Apple Visa Credit Card
REVIEW

I get lots of questions about so-called "Apple Credit Cards" or rather credit cards that folks think are issued by Apple. Well, Apple does not issue their own credit cards or anything of that sort. Instead, Apple has teamed up with Juniper Bank to provide some form of "financing" for folks who want to an Apple computer but cannot or do not wish to pay in full.

So here is how it works. You can either apply for the "Apple Credit Card" from their website or over the phone. The number to call is 1-800-MY-APPLE. Very often, an Apple salesperson will guide you through the online application process and you may know pretty much on the spot if you are approved. But sometimes, that can take a few days.
 

The full terms and conditions are listed here. Once you are approved of the card, you have up to 30 days to make your purchase.
 

• 18 Months Financing for purchases of $2,500 and above
• 12 Months Financing for purchases of $900 to $2,500
• 6 Months Financing for purchases below $900

The card has no annual fee and is a vanilla credit card. Below is another screen shot of how it works.
 

 

 

 

As we mentioned earlier, in November 2014, Apple and Barclays announced a new reward program for their card. This is an improvement over the old card which had no reward program and was just a means to finance an Apple product purchase.

The new card has the following rewards:

 

• You earn 3X points for every purchase made at Apple
• you earn 2X points for every dollar at restaurants
• You earn 1X point for every other regular purchases

 

This is an improvement over the old version because the old one did not have any reward program at all?

Their financing terms also improved.

• 18 months financing for purchases of $999 and above (versus $2,500 before)
• 12 months financing for purchases of $499 to $998 (versus $900 to $2,500 before)
• 6 months financing for purchases below $499 (versus $900 and below before)

If you are considering this card, then you should also be aware that Discover Cards have a shopping portal where you can get 5% cash back at apple.com. Be aware that this 5% usually does not apply when a new iphone just gets released. Discover is also an issuer that tends to offer generous 0% APR for purchases deals so you might just want to investigate this as well. Below are screen shots taken from their online portals.
 

Clicking on the Apple Icon takes you to their terms and conditions page where you will see the fine prints.
 

Clicking on the shop now button takes you to Apple Store. By accessing apple.com through your Discover account and using your Discover Card, you will earn 5% rebates. If you went directly to apple.com from your browser, you will not earn the 5% because the purchase would not be tracked by Discover.
 

 

At first glance, this appears to be a fantastic card for Apple fans. If you are buying products regularly from Apple, you can earn reward points and use them at stores. However, there are several things to consider.

The first is that there are many other cards that offer 0% financing terms. If your credit is good, then you might be able to get 15 months or 18 months 0% APR deals on other cards as well (though you cannot earn Apple Reward Points).

The second thing to consider is what you do spend often at Apple stores. For the majority of people, it is actually an iphone. But with most carriers, you get 0% financing anyway? For example, with the AT&T Next plan, you can get financing for 12 months or 18 months or even 24 months on a new iphone. And most of you will purchase it from your wireless carrier anyway. That being the case, you might want to give this card a skip. If on the other hand, you want to finance an Apple Mac Pro, then this card will definitely make sense.

Another thing to consider is that the Discover IT offers 5% cash back from you purchase at apple.com with your Discover card. You might want to consider this as well.

At the end of the day, I would say that the Apple Visa is actually a pretty decent card. If you buy products from Apple regularly, the reward points that you earn from using this card will shave off your Apple purchase cost and given that Apple products then to come at a premium over Windows or Android based products, the savings could be significant. One thing to bear in mind is that you have to buy your stuff at Apple stores. If you want to buy Apple products at Best Buy, you will not earn the triple points.

If you search and read other forums about this card, you will also find out that this card is one of the easier Barclays cards to get (the other being the BarclayCard Rewards MasterCard®. If you have average credit and are looking for a no annual fee card, either of these might be good candidates.