Apple Card will be the most secure credit card ever, and here's why

Posted:
in General Discussion edited December 2019
With the introduction of Apple Card, Apple will bring its security and privacy technology to the credit card industry. From when you apply to when you buy anything, Apple owns the whole process. That's going to protect us from fraud -- and also from ourselves if we misplace the card.

You can track all your spending, but unexpected ones will get you an alert
You can track all your spending, but unexpected ones will get you an alert


You have to admit that Apple is very, very good at taking something that already exists and making it so much better that you wonder why it wasn't always like that. The iPhone is the biggest example, but there's also the small yet perfect touch of the way you change straps on the Apple Watch. Now there's also the credit card and whether Apple Card is the best one for you or not, it has fixed issues everyone else has just put up with.

We've had credit cards for decades and yet we're still stuck phoning the bank if they get stolen. We're still in a bind if we believe the card's been stolen but we find it -- after we've cancelled it.

And just in general use, we are forever having to tell or show people the long number on the front and then the last three or four digits from the back.

Apple Card has fixed all of this -- although it's chiefly done it by taking the actual card out of the equation as much as possible.

Apple Pay

There is the titanium Apple Card and you will get that if you sign up for the credit card and are approved. However, Apple is doing all it can to get you instead using Apple Card via Apple Pay on your iPhone, Apple Watch or, increasingly, online and on your Mac.

Regardless of how you use Apple Card, though, all of Apple's security and privacy is there to protect us. When you buy something, you confirm it's you by the iPhone's Face ID or Touch ID. Or if you're using an Apple Watch, the wrist detection on that knows whether you have or haven't taken off the watch since you last entered your passcode into it.

Whichever device you're using, you've authenticated through a biometric method. Your fingerprint or your face or your wrist-and-passcode are required before a purchase can be made on your Apple Card.

Then, too, as you hold your device over a vendor's card reader, a one-time token is passed to it rather than your whole credit card number. The vendor never sees your credit card number. This is how it already is with Apple Pay and in retrospect you can see how Apple went from this to making a credit card without a number.

No number

You can see that the Apple Watch is necessarily the weakest device here. Someone does still have to steal it off your wrist and also know your passcode, but it could be done.

However, if that happens, you can just turn off Apple Card and stop it being used. Go to Find My iPhone on another device or on icloud.com and remove the card.

You can already do this today with whatever credit cards you have registered on Apple Pay on your device. Except you can only remove them from Apple Pay. A thief then can't use your Apple Watch to buy anything, but if they were thorough and also got your physical credit card, they could still use that. They'd just be charging purchases direct to your American Express or whatever.

You will be able to remove or suspend Apple Card to stop it working if it's stolen. Here's how you can already stop a card being used for Apple Pay.
You will be able to remove or suspend Apple Card to stop it working if it's stolen. Here's how you can already stop a card being used for Apple Pay.


Whereas with Apple Card, Apple says that you will be able "to freeze it and order a new one right in the Wallet app."

You'll also be able to suspend an Apple Card and then restore it when you find that you just misplaced it.

Physical and virtual access

There are other banks and credit card companies that offer quick ways to halt or suspend use of their cards, but Apple's got it down to a couple of taps on your iPhone.

This means that a thief making off with your physical card cannot spend your money -- if you know they've done it. It may be quick to turn off a card, but maybe you won't notice for some hours that they've been stolen.

Except, you will get a clue. Every time you make a purchase on Apple Card, you will get a notification about it so the first time a thief buys anything, you'll know.

Plus Apple Card will also alert you to unusual spending. Say you're normally in New York but today you bought lunch in Beirut without first buying a plane ticket there. You'll be alerted to it and able to confirm that it was or wasn't you enjoying the dining at Mayrig Beirut on Pasteur Street.




Again, other card companies and banks offer this, but very often it is ferociously tedious. You suddenly find that your card is blocked just when you need it and good luck finding the right phone number to complain on. Or you may have a bank that calls you with an automated message that slowly goes through asking you to confirm the last few transactions you made.

