Comment by smsm42
2 days ago
The catch is it's very annoying to use outside of Apple ecosystem - e.g. if you don't have an iphone or don't want (or can not) use ApplePay.
Also, 2% cashback and no fees is nothing exceptional (in US market) - I mean, it's on the better end but there are a number of cards with similar deal from Wells Fargo, Fidelity, Capital One, etc. So it's not that spectacular - you can have the same deal without being hardwired into Apple's closed garden.
what's the hard part outside of the Apple ecosystem? They give you a physical card and a normal ccard number. What else is there?
IIRC even activating the physical card requires an app, which is of course only existing on iphone. Also, the user agreement specifies you need a device which is ApplePay compatible (i.e., iphone). Also, IIRC the card doesn't actually have a number anywhere, so if you ever need to enter it, you're out of luck. And to use the cashback funds, IIRC you need the app again.
The only fully-functional interface for viewing statements and scheduling payments is on iPhone. In fact I'm pretty sure you can't do either of those things at all in any other place than the iPhone Wallet app. Not even on a Mac or an iPad.
You can view statements via the Web on <https://card.apple.com/> (though not for the associated savings account, if you choose to add that).
using normal card offers a reduced cashback of 1%.