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Comment by 4ntonius8lock | Hacker News Reader

1% back using the card?

I make few purchases with less than 3%.

In terms of security, I've had my card cloned. Within minutes the bank locked the account and had a new card shipped. Hardly a big pain point they are solving. And most of us have more than one, so if any of our cards are down, we have others. It's merchants that currently carry the cost of low quality financial instrument standards we have.

For privacy, if I valued it over the $x,xxx I get back every year in the form of cash back, free insurance on rentals, etc, I'd use the most private of all instruments.... Cash.

Pretty mediocre card if you ask me. Of course, the cool factor will make this a success. They only need the right % of the cool crowd to move in on it, and the rest will follow the virality. Oh us humans.

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>For privacy, if I valued it over the $x,xxx I get back every year in the form of cash back, free insurance on rentals, etc, I'd use the most private of all instruments.... Cash.

My guess is that Apple is trying to provide a middle ground between fully private instruments such as cash, with convenience of a credit card. Its much more privacy focused than your average credit card, while offering the same convenience. The price you pay for the extra privacy is the lack luster rewards.

My guess is they are trying to appeal to that group... as an aside to the main cool factor.

Look at the presentation of the card and the offering. When the presentation is more competitive than the offering, you know they are trying to sell you $10 bars of chocolate. Very cool. Not the best.

How are you doing 3%? Rolling rewards? Doesn't seem like there are a lot of 3% cards out there without an annual fee or a set of conditions to try and fulfill.

2% on all Apple Pay purchases is pretty straightforward.

Not to mention the 2% and 3% cash back are for certain categories and there are limits to how much you can get back in a given year with other cards.

For example, most cards will allow you to get a 2% cash back up to $6,000 per year. I have yet to find a card that has unlimited 2% cash back on ALL purchases.

Apple Card is unlimited 2% back, no category restrictions, as long as you use Apple Pay. That's quite a deal.

Citi double cash gives a flat 2% back for any purchase.

I had double cash until someone skimmed my card and citi didn’t notice. I had to catch it, make a complaint, then sign bullshit forms asking if the following name was mine. It just stumped me how they didn’t catch it - there were purchases being made in different geographies on the same day as I was making purchases elsewhere. I lost total confidence in citi as a trustworthy company after that.

Capital one is way more proactive on catching fraud, so I use their 1.5% quicksilver. Several times they have asked me about potentially fraud purchases. Totally worth it for peace of mind.

I realize that I’m not liable for fraud credit card purchases but it’s still a stressful hassle to catch fraud yourself, challenge purchases, go through the motions and eventually get them dropped months later.

Barclays I use for dining out and travel, have yet to see how they are.

Maybe you have a different Citi card than I do, but there's a cap on the 2% with mine. Also, there's a bunch of fees that the Apple Card doesn't have.

I don't know any big bank card that doesn't have late payment or over limit fees, for example.

The way the Citi Double Cash Card works is you get 1% for every dollar spent and 1% for every dollar paid.

- It is actually 1.98% because when you apply it to a statement credit you are not really paying off the full total. You get a straight 2% back, daily, with Apple Card.

- There is also a redemption minimum with Citi, in this case there needs to be at least $25 dollars in cash back before you can claim it. Apple doesn't have that.

- Citi card has foreign transaction fees. Apple Card does not.

- The rewards "expire" with Citi. Apple's doesn't.

- Citi's rewards are given to you after your first statement is paid off and higher than 25 dollars. Apple's is given daily, and you can do what you want with those cash rewards.

> - It is actually 1.98% because when you apply it to a statement credit you are not really paying off the full total. You get a straight 2% back, daily, with Apple Card.

You get a straight 1% back, daily, with Apple Card (except for Apple Pay purchases).

>when you apply it to a statement credit

You can get it deposited to your checking account instead.

There are plenty of 2% cash back credit cards (just Google the term and you'll find plenty of places blogging about them.) I have the Alliant 3% cash back card--it's 3% for the entire first year on every purchase.

2% back at places that allow NFC payment is a major distinction. All the major credit cards seem to offer some kind of incentive to use Google Pay, Samsung Pay, Apple Pay, NFC, etc.

But I expect these incentives to start to dry up when you can actually use it regularly. I've never been able to use NFC payment to buy a meal at a sit down restaurant or bar, grocery stores and Target are just barely getting it everywhere. Its hard to get excited about 2% on my in store 7-11 purchases.

Samsung already destroyed the worth of their points last year when there was even a slight tick up in retailers. Theres only one fee free card I know of thats even slightly worth getting that offers true unlimited 2%, the Double Cash, and its usually not recommended because people who actually regularly use and research cards because it doesn't offer a bonus.

FWIW, unless you're on one of their lower end phones you can also use Samsung Pay on a regular credit card reader. Most Samsung phones can emulate the mag stripe of a credit card if you hold them near the swipe area.

> Most Samsung phones can emulate the mag stripe of a credit card if you hold them near the swipe area

Source for this claim?

See the Note 8 and 9. It works like magic

There is an article about it here: https://www.theverge.com/2015/8/13/9146965/samsung-pay-mobil...

Like other people mentioned, the tech is called magnetic secure transmission. I don't have a source for "most", but it's been in all of their flagships and some of the midrange phones since the Galaxy S6 so it seemed like a safe assumption. The only 2 places it doesn't work easily for me are Trader Joe's and gas stations. There's a hacky workaround to use MST at gas stations but IMO it's not worth the effort (the pumps expect a card to be physically inserted, so you can just put in a library card or your driver's license before you hold your phone up to the reader)

Amex has Blue Cash Everyday - the non fee on gives you 3% on supermarkets, no fee. The premium one with a $95/year fee gives you 6%. The max on these amounts is really high, and I have a number of cards to work with.

For online stores and restaurants/bars, I get 4% back with my uber card from barclays, again no fee (in fact both of these cards give you money just for signing up).

For me, restaurants/bars + supermarkets are the majority of my expenses, the other being housing, which I pay with direct transfer, no credit card option.

Most of my cards also offer extended warranty, free insurance on rental cars, free trip insurance, phone insurance, etc.

2% is the least I get when swiping, there's a lot of options for this including the city double with no fee. Apple wants me to exchange that for 1% and they make a big deal out of it. I mean, ok, they give a little more privacy, but again, if you value that, cash is king. I will say, their cool factor is really high, the packaging for this is way nicer than even very premium credit cards I've had.

It's not difficult to average 3% or more with a stack of credit cards, if you're willing to juggle them. Obviously going with an across the board 2% rate is easier.

Uber Visa 4% on dining Costco Visa 4% for gas Amazon Prime Visa 5% on Amazon and Whole Foods purchases [add more to cover your major spending categories] Citi Doublecash for 2% on everything else

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