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What's exciting about Apple Card is not that it will put more money in my pocket, but how it modernizes payments. I signed up yesterday morning, and made my fir

What's exciting about Apple Card is not that it will put more money in my pocket, but how it modernizes payments. I signed up yesterday morning, and made my first purchase a few hours later. Unlike my current card, the app doesn't try to push "special offers" and I think it won't share my purchase history with "affiliates." I can see my purchase on a map, and Apple can't - nice. It's a pretty cool experience and I hope Apple Card sets a new baseline.

snaky 7y ago
Honest question - why anybody would want her purchases on the map?
- mehrdadn 7y ago
  Maybe you forgot which store had a product you ultimately bought and liked?
- brownbat 7y ago
  I'm not likely to grab this card, but every few months going back over my statement I see some small purchase I can't quite place. The text description for stores is often really vague, especially for gas stations. Confirming where a purchase was made can help with budgeting and detecting fraud.
- iams 7y ago
  If see a transaction you don't recognise. By looking at it on a map it may remind you of that small shop you bought something from. Or it might be in a town you've never been to.
- beamatronic 7y ago
  Reliving a vacation
- ssully 7y ago
  I used to use Simple bank and they did this as well. One time I was at my desk and got a notification for a purchase at a Grocery store that sounded unfamiliar. Opening the notification took me into the detail page that showed it was located in Florida. I then put a block on my card and notified support of the fraudulent transaction all through the app within 2 minutes. I've since switched banks, but I still haven't found a bank that had as good of an experience as them. Hearing about the Apple cards digital experience is actually enticing, because both of the credit cards I use are slow as hell, or make using rewards difficult in some way (one card makes me 'activate' the reward tiers for the 3 month period, the other takes you out of the app to an external page to use any rewards).
DJHenk 7y ago
> it modernizes payments Payment does not need modernizing. The more 'deals' and 'convenience' they introduce, the more complicated paying becomes overall. This complexity makes it for you, the consumer, more difficult to determine the actual value of the thing is you are purchasing, makes it more difficult to figure out whether you want to support the business processes that go with it. Do the points and rewards for this transaction manipulate you in an unacceptable way into buying other things later on? Does Apple really care that much about your privacy, or will they use this information in a way that you don't like? Do you think that them having almost absolute say over what happens on your phone is a good thing or a bad thing and will this purchase endorse that or not? You can have all kinds of answers to those questions, but do you really want to go through all of them when you buy an album on iTunes? Just keep it simple. You have this good/service and I want it. I give you money, you give me the thing. End of story.
- simonh 7y ago
  I'm confused, the point being made is that the Apple Card modernises payments by getting rid of all the points schemes, special offers and back room deals over your data.
DuskStar 7y ago
> I can see my purchase on a map, and Apple can't - nice. Why on earth would you think Apple can't see where your purchases were?
- jxcl 7y ago
  Big ol’ block of text on the product page. https://www.apple.com/apple-card/privacy-security/ https://www.apple.com/apple-card/privacy-security/ > Even Apple doesn’t know what you bought. Or where. Or how much you paid. > At Apple, we firmly believe in your right to privacy. That’s why we created a unique architecture for Apple Card that generates things like your transaction history and spending summaries right in the Wallet app on your iPhone. Of course, Goldman Sachs will use your data to operate Apple Card. But they will never share or sell your data to third parties for marketing or advertising.
  - DuskStar 7y ago
    Ahhh, ok. Apple can't, but Goldman Sachs can.

snaky 7y ago

Honest question - why anybody would want her purchases on the map?

mehrdadn 7y ago
Maybe you forgot which store had a product you ultimately bought and liked?
brownbat 7y ago
I'm not likely to grab this card, but every few months going back over my statement I see some small purchase I can't quite place. The text description for stores is often really vague, especially for gas stations. Confirming where a purchase was made can help with budgeting and detecting fraud.
iams 7y ago
If see a transaction you don't recognise. By looking at it on a map it may remind you of that small shop you bought something from. Or it might be in a town you've never been to.
beamatronic 7y ago
Reliving a vacation
ssully 7y ago
I used to use Simple bank and they did this as well. One time I was at my desk and got a notification for a purchase at a Grocery store that sounded unfamiliar. Opening the notification took me into the detail page that showed it was located in Florida. I then put a block on my card and notified support of the fraudulent transaction all through the app within 2 minutes. I've since switched banks, but I still haven't found a bank that had as good of an experience as them. Hearing about the Apple cards digital experience is actually enticing, because both of the credit cards I use are slow as hell, or make using rewards difficult in some way (one card makes me 'activate' the reward tiers for the 3 month period, the other takes you out of the app to an external page to use any rewards).

DJHenk 7y ago

> it modernizes payments Payment does not need modernizing. The more 'deals' and 'convenience' they introduce, the more complicated paying becomes overall. This complexity makes it for you, the consumer, more difficult to determine the actual value of the thing is you are purchasing, makes it more difficult to figure out whether you want to support the business processes that go with it. Do the points and rewards for this transaction manipulate you in an unacceptable way into buying other things later on? Does Apple really care that much about your privacy, or will they use this information in a way that you don't like? Do you think that them having almost absolute say over what happens on your phone is a good thing or a bad thing and will this purchase endorse that or not? You can have all kinds of answers to those questions, but do you really want to go through all of them when you buy an album on iTunes? Just keep it simple. You have this good/service and I want it. I give you money, you give me the thing. End of story.

simonh 7y ago
I'm confused, the point being made is that the Apple Card modernises payments by getting rid of all the points schemes, special offers and back room deals over your data.

DuskStar 7y ago

> I can see my purchase on a map, and Apple can't - nice. Why on earth would you think Apple can't see where your purchases were?

jxcl 7y ago
Big ol’ block of text on the product page. https://www.apple.com/apple-card/privacy-security/ https://www.apple.com/apple-card/privacy-security/ > Even Apple doesn’t know what you bought. Or where. Or how much you paid. > At Apple, we firmly believe in your right to privacy. That’s why we created a unique architecture for Apple Card that generates things like your transaction history and spending summaries right in the Wallet app on your iPhone. Of course, Goldman Sachs will use your data to operate Apple Card. But they will never share or sell your data to third parties for marketing or advertising.
- DuskStar 7y ago
  Ahhh, ok. Apple can't, but Goldman Sachs can.