRs on all new purchases.
In other words, don’t apply for the Apple Card unless you’re willing to spend big at Apple stores or partner brands.
Metal Card Material
The Apple Card is made of titanium. Details such as the cardholder’s name and the Apple logo are etched into the card with a laser.
None of that makes the Apple Card more rewarding or less expensive. But those are distinctive flourishes that could make you feel pretty cool, at least. The same could be said of most metal credit cards, however, so it’s best to compare offers based on the rates, rewards and fees that figure to impact your bottom line the most.
No Numbers on the Card
Fitting with the Apple brand, the card’s look and feel is sparse and sleek. It is plain white, with no account number, expiration date or CVV code listed on it. Not only is this aesthetically pleasing, but it could potentially keep you a bit safer from fraud. The less information about you and your finances that can fall into the hands of strangers, the better.
With that being said, all credit cards give users a $0 liability guarantee for unauthorized charges. That means you wouldn’t have to pay for fraudulent purchases anyway.
Daily Cash and Easy Redemption
Instead of having to wait up to several days for rewards earned on a purchase to be credited to your account, the Apple Card’s cash rewards clear to you on a daily basis. And you can redeem for a statement credit toward your account balance at any time.
Assorted Apple Card Benefits
The Apple Card makes mobile account management easy with functionality built right into the wallet app on Apple phones, computers and wearables. There’s color-coding to help you keep track of purchases by category, for example, along with estimated interest charges to encourage paying off more of your balance each month. Plus, cardholders won’t always have to hold onto their card, or at least bring it everywhere, considering that a lot of Apple Card purchases can be made directly from a mobile device.
In addition, the Apple Card allows iPhone users to ask customer service questions via text message. It automatically provides users with a virtual card number to use when making online purchases from retailers that don’t accept Apple Pay through Safari browser. And having the card gives you the opportunity to take advantage of an interest-free installment plan if you decide to purchase a new iPhone.
Apple Credit Card vs. The Competition
The Apple Card isn’t the only credit card that can help you save on Apple products. With that in mind, we’ll show you how the Apple Rewards Card compares to some of its stiffest competition in terms of both rewards and financing capabilities. You can find the results in the following table.
annual fee$0 | annual fee$95 | annual fee$0 | annual fee$0 |
Purchase Intro APR0% for 6 - 24 months | Purchase Intro APRN/A | Purchase Intro APR0% for 15 months | Purchase Intro APRN/A |
transfer intro aprN/A | transfer intro aprN/A | transfer intro apr0% for 15 months Transfer Fee: 3% (min $5) | transfer intro apr0% for 18 months Transfer Fee: 3% intro fee ($5 min) for each transfer in first 4 months, after that 5% ($5 min) for each transfer |
Regular APR19.24% - 29.49% (V) | Regular APR21.49% - 28.49% (V) | Regular APR19.24% - 29.99% (V) | Regular APR19.24% - 29.24% (V) |
rewards rate
| rewards rate
| rewards rate
| rewards rate
|
bonus offer N/A | bonus offer Earn 75,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. That's over $900 when you redeem through Chase Travel℠. | bonus offer Earn a $200 statement credit after you spend $2,000 in purchases on your new Card within the first 6 months. | bonus offer Earn $200 cash back after you spend $1,500 on purchases in the first 6 months of account opening. This bonus offer will be fulfilled as 20,000 ThankYou® Points, which can be redeemed for $200 cash back. |
SponsoredApply Now | SponsoredApply Now | SponsoredApply Now |
Apple Card Review Methodology
This review is based on WalletHub’s proprietary 100-point credit card rating system. By using a consistent methodology to evaluate the Apple Card and all other cards, WalletHub’s credit card experts make it easy for people to compare their options and find the best credit cards for their needs.
The WalletHub rating system uses 16 key metrics grouped into seven categories: Fees, Rewards, Two-year Cost, Interest Rates, Approval Requirements, Special Features, and Reviews. Each metric has a maximum number of points allocated to it, based on the metric’s importance as determined by our editors. The points are added up to create an overall rating for the Apple Card out of a maximum of 100 points, which is then converted to a 5-point scale.
Ratings for each category reflect how close Apple Card is to WalletHub’s definition of a 5-star credit card, which is based on market conditions and what we believe are reasonable terms. We compare Apple Card to that standard to give a numerical approximation of how reasonable and competitive its terms are compared to other cards.
To learn more about how WalletHub rates credit card offers, check out our full credit card review methodology.
WalletHub experts are widely quoted. Contact our media team to schedule an interview.