121–130 of 200 posts
The hilarious thing is the Apple card is a chunk of titanium and doesn’t have contactless payment capabilities in the year 2025. (Obviously their angle is you’ll use your phone or watch, which isn’t a huge stretch)
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The floor is 1.5%. I don’t know of any 2% card without any catch (the Apple Card’s being that you have to use Apple Pay, which is still not available at many online merchants).
Isn't the Citi Double Cash the canonical 2% card?
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There are still several 2% cards that don’t require Apple Pay, although I don’t know of any with no foreign exchange fee other than maybe the Fidelity one. For everything where Apple Pay works, it’s a great deal; for everything else, it’s below average (as there are many 1.5% on everything cards). > it's essentially free money. Am I missing a catch here? In the end, all you’re doing is recouping a bit more of your ow…
Bank of America Travel Rewards is effectively 2.625% on everything if you put >$100k in a Merrill account and redeem the rewards against "travel" (including restaurants in any location) expenses charged to the card. There's no foreign transaction fee. The biggest downside is all the dark patterns at Merrill trying to sell you advisory services. That seems to be only upon account opening, though.
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If you're in the US this sounds like a normal card. If you're in a lot of other places you won't have heard of it because it's not available and it sounds amazing because it wouldn't make any money in more regulated countries.
This is not even a particularly competitive cashback card in the UK. But perhaps you don't consider that a "more regulated country."
They have a little more consumer protection but not a lot.
Here in Spain cards don't tend to provide any cashback, also they hurt your credit rating (in contrast with the US where they improve it and people end up shuffling cards). They're pretty unpopular here, most people just use debit cards. I prefer it too, if I don't need credit to buy something I don't want to use it. I currently don't have any loan or credit active which is the best situation in case I'd want to get a mortgage.
We do have some cards like revolut which provide some benefits but you have to pay a monthly sub. It's more promotional stuff like 'free' Uber one, perplexity, tinder etc. I don't find those terribly useful except for perplexity but they give that away free with a lot of things. Uber one in particular really sucks because it's way more expensive than local alternatives (cabify for rides, glovo for meals) even with the discount.
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If you're in the US this sounds like a normal card. If you're in a lot of other places you won't have heard of it because it's not available and it sounds amazing because it wouldn't make any money in more regulated countries.
This is not even a particularly competitive cashback card in the UK. But perhaps you don't consider that a "more regulated country."
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That only makes sense if they don't charge extra for paying with CC. Most places I've seen would charge you 3-4% fee for CC payment, which makes the whole thing pointless - except if you need a big spend e.g. for a sign-up bonus.
If it's federal income tax, then the fees are State taxes, and county property taxes vary a lot fee-wise.
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That looks like a a crazy amount of cards. I carry exactly one debet card in my wallet (.eu) and use it for everything.
It is, but I typically only carry two - the 3% back and the grocery 6% back as the others are mainly online or automated. > I carry exactly one debet card in my wallet (.eu) and use it for everything Not sure about eu but in the US that's generally not advised, due to the semantics of how the cards work and legal fraud liabilities. Basically, if someone skims your debit card, they take your money and you have to some…
I don't think anyone I know uses a credit card for daily purchases here in Spain.
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What privacy from vendors?
The Apple Card is the only card in the US I am aware of that does not resell your purchase history to data brokers.
And even if it's not, as long as the other side (i.e. merchants and acquirers) just collects and aggregates the same data, that's little consolation.
The hilarious thing is the Apple card is a chunk of titanium and doesn’t have contactless payment capabilities in the year 2025. (Obviously their angle is you’ll use your phone or watch, which isn’t a huge stretch)
The physical card is explicitly just a backup option for when contactless payment isn't available. It would be sort of weird to make it support contactless payment.
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Wearing my ecology hat, you could argue if barely any of their customers will use it for contactless, then it’s a waste of resources manufacturing a chip.
(Of course there are plenty of other areas of Apple’s business where they thoroughly undermine this - persuading people to buy wireless in-ear headphones, iPads that have so much glue inside when you ‘replace’ the battery they just give you a new device because it’s too much hassle etc.)
Or… maybe insisting on using Titanium means it’s an PITA adding a chip as well, versus plastic? (At least one of my UK cards claims “made from 100% recycled plastic” now).
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Anyone who's ever had to pick up a prescription at a Walgreens will tell you that 3% doesn't begin to make up for the incredible shit you have to endure there. It's like being placed on hold indefinitely, only you have to keep standing in one spot while people sneeze on you, all while guys with backpacks come in and steal everything that isn't locked up. And if there's something you want like antacids or razor blades…
I don't know where you live but the Walgreens near me is nothing like that.