Apple Card review: Decent cash back if you can leap through the hurdles

If you dine out often and travel occasionally, you might prefer a card like the Chase Freedom Flex.

This no-annual-fee card has generous cash back rates for dining, Chase Travel℠ purchases and an activated rotating bonus category. Although you won’t be able to predict the bonus category that Chase offers, this card’s cash back potential may outpace the Apple Card’s potential because it rewards everyday purchases.

The Freedom Flex also has a generous welcome offer and intro APRs for purchases and balance transfers, making it a much more flexible and rewarding credit card for the everyday user. It does charge more fees than the Apple Card, such as late fees and foreign transaction fees, but this shouldn’t make much of a difference unless you travel internationally frequently or don’t pay your balance on time.

For the Apple Card to be better than the Wells Fargo Active Cash Card, two things must be true: you need to have an iPhone and you need to shop regularly at Apple or eligible retailers to earn 3 percent back. If neither of these two things is true for you, the Wells Fargo Active Cash is the better card.

Both cards earn 2 percent cash rewards at most retailers, but the Apple Card requires that you use Apple Pay, otherwise you’ll earn just 1 percent back. The Active Cash Card has no such restriction on its rewards and you’ll earn unlimited 2 percent cash rewards on purchases. If you value low-maintenance credit cards without any need to make payments using an app on your phone, the Wells Fargo Active Cash is the best card you could hope for. It has a generous, flat cash rewards rate, a welcome offer and intro APR offers for purchases and balance transfers.

The Active Cash also has up to $600 in cellphone protection when you pay your monthly cellphone bill with the card and it includes Visa Signature® perks.

The Wells Fargo Active Cash Card could be a good choice since it offers a flat 2 percent cash rewards back on purchases with no annual fee. You can use this card wherever Apple Pay isn’t accepted so you can earn 2 percent cash rewards instead of 1 percent.

The Citi Custom Cash Card is one of the most versatile credit cards around and worth pairing with just about any card. You can earn 5 percent back in a choice category (up to $500 spent each billing cycle). It’ll be a great card to use for everyday purchases like groceries, gas and dining because the Apple Card can only earn up to 2 percent back for these purchases, provided the merchant takes Apple Pay.

While Apple Pay might be accepted internationally, there's no guarantee that you’ll find it at every merchant you go to. So pairing it with another card that doesn't have a foreign transaction fee but rewards generously for purchases you’re likely to make at home and abroad would be a decent option, like the Capital One SavorOne Cash Reward Credit Card (See Rates and Fees). With the SavorOne, you can earn 3 percent cash back on dining, entertainment, popular streaming services and at grocery stores (excluding superstores like Walmart® and Target®) with or without Apple Pay.

Apple customers can make the most of the card at merchants that use Apple Pay, and it’s an even more valuable card if you use it at eligible merchants because you can earn a flat-rate of 3 percent cash back. This rate is fairly high for a card like this, so it’s nothing to shrug at if you can check all of the boxes required to earn this card’s top rewards rate.

The primary criteria for a rewards or cash back card’s rating is its rewards value. This includes the card’s average rewards rate, estimated annual rewards earnings, sign-up bonus value and reward redemption value.

To estimate a card’s average annual rewards earnings, we first calculate its average rewards rate based on how much it earns in different bonus categories and how closely its categories align with the average person’s spending habits, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

The most recent BLS data estimates average total spending in 2022 was $72,967 per consumer. We then narrow our focus to which purchases are likely to be put on a credit card and earn rewards, subtracting expenditures like housing, vehicle purchases and education. This gives us a total “chargeable” annual spend of around $22,500.  

Some of the major spending categories that contribute towards the annual spend include:

• Groceries: $5,700
• Dining out: $3,600
• Entertainment: $2,400
• Gas: $3,100
• Apparel and services: $1,900

Using this data, we assign a weighting to each of a card’s bonus categories. For example, a card’s grocery rewards rate receives a 22 percent weighting based on how much of the average person’s budget is spent on groceries. We also estimate the redemption value of points or miles from various issuer, airline and hotel rewards programs.

This weighting and rewards valuation allows us to estimate a card’s average annual rewards earnings — how many points or miles you’d earn with a given card if your spending was about average and you used the card for all of your purchases, as well as what those points are worth. We also use point valuations to determine a card’s sign-up bonus value.

With these calculations complete, we assign each card a score based on how its average rewards earnings, sign-up bonus value, rewards rate and redemption value stack up against other rewards cards.

We also rate cards based on how much it costs to keep them in your wallet or carry a balance. 

To start, each rewards or cash back card is scored based on whether it offers an intro APR and how its ongoing APR compares to the rates available on other rewards or cash back cards. 

We also score each card based on how its annual fee influences its overall value. 

We consider a card’s annual fee in two ways — how it ranks relative to the fees you’ll find on other cards in the category and how it impacts a card’s overall rewards value. Cards with an annual fee will always be at a slight disadvantage in our scoring system since annual fees inherently cut into your rewards value, but if a card offers terrific value via its ongoing rewards and perks, it can earn a high score even if it carries a high annual fee. 

With this in mind, we rate a card based primarily on how its ongoing rewards value and ongoing perk value (such as annual credits or bonuses) stack up against other cards in the category when you subtract its annual fee.

We rate each card’s flexibility based on the restrictions it imposes on earning and redeeming rewards and factor this rating into a card’s overall score. 

Flexibility factors include whether a card only allows you to earn a high rewards rate on a small amount of spending or requires you to meet a certain earning threshold before you can redeem rewards. We also examine whether your points are worth less when you redeem for some options versus others and whether a card gives you the flexibility to transfer rewards to airline and hotel partners. 

We also score each card’s set of features – its perks and benefits — against five tiers of features to provide a rating. 

We break down these tiers as follows:

• Tier 1 has less than standard card features (an ultra-streamlined card that offers basic utility and next to nothing in the way of ancillary benefits. 
• Tier 2 includes the benefits you’d expect on standard Visa or Mastercard credit cards, such as free access to your credit score, car rental insurance and $0 liability for fraudulent charges. 
• Tier 3 includes “prime card” or better-than-average card features like cellphone insurance, lost luggage insurance, concierge services and purchase protection. 
• Tier 4 includes luxury features such as airport lounge access, elite status with an airline or hotel and credits for expedited security screening membership programs. 
• Tier 5 includes the sort of exemplary benefits you’ll find on top-tier luxury cards, such as high-value travel credits, cardholder memberships and other unique and valuable perks.

The Apple Card is made of titanium but you must add the Apple Card to your Wallet on an eligible iOS or iPadOS device in order to request a physical card.

Your Apple Card application could be denied for a number of reasons. It’s worth keeping in mind that Apple suggests you have a decent credit score (a FICO score of at least 660) before applying.

Goldman Sachs, the card’s issuer, will use your income, credit score and minimum payment amounts from your existing debt to determine your credit limit.