Apple’s ‘lower rate’ credit card has a higher-than-average APR

Image: apple / screengrab

On its new , Apple shared more details about its newest payment method: a credit card backed by Goldman Sachs and on the MasterCard network. 

The digital (and accompanying physical titanium card) card was introduced Monday at Apple’s event to showcase new video streaming, gaming, and news services. The new card that’s used through the iPhone’s Wallet app won’t arrive in the U.S. until summer, but that didn’t stop Apple execs from hyping the card.

But to get any of the details about the card, you have to keep scrolling on the new Apple Card site to find anything. In the fine-print footnotes, that “lower interest rate” discussed at the event was finally specified. The site states, “Variable APRs range from 13.24% to 24.24% based on creditworthiness. Rates as of March 2019.”

reported the average annual percentage rate, or APR, for all credit cards from banks in 2017 was 12.54 percent, putting Apple’s lowest rate above the average. In 2018 it was just above 16 percent, according to Nerd Wallet. Those averages are based on Federal Reserve data. 

Now it makes sense why those specific rates weren’t splashed on the Apple theater screen like other perks about the card, like no international fees and 2 percent cash back on Apple Pay purchases. A 24 percent APR is considered pretty high and certainly doesn’t qualify as “low.”

Here’s a bit more disappointment about the card: it won’t be contactless, although we didn’t really think it would be.

As CreditCards.com analyst Ted Rossman pointed out, U.S. Bank offers a card with 3 percent cash back for “mobile wallet spending,” so that’s a better reward than Apple’s own card offers for Apple Pay transactions.

It just goes to show: You have to read the fine print.