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Comment by electic | Hacker News Reader

I have been using Apple Card now for about two weeks and I have to say the physical card is nothing short of marketing genius by Apple.

The 2% unlimited cash back now has me using Apple Pay everywhere. At places that don't have it, I have to pull out the titanium card. Almost every place I go to people ask what is this card? Am I an Apple employee? Keep in mind, most places have never seen a titanium card before because they are typically given to extremely high net work individuals by AMEX and Visa.

After explaining what the card is. They invariably ask what is the benefit of the card. Being a nice guy, I explain them the benefits of the card.

The card is a conversation starter. It serves as an advertisement for people to sign up and it also serves as a way to get the establishment that you used the card to start accepting NFC payments.

None of this would be possible if the card was a crappy plastic material.

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I'm a little surprised to hear that. The response you describe was normal when the Chase Sapphire Reserve was newly launched, but since then, and especially with Amex Gold and Platinum also making beefy metal cards, I feel like most folks handling cards have gotten completely used to it. Also, I'm not really seeing the benefit of 2% cashback vs. the Citi double cash card. I was just super disappointed by this card when I read up on it - I hope they launch a premium card soon.

> Also, I'm not really seeing the benefit of 2% cashback vs. the Citi double cash card.

The benefit is you get the same cashback but the card (titanium, touch pay) and the services (application, integrations) are better.

Just curious, why did you got this card? There are tons of Chase and other cards with much better cashback and terms. Just wondering what advantage did you saw in this card.

I have looked at many cards. But most of them have annual fees, have categories that don't give the same percentage cash back on certain purchases, or they have limits.

For example, most cards have a 2% cash back limit up to $6,000 dollars. There is the Citi Double cash card that does have unlimited but really it is 1.98 percent because you get 1% on every dollar spent and 1% on every dollar paid. However, if you apply it to your statement you have not paid the balance so it really is a bit lower than 2%. Not to mention, you need at least 25 dollars in cash back before you can use it and it expires.

Apple gives the cash back the next day. Which is insane. While Citi takes 1.5 months to give it to you. It is easy to forget about it and one of the reasons why so many people forget and it expires out.

The only exception is travel cards. If you travel a lot it might make sense to get one of those cards for the perks because your usage will offset the annual fee. In that department, Apple does provide no foreign transactions fees and I think that is good enough for me.

Cynic would guess "blue chat bubble".

I think he just explained it. The "Apple cool" factor is the selling point.

The only card I've heard people talk about due to it's benefits is Southwest's card. For 12 months, you can get a free "buddy pass" with each ticket purchase. For a couple, this means paying for only 1 ticket each way -- 50% off airfare, essentially. If you're a regular flyer, 2% cash back pales in comparison. Unfortunately, the card is made of inferior carbon-based materials.

No, you are mistaken. Having the card does not give you instant buddy pass. Upon approval you gain 40,000 miles which is a huge bump and minimum spend helps you reach the required miles to apply for preferred and the buddy pass which expires annually / end of dec 31st so you see people churn it right in December so benefits apply/start in January and have a year of access.

You're reminding Patrick Bateman.

Cards.. that's such a relic, really.

I don't carry my wallet anymore, just my Samsung S10 5G. There are very few places in Australia where I can't pay with Samsung Pay (Westpac). It even gets me on public transport (Google Pay).

I think the point behind the Apple Card is to drive NFC payments adoption in the US. Australia has a near complete penetration of NFC while the US does not.

Only time will tell whether we get the Apple Card, but due to the Australian Reserve Bank’s interchange fee cap, we’ll likely not see the same cash back offer if it ever does land here.

It will be interesting to see other markets’ reception of Apple Card and Apple Pay too.

So you’re one of these people that gets stranded when the phone or payment network is out.

Sounds like we live in different countries. If the network is out here (Australia), your only option is cash - card/touch are both going to be offline. The terminals need to authorise the transactions with the banks; it's an online transaction.

Magnetic stripes, haven't seen for ages. Cheques are not ever in use for normal shopping.

Call me old fashioned but I always carry cash, both because I don’t want to get stranded like that and because of the privacy it affords.

Apple Pay et al work without signal. If the payment network is down then cards will also be declined.

Increasingly we’re seeing contactless ATMs (in Europe) too so that’s a last resort.

Yep. I can get cash out from ATMs if I need to with a cardless pin system.

If the network is out, noone using card payments will have any luck.

That has happened to me literally once in the past 20 years.

Are you sponsored by them? This reads like a pretentious Apple commercial spoken by an Instagram quasy-entrepreneur.

That's just how diehard Apple fans have always talked.

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