Last month, I had the privilege of finally being approved to get the Apple Card credit card. Note that this is my first ever credit card, so this was my first ever experience having one.
For starters, the approval process is quite odd but on the second time of me applying for it (I previously applied in September 2019), I was able to get approved. Granted, the credit limit was low, but I was just happy that I was approved for it. Mind you, I am still pretty young at 23 years old with a car loan and other recurring bills, so perhaps for me, the smaller credit limit is actually a good thing.
Interest rates are said to be between 13-24.99 percent, but as long as you pay your balance down either all the way or most of the way, you avoid the interest fees.
Along with that, when you use the physical Apple Card, you will get 1 percent cashback, 2 percent cashback if you use the Apple Card in the Wallet app at a place that accepts Apple Pay and 3 percent cashback if you use it at the Apple Store, Walgreens, Duane Reade, Uber, UberEats, Nike, and T-Mobile.
The functionality of the service is pretty similar to using Apple Pay. You simply put your iPhone or Apple Watch over a card reader that accepts Apple Pay and let them “talk to one another,” where your Apple Card is instantly synced with the card reader and has your transaction go through as quickly as possible.
One thing that I do like about making transactions with the Apple Card in the Wallet app is that once you make a transaction, your card turns a different color. It gives it a more personal feel to it. However, when using it on the Apple Watch, it just shows the default rainbow color of the Apple Card, regardless of whether or not you have used it recently.
Another feature that is nice is that the day or two after the transaction, you get your cashback, which turns into Daily Cash in the Apple Cash card in the Wallet app. So far, I have only generated $1.45, which is not much, but hey, it would pay for $1.29 song on iTunes if I really needed it.
Being able to pay my bill in the app is another added plus of Apple Card. Everything is taken care of in the app, meaning that there is no need to wait for a bill to show up in the mail. You can simply pay it in the app like you would if you were to pay for an item from Best Buy or Target with Apple Pay in their apps.
As for the physical card, I do like that the setup process for that is pretty simple. All you have to do is set it next to your iPhone and it appears and syncs the same way that AirPods do.
When using the physical card at places like Walmart or through websites that don’t accept Apple Pay, it works quite well and I’m surprised that it syncs so quickly in the Wallet app to tell me how much I have spent and how much cashback I will get.
You would think that it would take the card several hours or even a day or two for that information to be available to you, but it’s usually available within 5-15 minutes of making your purchase.
Being able to message Goldman Sachs via iMessage for customer support is another perk of having and using Apple Card. We all know that being on the phone for customer service is annoying, so being able to do customer service by simply texting Apple in the app is really cool and puts every single other customer service line to shame.
In fact, it’s done so well in the short time that it has been out that I have already seen US Bank copy the feature in their app, specifically when it comes to asking for a higher credit limit, which Apple did with Apple Card first in iMessage.
The Wallet app giving you notifications when you can pay your balance is also nice too, especially if you’re someone like me who wants to get it paid off as soon as possible.
The only couple of flaws and issues that I have had with Apple Card are that there have already been two payments that I have made that for some odd reason, did not initially go through. Once I submitted them again, they did go through, so it could have been some technical problem on their end or a communication problem with US Bank.
My other issue was when I was trying to pay for gas at Casey’s General Store and I had the Apple Card from my iPhone ready to be scanned and my iPhone buzzed at me, telling me that the payment would not go through. Again, this was weird since I still had plenty of credit on it and had paid my bill before, so for it to not go through irritated me.
It’s not that it would not go through, but I do know people that use their credit cards as emergency money for when they truly need it, so if a person were in an emergency situation and needed to use their Apple Card, you would hope that they would not run into an issue like this.
Overall, Apple Card is going to get 3/4 stars from me. I do like being able to use it to get 1-3 percent back on purchases, especially when getting gas or the occasional item at the grocery store so that I can get that 2 percent in cashback. I also like the convenience of it all and that everything is done and paid for in the app.
The small issues that I have had with it are pretty minor and could have easily just been some early technical issues, which is common for new services like this.
I’d recommend this credit card to people who have a general interest in Apple Card, but also people who are looking to get their first credit card. This is a great one, especially if you are big into the Apple ecosystem of products. The interest rates say they are high but are actually quite minimal as long as you pay your balance off as a whole or the majority of it.
Since graduating from college this past May, I have gotten a lot of offers from a lot of different credit cards, but I am glad that I went with Apple Card. It works for me and I think it will work for a lot of you.
Rating: 3/4 stars
