It's 2% back anytime you use Apple Pay, though. Which I use, a lot, and it's nice not to think about which card to use in that scenario, which I imagine was their point. I know there are plenty of cards that will give 2% cash back on any transaction, too.

getting 3% back on apple purchases plus 0% interest for 12-24 months is pretty nice.

given theres no annual fee i don't really see the downside if you buy apple products.

It's not bad for using to buy Apple Products, but if you're only using one credit card, might as well get something that gives 2% on all purchases unless you reallllly buy a lot of Apple products.

at this point getting a 0% loan for 2 years is more interesting than the difference between 1-2% cash back.

i used to be really into optimizing cash back but it just ends up costing more mindshare than it is really worth.

That’s exactly the goal of the companies, and Apple’s offering is “good enough” there.

not sure what your point is. cash back cards aren't really interesting to me. you're better off not overspending on things that don't add to your quality of life than worrying about whether you're getting 1-3% cash back.

i do have a premium travel card that gives me points for dining and travel but these come with high annual fees so you're paying for it in a different way.

The point is that most people don't bother to juggle cards to get the best cash back each time; they just pick one and stick with it (which is why companies PAY Costco big bucks to be their card provider).

"getting a 0% loan"

Smart people don't do loans for a $300 purchase in the first place.

If it’s at 0% why not (genuine question). That’s just free money, right? Obviously the interest on $300 isn’t much but if you take 0% loans on everything where it’s available it will add up eventually.

Why wouldn’t I take free money? Heck even if it were 1% I’d still do it because I can earn more than 1% with a CD right now.

That didn't seem to have anything do with it being an Apple card, though?

People keep saying things like this, and rarely offer up the name of any better card when asked.

Apple Card offers 2% cash back on all Apple Pay purchases, which... exactly matches my no-fee card from Chase. Except I have to choose how to use the 2% from Chase when it eventually is available, while I can spend Apple's 2% the next day via Apple pay. I threw the metal card in a drawer when it arrived, so if your goal is tell people not to use the physical card, then sure, I'm with you. But I don't think that's the primary use of the card.

"and rarely offer up the name of any better card when asked."

Huh? This is public and searchable information. Even ChatGPT 3.5 can give you a comprehensive answer to "what are the best cash back credit cards?"

It seems like your complaint is that people aren't answering a trivial question. This isn't a valid argumentative position.

The apple card's terms are definitely sub-par. Double the cash back would be competitive with say: https://www.fidelity.com/cash-management/visa-signature-card

Cards that do 5% in special categories are also common.

> Even ChatGPT 3.5 can give you a comprehensive answer to "what are the best cash back credit cards?"

Is this a new version of "google it"?

Yes, with Bing

To be fair, I've searched for this kind of thing before, and the results are usually plagued with so much sponsored content that it's hard to tell what's really a good deal and what's something someone's being paid to tell me is a good deal. (I feel this way about pretty much all financial advice online, for better or worse.)

So what is the best general-purpose cashback card according to ChatGPT?

Q. what is the best general-purpose cashback credit card?

A. As an AI language model, I cannot recommend a specific financial product, but I can provide some information on what to look for when choosing a cashback credit card.

[Information on what to look for: Cashback, signup bonuses, annual fees, redemption options, and credit score requirements.]

It's possible Bing's AI does better, but I don't use the Edge browser, so I don't know.

Brave throwaway, you underestimate the knowledge you possess! You should be proud of your knowledge and gladly share it, rather than mock those unwilling to expend the effort you've expended to earn such knowledge.

Search results are plagued with spam to the point of uselessness, and this is precisely the sort of information I would not trust from an LLM because their sources are, as I said, plagued with spam and I don't want to chase hallucinated results.

In fact, for all that it's a trivial question, this is at least the fourth time I've asked it, and the first time I've gotten real answers--although not from you.

Perhaps the issue is that you don't seen to realize I've never gotten less than 2% from my Apple Card, and I get 3% back from Apple purchases? (Since I just bought an iPad Air + accessories for my daughter's birthday, that alone saved me more than $50!)

The Fidelity card you mention seems to require a Fidelity account, but that's okay, since I have one. However, the terms then seem identical to my experience with the Apple card.