With Apple Card, you'll get an alert notification called Unusual Activity Detected. It shows you the amount, date, place -- both as an address and a map -- and then two buttons. Tap either Transaction is OK or Report a Problem and that's it. All done.

Many numbers

With no number on the card, it could be tricky when you're ordering pizza over the phone and are asked for one. It's the same when you're buying from an online store that doesn't accept Apple Pay and have to provide a number.

While Apple Card is already known for being the credit card without a number, though, the truth is that it has many of them. The number in the magnetic stripe on the physical card might be thought of as your actual credit card number, but the Wallet app will show you a different, virtual number.

When an online store needs a number and a confirmation code, the three digits from the back of the card, you can read these virtual ones off the Wallet app and they will work just fine. You can enter those into store accounts, too, and the virtual number will continue to work until you decide to stop it.

If you're ever suspicious about a vendor for any reason, you could also have Apple Card generate you a replacement credit card number. This is called the Primary Account Number or PAN and it doesn't change the number encoded in the magnetic strip but it does change your credit card number.

You won't think about numbers with Apple Card, except for the amounts of money in both that and your Daily Cash account
You won't think about numbers with Apple Card, except for the amounts of money in both that and your Daily Cash account


In practice, you're probably not going to think about your card number much at all. When you buy anything where Apple Pay is accepted, that will just work. If you use the physical card at a store, that'll just work. When you want to put a card on your Amazon account, you use the virtual numbers displayed in Wallet.

Fraud

The lines are already blurred between Apple Card and Apple Pay, but we have had Apple Pay for years now. And there have been many, many cases of fraud using it. However, in every single case, the fraud has come not with Apple Pay, but with the credit card that was added to it.

Criminals have stolen credit cards and then poor security with the bank or card company has allowed it to be authorized to work with Apple Pay on an iPhone or other device.

Consequently, Apple Pay itself has proven to be secure and the banks or card companies have proven to be a weak point. Now Apple is the bank, effectively, this should make fraud impossible.

Nothing's impossible, not really, but Apple Card will be authorized via your iPhone. You can't set up Apple Card without an iPhone and you can't use that iPhone without Face ID or Touch ID.

With Apple Card, Apple now owns the entire process from applying for a card, through setting it up, and then on to every transaction you make with it.

That's got to be better for Apple, but it's also better and more secure for us.

Apple is late to the credit card market, but as it has with everything else it's ever done, it's found the perfect touches that make this a compelling product. And so compelling, so perfect, that you know this is how all credit cards are going to be like in the future.

Though hopefully with greater daily cash percentages and lower interest rates.



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patchythepirateAppleExposed
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 51
    revenantrevenant Posts: 621member
    no fees, no International fees--I am in three countries all year round. yes please!!
    JWSClostkiwiAppleExposedwatto_cobrajony0
  • Reply 2 of 51
    lkrupplkrupp Posts: 10,557member
    If only the general population cared about privacy and security. They don’t. When something bad happens they expect to be made whole by their bank, their credit card company, somebody. So why care about privacy and security if there’s no real risk and no incentive to act?
    SolitokoloshtmayjbdragonhmurchisonAppleExposedwatto_cobrajony0
  • Reply 3 of 51
    Is this objective reporting or a Apple commercial?

    designrtyler82revenantchemengin
  • Reply 4 of 51
    eightzeroeightzero Posts: 3,056member
    lkrupp said:
    If only the general population cared about privacy and security. They don’t. When something bad happens they expect to be made whole by their bank, their credit card company, somebody. So why care about privacy and security if there’s no real risk and no incentive to act?
    It don't think it is that they don't care - it is that they are willing to give it up for perceived value. 

    In the US, the entire risk of fraud is on the bank. Debtors need be reasonably diligent, but the FCRA protects consumers. And banks write off the losses as a cost of doing business. At 20%+ interest, this is easy to do. 

