Apple has announced that it will launch a credit card in collaboration with Goldman Sachs.
The card will return 2% when used with Apple Pay and 3% in purchases at Apple. It will also offer a 1% on purchases made with the physical card.
At the moment only its launch in the United States has been confirmed, without news about its hypothetical arrival in Spain.
At an event held today at its headquarters in Cupertino, California, Apple has announced the next stage in the evolution of Apple Pay: an Apple credit card.
Simply called: Apple card
The card, issued by Goldman Sachs and called simply “Apple Card”, will offer reimbursement in the balance of the user just to use it and will have several functions and integrations with both Apple Pay and Wallet.
Specifically, the card will generate a kind of “daily cash” that will be added to the user’s Apple Cay balance each day. That money can be used directly in Apple Pay, using it as a credit add balance to an Apple Card or transferring money to contacts through that function of iMessage.
It has not been clear at first if this “daily cash” may be withdrawn to an external bank account, including Goldman Sachs accounts. In any case at the moment there is no news that the Apple card is going to be launched in Spain, since for now only its launch in the United States has been confirmed as of this summer.
The card returns 3% for purchases made at Apple, 2% refund on purchases made through Apple Pay, and 1% daily on purchases made with the physical card or made online without Apple Pay.
Specially for iPhone
According to the vice president of Apple Pay, Jennifer Bailey, who presented at the event, the new card is “designed for iPhone”. Users can request it directly on the iPhone, and start using it immediately after its approval. Users can update their information and review transactions through iMessage, and the card uses machine learning to recognize transactions.
iPhone users can view their balances and transactions within the Portfolio application, including automated breakdowns of expenditures by category and merchant.
The card will not have annual fees, nor commissions for late payments or for transactions abroad. Apple Card will show the different payment options in the Wallet app, and help users calculate “the cost of interest on different amounts in real time,” according to a press release. The application will also offer automated suggestions to pay before any accumulated balance.
Some of the features
The card has several built-in security features, including some that are native to Apple Pay, and offers several privacy features. Although users will get a physical card to use at point of sale terminals that do not accept Apple Pay, they will not have any printed number, expiration date or security code. For online purchases, this information can be accessed in the Wallet application, always using the fingerprint reader or the face recognition system or Face ID to authenticate the user.
The Apple Card will work in the MasterCard payment network and will be available this summer in the United States.