
How to clean your Apple Card - justanothersys
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210399
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electic
I have been using Apple Card now for about two weeks and I have to say the
physical card is nothing short of marketing genius by Apple.

The 2% unlimited cash back now has me using Apple Pay everywhere. At places
that don't have it, I have to pull out the titanium card. Almost every place I
go to people ask what is this card? Am I an Apple employee? Keep in mind, most
places have never seen a titanium card before because they are typically given
to extremely high net work individuals by AMEX and Visa.

After explaining what the card is. They invariably ask what is the benefit of
the card. Being a nice guy, I explain them the benefits of the card.

The card is a conversation starter. It serves as an advertisement for people
to sign up and it also serves as a way to get the establishment that you used
the card to start accepting NFC payments.

None of this would be possible if the card was a crappy plastic material.

~~~
sytelus
Just curious, why did you got this card? There are tons of Chase and other
cards with much better cashback and terms. Just wondering what advantage did
you saw in this card.

~~~
electic
I have looked at many cards. But most of them have annual fees, have
categories that don't give the same percentage cash back on certain purchases,
or they have limits.

For example, most cards have a 2% cash back limit up to $6,000 dollars. There
is the Citi Double cash card that does have unlimited but really it is 1.98
percent because you get 1% on every dollar spent and 1% on every dollar paid.
However, if you apply it to your statement you have not paid the balance so it
really is a bit lower than 2%. Not to mention, you need at least 25 dollars in
cash back before you can use it and it expires.

Apple gives the cash back the next day. Which is insane. While Citi takes 1.5
months to give it to you. It is easy to forget about it and one of the reasons
why so many people forget and it expires out.

The only exception is travel cards. If you travel a lot it might make sense to
get one of those cards for the perks because your usage will offset the annual
fee. In that department, Apple does provide no foreign transactions fees and I
think that is good enough for me.

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justanothersys
Maybe it’s their way of celebrating 100 years of the Bauhaus?

To me, the weirdest thing is seeing a customer service webpage for a credit
card in the design language and rhetoric of computer hardware support.

It somehow feels similar to the recently discussed WeWork criticism of them
not actually being a tech company, yet masquerading as one through design.

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JMTQp8lwXL
If a card made of an unusual material is enough to garner adoption, consider
me impressed and maybe not of the highest of business acumen skills.

~~~
mintone
It has been a huge part of the sell here for Monzo [0] with a bright coral
coloured card and Revolut [1] with black, pink and metal cards. It works!

[0] [https://monzo.com/fullmonzo/](https://monzo.com/fullmonzo/) [1]
[https://www.revolut.com/introducing-revolut-
metal](https://www.revolut.com/introducing-revolut-metal)

Edited to link to revolut metal including apple style video of production,
featuring Jony Ive sound-a-like

~~~
JMTQp8lwXL
Flashy cars and houses in nice neighborhoods make for nice status symbols. Who
sees your credit card, beyond you and your server, cashier, etc?

~~~
katbyte
I don’t agree with it but people you go out with diner and pay for? There are
plenty of times people see my card outside the server/cashier.

~~~
stunt
But who cares what type of card do you have? Or why do you care what
server/cashier thinks about your status?

If you happen to have a real premium card, then probably people around you
already know your status. They don't need to look at your credit card.

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stunt
I don’t remember ever cleaning my credit cards!

~~~
schede
Exactly, just report it as lost and get a new one!

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millstone
I think there should have been no physical Apple Card. The design is very
Apple, and surely looks and feels great. But it risks upstaging the big idea
of payment flow modernization.

To stretch a bit: the iMac asserted that you don't need all those ports, and
the Apple Card should assert you don't need that piece of plastic - or laser-
etched titanium - in your wallet.

~~~
jgrantme
I think the physical card is (in part) an attempt to stimulate digital usage
(especially in North America where adoption of Apple Pay is pretty low
compared to other places like Europe). Give people something they're familiar
with (a physical card), reward them with cashback (which they will likely use
digitally), and eventually wean them off the physical card completely.

~~~
sidr
I'm surprised to hear that Apple Pay has higher adoption in Europe, given that
the iPhone has lower penetration there.

~~~
cianmm
iPhone adaption might be lower, but contactless adaption is through the roof.
I can’t remember the last shop I was at which didn’t accept contactless. Even
vendors at farmers markets accept contactless these days.

So since most banks support Apple Pay (and Google Pay), pretty much everybody
who is comfortable with technology uses it.

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albertshin
It will be absolutely hilarious (yet somewhat plausible) when people start
making cases / skins for these cards.

~~~
garretraziel
"Cases" for credit cards are pretty common here in Europe (something like
this: [https://www.kartyvbezpeci.cz/174-thickbox_default/pouzdro-
na...](https://www.kartyvbezpeci.cz/174-thickbox_default/pouzdro-na-kreditni-
karty-modre-kb-117.jpg))

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groovypuppy
Don’t get me wrong, I love Apple. This is a company that popularized GUIs,
gave us hyperCard, gave us the iPod and the iPhone and now it’s selling us a
credit card? Really? Am I missing something? This is innovation and I’m just
too old and nostalgic recognizing it as such? Help an old geezer out here.

~~~
sytelus
The Apple credit card is simply an incentive to use Apple Pay. You can think
of this card as Trojan horse.

Think about it: Why do you need any credit card at all? You have your phone,
you can flash whatever bardcode/QR code auto generated, verified with your
FaceID/TouchID. It would be ton more secure, prevent a lot of fraud and can do
sophisticated things like automatic accounting, receipt keeping etc. BUT at
the same time, it would dissolve the monopoly of 3 companies who are in the
business of credit cards because virtually anyone can start mobile payment
business this as long as POS systems were enabled for it. The widely deployed
POS systems control which system of payment would become the norm. In
countries where credit cards weren't the norms, mobile payments are the norms
now. Other countries are left behind this revolution.

~~~
JMTQp8lwXL
> Think about it: Why do you need any credit card at all? You have your phone,

One's phone could be dead, or near 0-percent battery. The trend is for people
to forego annual upgrades (phone lifespans are increasing), but those phones
are also not getting maintenance -- so the battery performance is degraded. A
phone with a degraded battery might barely pull through a day, if you remember
to charge it the previous evening.

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eyeareque
No leather wallets, how did they not test this? You’d think their coating
process would protect against this.

~~~
mlyle
Lots of leather wallets will discolor basically anything. I get little streaks
on all my cards. It probably can get scrubbed off my "platinum" cards somehow
but sure doesn't come off with casual cleaning.

~~~
Alupis
Well, making the darn thing white certainly doesn't help!

Clearly they didn't learn much from all those black scuffed dirty white
MacBook charging cables...

> If your titanium Apple Card comes into contact with hard surfaces or
> materials, it's possible that the coating can be damaged.

This seems all but a guarantee!

This thing will be handled by dirty hands, slid in and out of machines, put
into those folder things at restaurants (I've spilled salsa and other things
on those more than once), and more.

I have a few metal cards... They're all dark colors, and I've never once had
to think about how to keep them clean looking.

~~~
_nhynes
All the more reason to use the cardless apple pay then, eh? Hmm..

------
lubujackson
Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball.
[https://snltranscripts.jt.org/90/90mhappyfunball.phtml](https://snltranscripts.jt.org/90/90mhappyfunball.phtml)

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pensatoio
Really nothing surprising here. I think this is more about being able to point
a finger and say, “we told you how to take care of it,” when people inevitably
ruin the thing.

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TruffleLabs
There is irony Apple has a physical card used as a token to transfer financial
and transaction information.

Then again... Wallet needs an iPhone to work ;)

