DALLAS (KRLD) - If you own an iPhone, you may have received an invitation to apply for the new Apple Card.
At CreditCards.com, analyst Ted Rossman said, "Apple Card is a cash back card. There's no annual fee. They're going to give you 3% cash back when you buy something from Apple, Uber or Uber Eats. Two percent cash back when you use Apple Pay and 1% back when you buy anything else using the physical card."
Rossman said Apple Card is not a new idea for the tech giant. "Steve Jobs thought of launching this card 20 years ago. And, part of the reason they didn't do it is that he didn't want to reject anybody. That's part of why Apple has carried that ethos, you know, two decades later. They're not taking everybody, but they're taking more people than most credit card companies," he said.
Apple Card is geared to attract millennials and other younger consumers. "They're targeting more people with non-existent credit or lesser credit scores than I anticipated. And when you look at it through that lens, if you have a credit score below 650, you're not going to qualify for most of the best rewards cards. So, I think Apple Card's rewards and low fees and budgeting tools, I think that all looks better to someone who's new to credit or rebuilding credit," Rossman said.
While there is a physical card associated with Apple Card - it's actually made from titanium - Rossman said users are strongly urged to use the mobile form of payment. "You apply using your iPhone in the Wallet app, you pay the bill using the iPhone. You have to have an iPhone to get this card, which is really, I think, trying to create a real 'sticky' factor. They're going to get you loyal to the phone and to the card. And this is something that's really unique; the physical card offers lesser rewards and you can't even use it online, because the numbers are not printed on the card. You have to get the number from the app. So, more than any other credit card, this is really a digital first card," Rossman said.
To complete a transaction through Apple Pay, the consumer uses their iPhone to provide a unique device number and a one-time security code. It's the same with Apple Card. The company hopes users will find the technology is more secure for credit card transactions.
So is it worth being an early adopter of the Apple Card? Rossman's thoughts: "When they formally launched this card to everybody, they added Uber and Uber Eats as a new 3% category, and they teased that more merchants are coming. That, I think, could make this card a lot more attractive. I think they've done their homework. This is the first major card for Apple or Goldman Sachs, but they're big companies. We can trust them. I still think you can get better rewards elsewhere, but they're offering something interesting here, from a security standpoint and especially for people new to credit or rebuilding credit," he said.