Apple Card said to launch in first half of August

[tacobell fan]

Apple and Goldman Sachs are targeting a launch for Apple Card in the first half of August, which means only a couple of weeks away.

When the service goes live, iPhone users will be able to sign up on their device through the Wallet app, assuming they have already updated to iOS 12.4 (which was released earlier this week).

Apple Card is advertised as a credit card “created by Apple, not a bank” (despite the tight partnership with Goldman Sachs, Apple Card’s issuing bank). Users will be able to use the card with Apple Pay, see charts of spending history, get notification alerts, and manage their balance all on their phone.

Apple Card has no fees — like no international fees or late payment penalties — other than the interest rate charges, which will vary between 13.4% and 24.4%. Rather than complicated rewards schemes, Apple Card offers Daily Cash.

Users can apply to receive a physical titanium Apple Card, which features a debossed imprint of their name — and no numbers on its face.

Users can get 3% cashback on any Apple purchases made with the Apple Card, 2% cashback on purchases made with Apple Pay, and 1% cashback with purchases made using the physical titanium credit card. Cashback is paid daily into the user’s Apple Cash account, which they can send to their bank, spend directly, or send to friends.

In the Bloomberg report, it says that Apple asked Goldman Sachs to make changes to the Apple Card backing infrastructure as late as May, so it doesn’t seem like the run-up to launch has been entirely plain sailing.

Nevertheless, a promised summer launch means that the companies technically have until mid-September to keep to their word … and a mid-August debut is comfortably in that range.