With Apple Card, Apple edges further into financial services this summer

“Apple’s Monday announcement of a credit card – the Apple Card – represented a natural progression of the company’s journey into financial services that began with the Apple Wallet app and its contactless digital payment service, Apple Pay,” Lucas Mearian writes for Computerworld.”The Apple Card, as described by the company this week, will offer users some attractive features: up to 3% cash back on daily purchases, no late or international transaction fees, and a physical chipped card make of titanium (sans any credit card numbers – just your name and an Apple symbol). Additionally, Apple is using machine learning algorithms to offer card users a real-time view of purchases, along with spending trend information.”
“Apple Card is more secure than a conventional credit card in several ways. For one, the physical card Apple will send in the mail contains no credit card number, which could otherwise be stolen,” Mearian writes. “Additionally, the virtual Apple Card doesn’t contain a visible credit card number. The only entities aware of that number is the credit card issuer and the card holder. The credit card number is encrypted and a key is used to create an alias account on the iPhone.”
Apple’s physical laser-etched titanium Apple Card
 

 

 
“The credit card number is isolated from the mobile operating system and is never backed up to the cloud. Even if a hacker did break into and steal the credit card number, they couldn’t necessarily use it unless they got the key related to the mobile device,” Mearian writes. “In the future, Apple may could decide to cut out the bank and credit card company and become its own bank. In the meantime, the Apple Card offers a user friendly interface and attractive benefits that are likely to spur adoption.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Our only wish is that we could have Apple Card now and not have to wait until “this summer.”
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Introducing Apple Card, a new kind of credit card created by Apple – March 25, 2019