I got my Apple card before Chase updated my cards from them to be tappable, and basically I use the Apple card for Apple Pay (2%) and purchases/subscriptions from Apple (3%), a Chase Amazon card for purchases from Amazon (5%), and a Chase Sapphire physical card (2% or 5%, depending on category) when a physical card is required (rarely these days, but at Walmart for one). It's not clear to me how Fidelity is any better than Apple card in this scenario.

Again, none of what you're saying makes sense. Spam doesn't prevent you from looking into the details of an offer. Hallucinated results don't stop you from looking up the details of a card offer.

It also seems like you've now changed your story and are explaining all the cards you have which outperform apple's.

You seem really defensive and agitated over this triviality. No one is mocking you for your mistakes. It's just that what you've said doesn't make sense, and is inconsistent. Please, just take it as honest feedback.

Hahaha, what an odd response! I mean, explaining how your tone was condescending while mine clearly expressed wry amusement would just be me being defensive now, right? So I won't.

My point stands: From the time this card was first announced, people online, especially on this very site, have been dismissing it as having "sub-par" terms, and yet when pushed, all of the alternatives offered up seem to be similar, or even worse.

Of the three credit card bills I (auto-)pay off every month, Apple card has by far the biggest bill, because I use Apple Pay a lot. When I travel to Hong Kong, I love the lack of foreign transaction fees, and still the easy convenience of tap-to-pay with my wristwatch everywhere.

I do have a Chase Sapphire Preferred card that also has no transaction fees--but it costs me $95/year, so I'd judge that to be sup-par compared to Apple's free card, except that I use it to book travel, so the cash back goes farther.

I'll look into the CapitalOne SavorOne that somebody else mentioned, but generally I don't look forward to spending hours of my life comparing nearly-identical credit cards, so I was glad to get some real answers this time!

Fidelity has a flat 2% card which has no annual fee. The cash back then automatically transfers to my brokerage account where it immediately loses money in the stock market, so maybe it works out to less than 2% :)

Citi also has a widely used cash back card for ~2%

it looks like the fidelity card cashback even exceeds 2% if you have a large brokerage account with them, which is cool. but it looks like you do need an active brokerage account with them to use the card at all. a good deal if you'd like to have a fidelity brokerage account anyway, but imo citi doublecash is the better general recommendation since it doesn't have the same cross-product dependency.

The Fidelity card really is a great general purpose low maintenance card. Plus, if your default cash position is SPAXX, it's currently earning 4.4% interest which isn't too shabby.

Wells Fargo, too.

Citi’s card has a 3% foreign transaction fee though, making it completely unusable abroad. Fidelity also charges 1%.

I’m actually not aware of any 2% card without any catches (Apple’s being that 2% is only for Apple Pay transactions, which is anything but ubiquitous when shopping online.)

> I’m actually not aware of any 2% card without any catches

The Bread Cashback Card (American Express)[1] and SoFi Credit Card (MasterCard)[2] give 2% cash back on all purchases with no foreign transaction fees, no annual fees, and no other "catches".

[1] https://www.breadfinancial.com/en/bread-financial-cashback-c...

[2] https://www.sofi.com/credit-card/

Yeah the foreign transaction fee is annoying on many cards - I don't have too many cards but I keep a travel focused card (capital one venture) for international travel.

Fidelity and Citi match Apple's 2%, okay.

I never redeem points for purchases. I always apply it to a billing credit. If you redeem points for a purchase you don't accrue points on that purchase.

Chase of course goes out of their way to make this as painful as possible. Currently their cash redemption menu is broken in their app. There is no way to automatically apply all points to a statement credit. My perception is that this the best use of points is reinforced by how much effort into trying to convince me to do something else.

> I never redeem points for purchases. I always apply them to a billing credit.

This may not be a good redemption. For Chase UR points specifically, you really ought to transfer them to Chase Sapphire Reward card and redeem them for travel ($100 in points becomes $150 in travel) or transfer them to airline/hotel partners for redemptions. For example, you can often find Marriott, Hilton, and Hyatt points redemptions that are substantially better (sometimes more than 50% off) than the cash value of the points.

