Consider this a Public Service Announcement:
Regular readers of MacDailyNews know this, of course, but less informed people (most Wall Street analysts, for example) are fixated on the physical Apple Card in all of its minimalist titanium glory. Apple Card is coming in August!
But that physical card is just a back up: Apple Card is meant to be used virtually wherever possible – via Apple Pay – not physically (keep that titanium Apple Card in your wallet if you can) as Apple Card’s cash-back rewards structure offers users just 1% on purchases made with the physical card, but 2% for Apple Pay transactions (and 3% for purchases of Apple products or services).
So, only pull out that physical card if you’re paying where Apple Pay is not yet supported. Always try to use Apple Card virtually, via Apple Pay first, in order to maximize your cash-back rewards!
That works for me. Of course in restaurants it is virtually impossible to pay at the table using Apple Pay in the US.
Once the initial demand has died down I will most likely get a card.
many fast casual restaurants in NYC have table-side and/or counter service taking Apple Pay. FirstData put out the clover pay product for restaurants, SQUARE and other vendors are becoming more prevalent.
I’m curious why you can’t use Apple Pay in restaurants in the US? Here in the UK, I use Apple Pay virtually everywhere, including paying at a restaurant table yesterday. There are still a few businesses who still impose a £30 maximum transaction value limit which is in line with the limit for contactless payments. There is no compelling reason for such a limit, but they do it anyway. As I avoid such places when possible, they are simply pushing me towards their rivals until such time as they come to their senses.
Apple Pay works brilliantly for me as I use a number of bank accounts, with two of them from the same bank which has issued me with identical cards differing only by the account number. As I use one account for business transactions and the other for home expenditure, it keeps my accounting simpler if I don’t mix them up, so in order to avoid confusion, I use a physical card for my business purchases and Apple Pay set up with the other card for everything else. The physical card used with Apple Pay is left at home.
Looking at the wallet app, I can instantly see exactly how much money I’ve been spending via Apple Pay in the last month to keep tabs on my expenditure. If I really need to pay a non-business expense in place where they don’t accept Apple Pay, I use another credit card. I last used that card just before Easter.
I was wondering the same thing. I recently sent a month in Spain. Every business from the smallest to massive chains accepted it.
In the US, they don’t bring a card reader to your table. Instead, they take your card to the back and swipe it (and hopefully don’t write down your card number for later…). I’ve never seen anyone hand over their phone to a waiter to be used for apple pay, and I think given the timing required (proximity to POS terminal, then fingerprint authorized) I don’t think it’s possible to do without a portable unit.
Hopefully they will come soon to the US.
Its up to restaurants to upgrade their millions of old terminals and for credit card companies to push them (along with the chip-containing cards) https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/credit-cards/pay-at-table-dining-credit-cards/ The idea of giving someone your card to “run it in the back” makes me cringe now after getting used to paying at the table in Eastern Europe. On a brighter note there is more cc fraud in Europe than in the US so these changes were forced to happen there sooner.
Unfortunately in the US this is not the case. Major stores such as Walmart, Home Depot and Lowes still do not accept Apple Pay. Some major grocery stores such as Publix also do not offer Apple Pay and they just don’t care. In Florida I shop at Winn Dixe simply because they accept Apple Pay.
Unless of course you do not have or use Apple pay. Not everybody uses it which is a shame.
What I want to know about the apple card is do they give you a grace period before you have to start paying interest?
My understanding is that they do, but as they aren’t offering it here in the UK just yet, I haven’t seen specific details.
I would expect there to be no interest payable until after your due date for settling the monthly bill, which means that you will get between 30 and 60 days grace, depending on when that item appears in the bank’s system relative to your billing date.
Bill should be due the last day of each month. Very simple to use, Pay, and keep track of your charges
Already got two metallic cards, Marriott and AMEX, which I don’t carry with me, since my phone case also holds my cards on the back. Unfortunately, the qi charger can’t work thru metal, so I don’t carry them. I won’t carry the Apple Card, either, no matter how nice the metal.
It would be easy to avoid using my Apple card, if I cared to obtain one. The fact is, I have cards that offer much better benefits. And Apple produces nothing today I care to buy. Whew. My wife is thankful I’m not about to buy a new Mac Pro. I don’t pay extortion prices for any product or service where there is an option. And, as Apple increasing transmogrifies into Microsoft/Sony/IBM/name your favorite behemoth tech corporation that looks like every other one, it gets easier and easier to ignore it.
…and yet, here you are.
I’m more interested in using it for all my online purchases since it’s supposed to issue a transaction-unique number same as when using ApplePay through a phone. I’ve been a victim of CC exposure via site hacks once too often…
I have cards which pay better rewards that will remain first in my eWallet.