Here’s the difference between Apple Pay, Apple Card and Apple Cash

Even if you were an early adopter of all things Apple, it’s easy to get confused about what each Apple product can do for you. For example, you have Apple Watch, Apple TV and Apple TV+. And there’s Apple Pay, Apple Card and Apple Cash.

Here, we’ll discuss the last three and clear up any confusion about how each of these payment systems work.

Before laying out the differences, let’s touch on what these three Apple offerings have in common. All are accessible from Apple Wallet on iPhone.

Apple Pay

At the heart of it all is Apple Pay. It’s the system in your iPhone that makes digital payments possible. Once you upload your debit and credit card details to the Apple Pay app, there’s no reason to have the physical cards.

If you can vividly remember a time when people stood at the checkout line and wrote a check to pay for their purchases, it can be difficult to think of a payment system as easy as Apple Pay.

Let’s say you’re at the grocery store and about to pay for your groceries. Instead of pulling out a credit card (or trying to write a check), open the Apple Pay app and pull out the virtual credit card you want to use.

Apple Pay wants to make sure you’re using the card, so it requires authentication. Fortunately, you have some easy options for logging in. You can use Face ID, fingerprint scanning, or a personal password. After you’ve verified your identity, you’ll hold your iPhone near the payment terminal until your purchase is confirmed.

Apple is big on security, so it’s no surprise that the company has built multiple layers of security into its payment system. After all, you don’t want to worry about someone accessing your personal financial information.

Apple Card

Goldman Sachs backs Apple Card. And like other credit cards, Apple Card can be loaded into Apple Pay and used to make digital purchases. However, if you prefer (or if you’re shopping somewhere that doesn’t accept Apple Pay), you can use the physical Mastercard sent when your credit card application is approved.

Here’s a brief description of other Apple Card benefits:

• You can find out if you are approved without affecting your credit score. It only takes a few minutes to find out if you qualify and get an interest rate offer.
• There are no annual fees. There are also no late fees or foreign transaction fees.
• Get unlimited 3% cash back at Apple and other select retailers every day and 2% cash back on other purchases when you use your iPhone or Apple Watch to pay with Apple Card. It is important to emphasize the word “unlimited” here. Unlike other cards, there is no limit to how much you can win back. Being unlimited makes it easier to save enough to make a big purchase or reduce your out-of-pocket expenses the next time you shop.
• Apple Card will estimate interest costs in real time, leaving you better prepared to make an informed purchase decision. It’s like having a friend in your ear, helping you make a smart financial decision.
• Apple Card never sells your data to third parties for marketing or advertising.

Aren’t reward cards the best? Consider adding one of our favorite reward cards to Apple Wallet so you never end up making a purchase that isn’t rewarded.

Apple Cash

If paying with cash is the best way to keep your household budget on track, Apple offers a quick way to do so. Apple Cash is a digital card that lets you send and receive money in Messages or Apple Wallet. Like regular currency, you can spend the funds however you want. You can use Apple Cash to make purchases online, in stores, and anywhere Apple Pay is accepted.

Let’s say you take a weekly trip to your local farmers market and many of the stalls now accept Apple Pay. Paying a vendor is as easy as holding your iPhone up to their iPhone, and as long as the vendor has a compatible device, the cash payment goes through.

Apple calls Apple Cash “the prepaid debit card in your Apple Wallet.” That’s because you can only use Apple Cash to pay someone after you’ve linked them to a debit or prepaid credit card. Unlike a traditional credit card, you don’t borrow the money you spend. Instead, you pay with your own money.

Here are some of the details associated with Apple Cash:

• Sender and recipient must have a device compatible with iOS 11.2 or later.
• Apple Cash must be linked to a debit or prepaid credit card.
• Users must be at least 18 years old.
• Payments are sent and received through Messages on your iPhone, iPad or Apple Watch.
• The maximum balance you can carry on Apple Cash is $20,000, and you can only add $10,000 per transaction (or a total of $10,000 in seven days).
• Using Apple Cash is free.

To help keep things clear, here are the differences between these three Apple offerings:

• Apple Pay: The system in iPhone that makes digital payments possible.
• Apple Card: A digital and physical credit card.
• Apple Cash: Like a prepaid debit card from Apple Wallet that lets you send and receive money.

While technology has made life easier in many ways, it has also given us more terms to understand and remember.