Apple’s innovative virtual credit card is launched

Apple Card, the tech giant's innovative take on virtual (and physical, for that matter) credit cards, has begun rolling out to users who previously expressed interest by signing up to be notified on the card's website.

Users Apple notifies of the card's availability can sign up for the virtual card from within the Wallet app on their iPhones, and they can also order the physical card from there, though that will obviously take a bit of time to arrive. Once you've signed up for the virtual card, though, you can start using it right away if approved.

It's a gradual rollout, and Apple hasn't explained its criteria for selecting the first customers to receive the card—it seems it's random. But sign-ups for the card are expected to open up to everyone who is interested by the end of August. Well, it will open up to everyone in the United States, at least—the card isn't yet available in other regions like Europe or Latin America yet, though Apple is in talks with partners about making that happen in the future.

In the US, the card is backed by Goldman Sachs—a bank that usually is not focused on consumer credit cards. When a user signs up to use the Apple Card, they're asked to provide their income, birthday, address, and the last four digits of their Social Security number. This is used to determine whether the user is eligible. Once they start using the card, Goldman Sachs and issuer MasterCard can only use data about the user's purchase for operations purposes like credit reporting.

Source: ars technica