    I saw an odd purchase on a card once. It was like $8, but just didn't recognize the address. So I called the bank. The clerk looked it up, and said, "I see that. I'll reverse the charge." I said, "no, i likely bought that, I just don't recognize the location. Tell me the address and name of the business." The clerk audibly sighed and said, "we are instructed to not spend time getting this information. It is faster to just reverse the charge." and essentially got to the "has this resolved your issue" part of the script and essentially hung up.

    I image there is a record of this, and the system flags people trying to get a lot of free coffee.

    chaickaJWSCchemenginwatto_cobra
  • Reply 5 of 51
    mf2kmf2k Posts: 11member
    eightzero said:

    In the US, the entire risk of fraud is on the bank. Debtors need be reasonably diligent, but the FCRA protects consumers. And banks write off the losses as a cost of doing business. At 20%+ interest, this is easy to do. 

    I saw an odd purchase on a card once. It was like $8, but just didn't recognize the address. So I called the bank. The clerk looked it up, and said, "I see that. I'll reverse the charge." I said, "no, i likely bought that, I just don't recognize the location. Tell me the address and name of the business." The clerk audibly sighed and said, "we are instructed to not spend time getting this information. It is faster to just reverse the charge." and essentially got to the "has this resolved your issue" part of the script and essentially hung up.
    Wow, you should get a new credit card. The merchant is the one who does not get paid in that case. 
    n2itivguyjbdragon
  • Reply 6 of 51
    chaickachaicka Posts: 257member
    Please get this launch internationally as swiftly as possible...
    n2itivguyAnilu_777lostkiwiwatto_cobrajony0
  • Reply 7 of 51
    matrix077matrix077 Posts: 868member
    Apple credit card in Wallet app is the only one from the keynote that’s .. Apple-like. It’s simple, easy-to-use, easy-to-understand. Looks like a joy to use unlike some services like News+, for example, that never show how easy it is to use the app and what was shown didn’t look easy. 
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 8 of 51
    maltzmaltz Posts: 453member
    mf2k said:
    eightzero said:

    In the US, the entire risk of fraud is on the bank. Debtors need be reasonably diligent, but the FCRA protects consumers. And banks write off the losses as a cost of doing business. At 20%+ interest, this is easy to do. 

    I saw an odd purchase on a card once. It was like $8, but just didn't recognize the address. So I called the bank. The clerk looked it up, and said, "I see that. I'll reverse the charge." I said, "no, i likely bought that, I just don't recognize the location. Tell me the address and name of the business." The clerk audibly sighed and said, "we are instructed to not spend time getting this information. It is faster to just reverse the charge." and essentially got to the "has this resolved your issue" part of the script and essentially hung up.
    Wow, you should get a new credit card. The merchant is the one who does not get paid in that case. 
    I don't think that's true unless the merchant doesn't have a chip reader.  The merchant having to pay for card-present fraud was the stick the credit card industry used to push merchants to switch to chip readers by October 2015 in the US.  (Gas pumps were supposed to have until 2017, but that's been pushed to October 2020.)

    That was still a super crappy rep, though.  If it's a fraudulent charge, he should have been issued a new card.  If not, it shouldn't have been reversed.
    edited April 2019 watto_cobra
  • Reply 9 of 51
    maltzmaltz Posts: 453member
    So... if you just change the number in your Apple Pay wallet and don't get a new card after fraudulent activity, how does this work for magstripe skimmers?  Just because it's not printed on the card, doesn't mean the card doesn't have an immutable number on the magstripe, and skimmers are a very common form of CC fraud.
  • Reply 10 of 51
    65026502 Posts: 380member
    I've never seen so much excitement for something as mundane as a credit card.
    designrtyler82Anilu_777watto_cobra
  • Reply 11 of 51
    flydogflydog Posts: 1,123member
    elfig2012 said:
    Is this objective reporting or a Apple commercial?

