Apple Card offers 2% cash back on all Apple Pay purchases, which... exactly matches my no-fee card from Chase. Except I have to choose how to use the 2% from Chase when it eventually is available, while I can spend Apple's 2% the next day via Apple pay. I threw the metal card in a drawer when it arrived, so if your goal is tell people not to use the physical card, then sure, I'm with you. But I don't think that's the primary use of the card.
Citi also has a widely used cash back card for ~2%
I’m actually not aware of any 2% card without any catches (Apple’s being that 2% is only for Apple Pay transactions, which is anything but ubiquitous when shopping online.)
The Bread Cashback Card (American Express)[1] and SoFi Credit Card (MasterCard)[2] give 2% cash back on all purchases with no foreign transaction fees, no annual fees, and no other "catches".
[1] https://www.breadfinancial.com/en/bread-financial-cashback-c...
Chase of course goes out of their way to make this as painful as possible. Currently their app is broken and points can't be redeemed for cash. There is also no way to automatically apply all points to a statement credit. My perception that this is the best use of points is reinforced by how much effort they put into trying to convince me to do something else.
This may not be a good redemption. For Chase UR points specifically, you really ought to transfer them to Chase Sapphire Reward card and redeem them for travel ($100 in points becomes $150 in travel) or transfer them to airline/hotel partners for redemptions. For example, you can often find Marriott, Hilton, and Hyatt points redemptions that are substantially better (sometimes more than 50% off) than the cash value of the points.
My last Hyatt hotel stay, I redeemed 8,000 points per night for a hotel room that was listed at $267/night. In cases like this, you can more than triple the value of your points.
Huh? This is public and searchable information. Even ChatGPT 3.5 can give you a comprehensive answer to "what are the best cash back credit cards?"
It seems like your complaint is that people aren't answering a trivial question. This isn't a valid argumentative position.
The apple card's terms are definitely sub-par. Double the cash back would be competitive with say: https://www.fidelity.com/cash-management/visa-signature-card
Cards that do 5% in special categories are also common.
Search results are plagued with spam to the point of uselessness, and this is precisely the sort of information I would not trust from an LLM because their sources are, as I said, plagued with spam and I don't want to chase hallucinated results.
In fact, for all that it's a trivial question, this is at least the fourth time I've asked it, and the first time I've gotten real answers--although not from you.
Perhaps the issue is that you don't seen to realize I've never gotten less than 2% from my Apple Card, and I get 3% back from Apple purchases? (Since I just bought an iPad Air + accessories for my daughter's birthday, that alone saved me more than $50!)
The Fidelity card you mention seems to require a Fidelity account, but that's okay, since I have one. However, the terms then seem identical to my experience with the Apple card.
I got my Apple card before Chase updated my cards from them to be tappable, and basically I use the Apple card for Apple Pay (2%) and purchases/subscriptions from Apple (3%), a Chase Amazon card for purchases from Amazon (5%), and a Chase Sapphire physical card (2% or 5%, depending on category) when a physical card is required (rarely these days, but at Walmart for one). It's not clear to me how Fidelity is any better than Apple card in this scenario.
It also seems like you've now changed your story and are explaining all the cards you have which outperform apple's.
You seem really defensive and agitated over this triviality. No one is mocking you for your mistakes. It's just that what you've said doesn't make sense, and is inconsistent. Please, just take it as honest feedback.
My point stands: From the time this card was first announced, people online, especially on this very site, have been dismissing it as having "sub-par" terms, and yet when pushed, all of the alternatives offered up seem to be similar, or even worse.
Of the three credit card bills I (auto-)pay off every month, Apple card has by far the biggest bill, because I use Apple Pay a lot. When I travel to Hong Kong, I love the lack of foreign transaction fees, and still the easy convenience of tap-to-pay with my wristwatch everywhere.
I do have a Chase Sapphire Preferred card that also has no transaction fees--but it costs me $95/year, so I'd judge that to be sup-par compared to Apple's free card, except that I use it to book travel, so the cash back goes farther.
I'll look into the CapitalOne SavorOne that somebody else mentioned, but generally I don't look forward to spending hours of my life comparing nearly-identical credit cards, so I was glad to get some real answers this time!
Is this a new version of "google it"?
A. As an AI language model, I cannot recommend a specific financial product, but I can provide some information on what to look for when choosing a cashback credit card.
[Information on what to look for: Cashback, signup bonuses, annual fees, redemption options, and credit score requirements.]
It's possible Bing's AI does better, but I don't use the Edge browser, so I don't know.
Apple card only for apple purchases, 0% apr && 3% cashback. I use android phone, so no apple pay possible. I wish it allows to be added to google pay with nfc.
For example, CapitalOne SavorOne (3% for many categories) and Wells Fargo Active Cash (2% on all purchases). There are many others that are competitive for specific situations though, including Citi Custom Cash (5% in a single category). Most of these cards also offer an intro APR and/or bonus after $X has been spent.
A flat reward on everything definitely has its appeals. (The Apple Card isn't quite that, though – paying online without Apple Pay only gives you 1% rewards.)
I'll look into the Capital One option, thank you!
The Apple Card's issuer (Goldman Sachs) and payment network (MasterCard) retain just as much transaction information for the Apple Card as they do for any other credit card.[1]
[1] https://www.engadget.com/2019-08-30-apple-card-privacy-adult...
> usually those rates are extremely subject to change, require quarterly activation
That's not true. I'm not aware of any US credit card offering 2% cash back on all purchases that regularly changes this 2% rate or requires quarterly activation for the 2% rate. If you can name even one 2% cash back card that does this, please do.
> variable APR
The Apple Card also has a variable APR. The Apple Card Customer Agreement says that the APR is "15.49% to 26.49% when you open your account" and "After that, this APR will vary with the market based on the Prime Rate."[2]
[2] https://www.goldmansachs.com/terms-and-conditions/Apple-Card...
> high foreign transaction fees
The Bread Cashback Card (American Express) and SoFi Credit Card (MasterCard) manage to offer 2% cash back on all purchases with no foreign transaction fee or annual fee.
given theres no annual fee i don't really see the downside if you buy apple products.
i used to be really into optimizing cash back but it just ends up costing more mindshare than it is really worth.
Smart people don't do loans for a $300 purchase in the first place.
Not sure other cards offer the same simple process