New Apple Card Family feature brings joint credit history building and co-opts the kids
In a first for both Apple and Goldman Sachs, the two unlikely partners joined forces on a new type of credit card that doesn't really require a physical piece way back in 2019. The Apple Card will actually be a virtual number in your Wallet app, while the accompanying piece of titanium cutout doesn't have any of the traditional card paraphernalia to worry about if it is lost or stolen, like account numerals, expiration date or CVV digits.
While not the best out there in terms of interest rates, cashbacks, and other perks, the Apple Card prides itself in offering a number of unique features, such as no purchase tracking, immediate registration, and real-time Daily Cash rewards accruement, as well as the exclusive iPhone-as-a-credit card arrangement that lets you tap on a transaction and see exactly in which coffee shop it's been made on Apple Maps. To those, Apple now adds co-ownership, too.
Apple Card Family expense and reward sharing
To be released in May, the new Apple Card Family option offers just what it says on the tin, the ability that two people co-own one and the same Apple Card account, merging their credit history, and share the experience with their children, too, with the respective spending limits and detailed reports. According to Jennifer Bailey, Apple’s Pay VP:
We designed Apple Card Family because we saw an opportunity to reinvent how spouses, partners, and the people you trust most share credit cards and build credit together. There’s been a lack of transparency and consumer understanding in the way credit scores are calculated when there are two users of the same credit card, since the primary account holder receives the benefit of building a strong credit history while the other does not. Apple Card Family lets people build their credit history together equally.
The Apple Card Family option might also be Apple's innovative way to avoid accusations of biased credit approvals, too.
These were a minor scandal in the beginning of Apple's credit card existence when Steve Wozniak got 10x higher line than his wife with the same joint history to no fault of Apple, of course, as the credit decisions are done by Goldman Sachs.
The same thing happened to us. I got 10x the credit limit. We have no separate bank or credit card accounts or any separate assets. Hard to get to a human for a correction though. It's big tech in 2019.
— Steve Wozniak (@stevewoz) November 10, 2019
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