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Apple Card launches today for all US customers

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Re: Apple Card launches today for all US customers

#131

Post by scarface74 »

davidmr wrote: post #102
nknealk wrote: post #56

I was recently in England. Nearly every payment terminal supports contactless in the cities I visited. I found myself using Apple Pay throughout the trip because it was fast and convenient. Also in restaurants they bring a payment terminal out to your table so you can pay with Apple Pay. Unfortunately, contactless payment terminals are somewhat more rare in the USA. My local grocery store (Kroger) doesn’t have them.

It's genuinely shocking how far behind the USA is in terms of consumer banking. I moved from Chicago to London about six months ago, and I can't believe how much more convenient it is. You can wire money to anyone with a bank account without an intermediary like Venmo or Zelle from your phone, either as a one-off or recurring. I can revoke permission to draw regularly on my account from my phone, so I don't have to g…

What is more maddening is that vendors had to replace their POS terminals to support chips after Apple Pay and other contactless payments were a thing and they still have new terminals that don’t support contactless payments.

Re: Apple Card launches today for all US customers

#132

Post by wycy »

OrgNet wrote: post #110
js2 wrote: post #34

This is not a card for people looking to maximize rewards. It’s for Apple users who want decent benefits and no fees, who will mostly use Apple Pay. (Apparently it’s also good for folks establishing a credit history who might not otherwise get approved.) I’ve got 300k points between AmEx and Chase and I recently realized I can’t ever use them when I want to. I don’t want to play all the games of which points can I us…

> I don’t get folks coming here to criticize the card. It’s just a credit card. Take it or leave it. Maybe because of the way Apple presents the card: "Apple Card, a new kind of credit card created by Apple and designed to help customers lead a healthier financial life [...]" I see nothing special in this card offer... it is about what I've had for 10+ years with BoA.

Regarding "designed to help customers lead a healthier financial life"--the difference is that, via the app, the card encourages you to pay it off and to not overspend. That's probably about it, though.

Re: Apple Card launches today for all US customers

#133

Post by ghaff »

traderjane wrote: post #33

As a privacy product the Apple Card is interesting, but as a financial product the interest rates are high and the rewards boring. All it takes is another bank to say "we will also have a strong and clear privacy agreement with you" and they will match Apple in my mind.

>rewards boring

I mostly like "boring" when it comes to card rewards. I find the more "exciting" they get the harder rewards are to use or at least to use in a way that actually is of more value than a theoretically smaller amount of cash, e.g. flight and hotel upgrades that are nice enough but which I wouldn't actually pay for out of my pocket.

Re: Apple Card launches today for all US customers

#134

Post by wycy »

electic wrote: post #50
huy-nguyen wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Citi double cash gives a flat 2% back for any purchase.

The way the Citi Double Cash Card works is you get 1% for every dollar spent and 1% for every dollar paid. - It is actually 1.98% because when you apply it to a statement credit you are not really paying off the full total. You get a straight 2% back, daily, with Apple Card. - There is also a redemption minimum with Citi, in this case there needs to be at least $25 dollars in cash back before you can claim it. Apple…

> - It is actually 1.98% because when you apply it to a statement credit you are not really paying off the full total. You get a straight 2% back, daily, with Apple Card.

You get a straight 1% back, daily, with Apple Card (except for Apple Pay purchases).

Re: Apple Card launches today for all US customers

#135

Post by beamatronic »

snaky wrote: post #87
millstone wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's exciting about Apple Card is not that it will put more money in my pocket, but how it modernizes payments. I signed up yesterday morning, and made my first purchase a few hours later. Unlike my current card, the app doesn't try to push "special offers" and I think it won't share my purchase history with "affiliates." I can see my purchase on a map, and Apple can't - nice. It's a pretty cool experience and I ho…

Honest question - why anybody would want her purchases on the map?

Reliving a vacation

Re: Apple Card launches today for all US customers

#136

Post by ssully »

snaky wrote: post #87
millstone wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's exciting about Apple Card is not that it will put more money in my pocket, but how it modernizes payments. I signed up yesterday morning, and made my first purchase a few hours later. Unlike my current card, the app doesn't try to push "special offers" and I think it won't share my purchase history with "affiliates." I can see my purchase on a map, and Apple can't - nice. It's a pretty cool experience and I ho…

Honest question - why anybody would want her purchases on the map?

I used to use Simple bank and they did this as well. One time I was at my desk and got a notification for a purchase at a Grocery store that sounded unfamiliar. Opening the notification took me into the detail page that showed it was located in Florida. I then put a block on my card and notified support of the fraudulent transaction all through the app within 2 minutes.

I've since switched banks, but I still haven't found a bank that had as good of an experience as them. Hearing about the Apple cards digital experience is actually enticing, because both of the credit cards I use are slow as hell, or make using rewards difficult in some way (one card makes me 'activate' the reward tiers for the 3 month period, the other takes you out of the app to an external page to use any rewards).

Re: Apple Card launches today for all US customers

#137

Post by jxcl »

lode wrote: post #115

Tip for those signing up: when you sign up you agree to arbitration (ie. signing away the right to sue in court), but you can opt-out within 90 days. Opting out can be done right on your phone, through messages: https://www.theverge.com/2019/8/20/20813800/apple-card-pay-a...

For what it’s worth, almost every bank/card I’ve signed up for has this clause. Apple is the only one I’ve seen where you can opt out by text message, usually it requires mailing a letter.

Re: Apple Card launches today for all US customers

#138

Post by ghaff »

oblio wrote: post #78
TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The card has a magnetic stripe, so they must have some solution to the magstripe number being stolen

Why does it even have a magnetic stripe in this day and age, as a completely new tech product from Apple?

As others have said, still lots of mag stripe readers in the US. In fact, many Square readers still seem to be swipes.

https://squareup.com/us/en/hardware/reader

The main thing that makes me pretty much "meh" on the card is that the 2% is only for Apple Pay which I use for a tiny percentage of my purchases. So it's really more like 1% back and I already get that and more with other cards.

Re: Apple Card launches today for all US customers

#139

Post by ghaff »

rconti wrote: post #130
hvidgaard wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You normally use a pincode. I cannot remember the last time I had to sign anything anywhere in EU when paying with a chip card.

US chip cards require a signature in Europe virtually 100% of the time, even on low-value transactions that would be under the signature threshold in the US. However, using contactless avoids signatures 99% of the time. I think I had to sign once on my last trip at a contactless terminal.

That's actually my main use for Apple Pay. It's easier in Europe as a way to avoid having to do the signature thing (which the cashier is often not prepared for) with my US chip card. But it only works up to $30 or so.

Re: Apple Card launches today for all US customers

#140

Post by hvidgaard »

rconti wrote: post #130
hvidgaard wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You normally use a pincode. I cannot remember the last time I had to sign anything anywhere in EU when paying with a chip card.

US chip cards require a signature in Europe virtually 100% of the time, even on low-value transactions that would be under the signature threshold in the US. However, using contactless avoids signatures 99% of the time. I think I had to sign once on my last trip at a contactless terminal.

Most modern terminals (i.e. with a contactless option), should be able to use chip and pin for US cards, no signature required. That's probably why they do not require signatures.

I think that the majority of terminals in EU have the contactless option - at least in Denmark all non contactless terminals have been phased out.

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