Some months ago Apple launched Apple credit card. Obviously many folks already got the card because, well, it’s apple. But, if you have not got the card yet, here is why you should continue to ignore this card.
Trash Signup Bonus
It is no secret that a large factor for applying for new card in the credit card geek space is sign up bonus. At launch it had a mere of $50 signup bonus. The current signup bonus is $75 at Nike.
A bad signup bonus alone does not necessarily make the card mediocre but the rest of the card isn’t much appealing either.
Mediocre Earning Rate
Apple card has the following earning rate:
- 3% unlimited cash back on everything you buy from Apple – including App Store or even services like Apple Music or Apple TV+
- 3% cash back on select merchants when you use Apple Card with Apple Pay at
- Apple
- Duane Reade
- Exxon
- Mobil
- Nike
- Panera Bread
- T-Mobile
- Uber
- Uber Eats
- Walgreens
- 2% cash back when you use your iPhone or Apple Watch to pay with Apple Card
Other Stuff
- You need an iPhone to maximize cash back out of this card. Restricting this to Apple consumers is a very Apple thing to do.
- You need to bank with Goldman Sachs. If I were to make a list of top 10 banks I bank with, Sachs would not even fall in it. Apple probably got the best deal with them and went with them but that doesn’t mean it is the best choice for you.
What Alternatives?
Long time reader of this blog know I am a huge fan of U.S Bank’s Altitude Reserve. The net annual fee on Altitude Reserve ($400 annual fee – $325 travel credit) is $75 but it provides a bunch of features like Go Go pass and perhaps most importantly it effectively earns 4.5% on all mobile payments. With Samsung Pay or LG Pay you can use this card more or less anywhere you can swiple the card, including at Apple and tons of other places.
The other excellent alternatives would be cards that earn 2%, 2.5%, or 3% everywhere. There are several cards that earn 2% cashback everywhere and some of them occasionally come with signup bonus. For example, not too long ago Citi Double Cash, which earns 2% everywhere, had a $100 signup bonus. Then there is Fidelity’s 2% cashback card which had publicly available signup bonus as large as $150 and targeted offer as large as $300.
There are several other cards with rotating 5% category like the Chase Freedom, Discover IT, Citi Dividend, and US Bank Cash Plus, VantageWest Connect. Each quarter you earn 5% on some specific categories. The 5% earning on all above mentioned card except Dividend is capped to spend of $1500/quarter while Dividend has an annual $300 cashback cap on 5% earning. Most credit card enthusiast have a whole bunch of these cards and tend to use whichever suits them the best.
But if you want to make more at once then you can. There is CapitalOne Venture which also offers 2% cashback but also comes with much higher signup bonus. Venture offers large signup bonus of $500-$1000 but has relatively big spend requirement. The annual fee is $95 but nobody is telling you to keep the card forever. If you quality for a business credit card, then you will find similar offering in CapitalOne’s Spark cards.
Closing Thoughts
Unless you’re buying loads of things at Walgreen and like, Apple card is pretty bad.