    You won't find much in the way of objectivity on AI.  
    chemengin
  • Reply 12 of 51
    knowitallknowitall Posts: 1,648member
    Oepsie:
    “Goldman Sachs, one of Wall Street's most powerful banks, is facing criminal charges in Malaysia - which it says it intends to vigorously defend.” 
    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-46341603 
  • Reply 13 of 51
    eightzeroeightzero Posts: 3,056member
    Apple Card is definitely for me because of these features. It will be the default card on Apple Pay, and I always ask a vendor if they accept it. By far the most common POS transaction I have is at the grocery store that now takes Apple Pay, I have a card that codes 2% for that, so this will do nicely. My new SOP will be, "do you take Apple Pay?" at the register. If they answer yes, it goes on this card. If no, It goes on a different one.


    patchythepirateJWSChmurchisonwatto_cobra
  • Reply 14 of 51
    flydogflydog Posts: 1,123member

    6502 said:
    I've never seen so much excitement for something as mundane as a credit card.
    I think you're inferring a bit too much from the publication of a few news articles. 
    jbdragon
  • Reply 15 of 51
    flydogflydog Posts: 1,123member

    maltz said:
    So... if you just change the number in your Apple Pay wallet and don't get a new card after fraudulent activity, how does this work for magstripe skimmers?  Just because it's not printed on the card, doesn't mean the card doesn't have an immutable number on the magstripe, and skimmers are a very common form of CC fraud.
    Apple hasn't stated that this card will eliminate all credit card fraud on Earth. 
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 16 of 51
    jdb8167jdb8167 Posts: 626member
    maltz said:
    So... if you just change the number in your Apple Pay wallet and don't get a new card after fraudulent activity, how does this work for magstripe skimmers?  Just because it's not printed on the card, doesn't mean the card doesn't have an immutable number on the magstripe, and skimmers are a very common form of CC fraud.

    It seems likely that if your physical card is compromised by a skimmer you are going to need a new card. But Apple will know it because as soon as you reject a transaction as fraudulent where the card number was the number on the mag stripe, they will know your physical card was compromised. Still better than any regular card.
    JWSCjbdragonwatto_cobra
  • Reply 17 of 51
    StrangeDaysStrangeDays Posts: 12,844member
    elfig2012 said:
    Is this objective reporting or a Apple commercial?
    Is this an objective comment or a troll? Just stop. 
    GeorgeBMacpatchythepirateJWSCTickTockNikjbdragonAnilu_777watto_cobra
  • Reply 18 of 51
    StrangeDaysStrangeDays Posts: 12,844member
    flydog said:
    elfig2012 said:
    Is this objective reporting or a Apple commercial?

    You won't find much in the way of objectivity on AI.  
    Bullshit. There are plenty of stories that are critical of Apple offerings. What evidence do you offer to say there isn’t?
    GeorgeBMacpatchythepirateJWSCSoliTickTockNikjbdragonAnilu_777watto_cobra
  • Reply 19 of 51
    StrangeDaysStrangeDays Posts: 12,844member

    flydog said:

    maltz said:
    So... if you just change the number in your Apple Pay wallet and don't get a new card after fraudulent activity, how does this work for magstripe skimmers?  Just because it's not printed on the card, doesn't mean the card doesn't have an immutable number on the magstripe, and skimmers are a very common form of CC fraud.
    Apple hasn't stated that this card will eliminate all credit card fraud on Earth. 
    Oh look, a new troll has been born. How precious. 
    patchythepiratecornchipJWSCSoli
  • Reply 20 of 51
    slurpyslurpy Posts: 5,382member
    elfig2012 said:
    Is this objective reporting or a Apple commercial?

    Why don't you point out which part of the article is false, or a lie? Would love to know. 

    Also, if you'd like articles shitting on Apple, there's only around 67,920 other website options. Feel free to take joy spending time on those, instead of coming here and getting upset about the lack of anti-Apple slant in the reporting. 

    patchythepiratecornchipJWSCSolilkruppjbdragonAnilu_777AppleExposedwatto_cobra
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