Ok I’m gonna admit: when Apple first announced their Apple Card, I thought to myself: I’m gonna get this good looking titanium card for free (well not really for free, it’s a credit card after all). So here army thoughts, now that I’ve received it. (actually you don’t need to wait till the physical card to arrive before you can use it. The virtual card exist in your Apple Wallet app.)

Fees

The unique selling points they’ve detailed are pretty interesting too: no fees, not even hidden ones. After I’ve used it for a few days, I can verify, there really aren’t any “traditional” fees that other banks charge you when you don’t pay back in time. However don’t feel like this is a cash borrowing machine just because of that. The Apple Card does charge you interest as other ones also do.

Usability

I don’t think much needs to be said about the usability of the card. If you are familiar with digital cards like Apple Pay or Android Pay, etc., the Apple Card is basically just an updated version of the original Apple Pay with credit card benefits.

Benefits, Cash Backs and Points

Ah benefits. I was initially worried that Apple Card will just be like Apple Pay with no additional benefits. I was wrong (and I should’ve guessed this since it’s by Mastercard). You do get fraud protection, etc. (See here for a whole list of benefits), but the list is pretty short. There’s no mention of disputes, and I can only assume it’s the same as other cards, but don’t quote me on this as I haven’t had the need for dispute just yet.

The points when used on Apple Pay on your phone is uniformly 2%, and 3% at Apple Stores. This makes the credit card usage strategy pretty clear, at least for me. I have a Chase Sapphire Preferred, and and the Costco credit card by Citibank. It’s daily simple to me: for anything at gas stations, restaurants, I use the Costco card for 4% and 3% cash back (to put it into perspective, 1 point per dollar is like 1% cash back, in most cases. I’ll explain in a minute). For anything travel booking related, I’ll use Chase since I get 2 points/dollar. For anything else, I’ll use Apple Card (when it’s accepted) for its 2% cash back.

Chase Sapphire Preferred does give you a 25% bump if you redeem your points for travel (50% for Chase Sapphire Reserve), and Chase has been trying to convince me it’s better to use their card at restaurants (Chase gives you 2 points/dollar) because of this. My argument is: even with Sapphire Reserve, redeeming points for travel, it’s equivalent to 3 points, or 3% cash back, and I’m limited to having to redeem the points for travel, when Costco gives you 3% cash back right away, redeemed at the end of your annual cycle. For a Sapphire Preferred user like me, it’s only equivalent to 2.5%, comparing to Costco’s 3%, even though Sapphire uses restaurants as one of its main weapon.

The Physical Card

The card looks simply beautiful, and yes simple and beautiful. There’s no card information apart from your name on it. I am slightly disappointed that the name doesn’t appear to be engraved as the Apple logo (or it is, but just doesn’t look like it). But I can live with that. The card is white, and made from Titanium. You really feel the quality and prestige when you are holding it.

HOWEVER, and this is a big HOWEVER.

There’s nowhere to use it.

The physical card, at the time of this article, and maybe for a long time in the future, only gives you 1% cash back. So when you are at a place when Apple Pay is not accepted, and if you do have other cards like the Sapphire Preferred, you might as well get the 1 point and have the potential of turning it into 1.25 points when redeeming. (This is assuming you are not at a restaurant or other places where additional points or cash back is awarded) The only scenario in which the physical card can be useful would be the place doesn’t accept any card other than a Mastercard and the Apple Card is the only Mastercard on you at that very moment.

Or if you just want show your love for Apple and do not care about points or cash back, but I do.