My last Hyatt hotel stay, I redeemed 8,000 points per night for a hotel room that was listed at $267/night. In cases like this, you can more than triple the value of your points.

Hmm, thanks for the suggestion. I’ll take a look at those benefits. Typically I skip over those kinds of offers because they seem too good to be true.

It's definitely more effort to manage and there is a point of diminishing returns. But even if you just transfer to Chase Sapphire Reserve and redeem for travel (ignoring individual airline/hotel rewards programs), you should get a 50% bonus vs redeeming the points for cash.

I have a Chase Amazon Visa card that gives 5% back on Amazon purchases and some % on the rest. I happen to buy a lot from them (although less and less as I see more counterfeit-looking brands).

It also covers Whole Foods which is nice if you shop there.

This card also has no foreign transaction fees.

I have the same one! I use it for Amazon only.

My Goto card is Paypal 2% for everything, and 3% for PayPal (so online Walmart, ebay, anything which offers PayPal), as soon as txn goes through. Synchrony Bank's own mastercard also offers 2% on everything, at every statement end. Wells Fargo Active Cash also offera 2% everywhere. I use Wells Fargo Autograph for 3% stuff like Travel, Food. Discover & Chase come out only if there are 5% offers or categories. Capital Ones get only 99 cent charge a month to get it forgiven.

Apple card only for apple purchases, 0% apr && 3% cashback. I use android phone, so no apple pay possible. I wish it allows to be added to google pay with nfc.

Fidelity Investments credit card has blanket 2% cash back on everything and supports Apple Pay, to name one.

Which matches the 2% my comment already said I get with Apple card. And requires a Fidelity account. So I'm not sure it's "better," but thank you.

Its better in that it gives 2% on all purchases and can be (but does not need to be) used with Apple Pay, while Apple Card must be used with Apple Pay to receive the 2% cash back.

Apple Card is very convenient, but it's not the best in the rewards arena.

For example, CapitalOne SavorOne (3% for many categories) and Wells Fargo Active Cash (2% on all purchases). There are many others that are competitive for specific situations though, including Citi Custom Cash (5% in a single category). Most of these cards also offer a intro APR and/or bonus after $X has been spent.

Definitely true, but this means that you have to spend some time and effort on using the "right" card for any given type of purchase, and staying on top of any changes to your rewards as well, to say nothing of having to juggle multiple due dates and automatic or manual payments.

A flat reward on everything definitely has its appeals. (The Apple Card isn't quite that, though – paying online without Apple Pay only gives you 1% rewards.)

As I mentioned in the comment to which you're responding, I never get less than 2% from my Apple card, so the Wells Fargo doesn't seem better to me.

I'll look into the Capital One option, thank you!

Citibank double cash https://citicards.citi.com/usc/LPACA/Citi/Cards/DoubleCash/p...

That seems to give the same 2% I already get with my Apple card, but only 1% immediately, and the other 1% when it's paid, making it not as good as my Apple card's 2% immediately.

Inise it because it was really easy to add my college age child’s account - and flows directly into the iOS payment system

Not sure other cards offer the same simple process

None have privacy guarantees, and usually those rates are extremely subject to change, require quarterly activation, variable APR, high foreign transaction fees, or many other annoyances.

> None have privacy guarantees

The Apple Card's issuer (Goldman Sachs) and payment network (MasterCard) retain just as much transaction information for the Apple Card as they do for any other credit card.[1]

[1] https://www.engadget.com/2019-08-30-apple-card-privacy-adult...

> usually those rates are extremely subject to change, require quarterly activation

That's not true. I'm not aware of any US credit card offering 2% cash back on all purchases that regularly changes this 2% rate or requires quarterly activation for the 2% rate. If you can name even one 2% cash back card that does this, please do.

> variable APR

The Apple Card also has a variable APR. The Apple Card Customer Agreement says that the APR is "15.49% to 26.49% when you open your account" and "After that, this APR will vary with the market based on the Prime Rate."[2]

[2] https://www.goldmansachs.com/terms-and-conditions/Apple-Card...

> high foreign transaction fees

The Bread Cashback Card (American Express) and SoFi Credit Card (MasterCard) manage to offer 2% cash back on all purchases with no foreign transaction fee or annual fee.