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When is the Apple Card credit card coming to the UK?
It's all gone a bit quiet since Apple unveiled plans to launch its first credit card (to be used together with Apple Pay) back in March 2019... The card has been available in the US for ages now, but a UK launch has yet to be announced.
If the announcement of the new Apple Card intrigued you, you’ll want to know if it’s a good deal and when it’s coming to the UK. Here’s all we know about it.
The card launched in the US in mid-2019, but there’s still very little known about a potential UK counterpart launching.
In more recent developments, in 2022 Apple bought Credit Kudos, a UK open banking startup which helps lenders decide how risky it would be to offer somebody credit, by analysing their day-to-day banking habits. Then in July 2023, it was reported that Goldman Sachs, Apple’s banking partner for the card, was seeking a way out of the partnership.
These two developments may suggest Apple is aiming to build up its own capabilities, so that it can run this card without outside help. In our opinion this probably means a UK launch isn’t on the, erm, cards just yet.
We’ll keep this page updated as and when more news comes in. If you don’t want to wait, you can check out the cashback credit cards that are currently available on the UK market.
How does Apple Card work?
Apple Card looks similar to your average credit card, but has some differences. Its main features will be:
- A close link to Apple Pay. Apple Card is clearly built as an extension of Apple Pay, through which consumers can apply for the card, manage it, make payments online and in physical stores and see all the transactions.
- A very basic physical card. So that consumers can make purchases even at shops that don’t accept Apple Pay. Made of titanium (trust Apple to come up with some fancy way of making its products exclusive), the card will have an essential design that won’t even include the card number or the cardholder’s signature. It will simply work through a chip that will connect it to the Apple Wallet app.
- Cashback on all purchases. The percentage depends on how you use the card: 2% via Apple Pay, 1% via the physical card and 3% for all purchases on the Apple Store, which confirms that Apple wants cardholders to use the physical card as little as possible. Unlike with many other cards, the cashback will be paid to cardholders daily.
- Budgeting features. Apple will also track and categorise all spending, allowing the cardholder to see where they spend the most and providing monthly reports to help them be more organised with their money.
How much does Apple Card cost?
Apple Card is being advertised as fee-free: Apple said there will be no annual fee, no fee to use it abroad and no fee if you go over the credit limit.
Sounds too good to be true? For the UK, it may very well be. The UK credit card market is very different from the US market and we don’t know yet if Apple will be able to offer the same conditions here.
We also don’t know which interest rate Apple will offer to cardholders who don’t pay off their bill every month, which is quite relevant when comparing credit card deals.
When will Apple Card be available in the UK?
Apple Card was made available in the US from the 20th August, but the tech giant hasn’t said anything about the rest of the world. It’s likely that it’ll arrive in the UK at some point soon, we just don’t know when.
When it does launch, it may also have different features from the ones that are currently being advertised in the US. The 2% cashback on all purchases, for example, may be hard to maintain in the UK market, where a different card merchant fee regime is in place.
We’ll update this page as soon as plans for the UK are announced.
Will Apple Card work if I don’t have an iPhone?
The short answer is no. As we said, Apple Card is tied to Apple Pay and doesn’t work without it.
Given Apple’s record of building devices that are only compatible with one another, it’s unlikely things will change in the future. In a nutshell, don’t hold your breath while you wait for Apple Card to become available on Android.
Compare alternative cashback credit cards
Table: sorted by representative APR, promoted deals first
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