The New Apple Credit Card

Are all of the recent news reports about credit card fraud keeping you up at night? If so, you have good reason to be worried. In 2017, 14.2 million credit card numbers were exposed, according to Experian — an 88 percent increase from the year before. Moreover, there were more than 133,000 incidents of credit card fraud, which increased 23 percent from 2016.

At the same time, credit cards’ interest rates can be complicated, with introductory APRs that run out after a year before becoming a — higher — fixed APR or variable APRs that change along with the prime rate. As a result, it can be challenging to determine how much interest will be added to your balance at the end of each month.

Fortunately, Apple has come up with a solution that has the potential to be much more secure and transparent than existing credit cards — Apple Card. What’s more: it has a host of other advantages that can benefit you.

What Is Apple Card?

Apple Card is a revolutionary credit card created by electronics giant Apple — not a financial institution. It’s specifically designed to meet the needs of the 21st century, offering convenience, transparency and even cash back — all in one easy-to-use place.

You can sign up for Apple Card with Apple Pay. After that, it will live in the Wallet app on your iPhone, allowing you to effortlessly make purchases with Apple Card. You’ll also receive a titanium Apple credit card for use in stores that don’t accept Apple Pay.

Apple Card offers the following features:

• Track your spending: It lists all of your purchases in the app, along with the date and time. If you don’t recognize a purchase, just tap. It will show you where the transaction took place on a map.

• See trends: Your purchases are sorted and color-coded by category, so you can see how much you’ve spent on groceries, food and drink, entertainment and other things. You can also get a weekly and a monthly overview of what you’ve spent that enables you to distinguish trends in your spending so that you can make adjustments if necessary.

• Get Daily Cash: Get 3 percent back on everything you purchase from Apple, 2 percent every time you buy something using Apple Pay and 1 percent on transactions you make at businesses that don’t accept Apple Pay. Plus, there’s no limit to how much Daily Cash you can get back, and you don’t have to wait weeks for it — you’ll receive it the same day.

• Don’t pay fees: There aren’t any annual fees, late fees, cash advance fees or over-the-limit fees — ever.

• Pay less interest: Apple Card shows you in real time how much interest you’ll be charged on a payment. You can choose to make a larger payment for less interest or a smaller one for more interest. As a result, you’ll see how you can reduce your interest charges.

• Enjoy more security: With Touch ID, Face ID and other transaction technologies — and without card numbers on the physical card — Apple Card offers an unprecedented level of protection. Plus, you get alerts for unusual activity so that you can take action if needed.

• Get support via text: Got questions? Just text them. Apple Support will get right back to you.

How to Save on a New Phone with the Apple Card

Some experts advise purchasing a new phone every 12 months. Now, perhaps you’re wondering why you should buy a new phone every year. The answer is that you’ll get the latest technology and security, which makes it faster and safer to do more on your phone.

Here’s the good news — there are several ways you can use Apple Card to save on a new phone. You can get 3 percent Daily Cash on all of the purchases you make from Apple. At 3% cash back, you could effectively upgrade to the iPhone XS 64GB for just $969 instead of the usual MSRP of $999. Plus, you can also sign up for the iPhone Upgrade Program that allows you to purchase an iPhone and pay it off in monthly installments over 24 months. After 12 months, you can upgrade for free.

Of course, you can also purchase a phone from a different vendor than Apple, in which case you’ll get 2 percent or 1 percent Daily Cash, depending on whether you use Apple Pay.

If you have questions about Apple Card or selling your old phone, please contact us. We’re always happy to help.