Apple Launches an Apple Card Web Portal
Apple has finally launched an Apple Card Web portal that’s accessible from any computer. Previously, if you lost access to your iPhone, the only way to pay your bill or manage your account was to call Goldman Sachs. As far as we know, the Apple Card was the only credit card on the market with no way to manage it through the Web.
That said, don’t expect anything fancy, or even on par with what you can do in the Wallet app. Once you log in with your Apple ID (it seems to require two-factor authentication every time), there are four screens you can access from the sidebar:
- Payments: Here, you can see your balance and due date, set up scheduled payments, and pay your bill.
- Statements: In this screen, you can view and download past statements. Unfortunately, the download button only downloads PDF statements, nothing that is import-friendly.
- Settings: Click here to set up scheduled payments (again), view and modify your linked bank accounts, and view miscellanea like your Mastercard network benefits, the Apple Card privacy policy, and the Apple Card terms and conditions.
- Support: This screen provides the Apple Card support line number, a link to the Apple Card support site, and a link to the Apple Card user guide.
That’s pretty much it: pay your bill and view (but not export) your past statements. You can’t view or change your card number or view your CVV, so you still can’t use or manage your Apple Card without an iPhone. You also can’t see your spending activity or most recent transactions.
It’s annoying that the Apple Card Web portal doesn’t allow CSV export, much less the recently added Quicken and QuickBooks formats (see “You Can Now Export Apple Card Statements to Quicken and QuickBooks,” 5 June 2020). As it is, if you want to import your Apple Card transaction data into a personal finance app, you must manually export your transactions from the Wallet app on your iPhone and send the data to your Mac through AirDrop or some other sharing mechanism. That seems like an unnecessary fuss now that there’s a Web portal.
I just don’t get it. The Apple Card was designed to be a digital platform and not reliant on traditional methods. But people are so resistant to change they demand it be “just like every other credit card” on the planet. There are posts on the Apple Discussion Forums who want their statements sent to them by traditional U.S. mail. They want web access to their account so they can ‘manage’ their transactions.
In short, everything they demand can already be done on their iPhone but that’s not good enough. You know they have an iPhone because that’s how you apply for the card in the first place.
No, it’s not. Even the largest iPhone has a tiny screen compared to my 27" iMac and no real keyboard, and I’m loath to keep personal financial information on my iPhone so no Quicken and none of the spreadsheets I use to track various things (and although I do occasionally use Excel on my iPhone, it’s painful.)
Just because something’s the new hotness doesn’t mean it should throw out everything that comes before it. Apple could get away with that somewhat with hardware, where the advantages of the Mac, macOS, iDevices, and iOS were sufficient that people generally put up with (complained about, but put up with) having to buy new cables and adapters and peripherals every time they bought a new Mac or iDevice, but with credit cards, Apple has hundreds of competitors, no real strong advantage, and no locked in ecosystem. If they want strong adoption, they’re going to have to do a lot of the things that everyone else already does and consumers assume come with a credit card.
I don’t think it hurts to have a website for the card. What are you supposed to do if you stop using an iPhone? Also, I manage my finances on my Mac, not my phone. If my phone is nearby, it’s no big deal to get the statement and send it over to the computer. But if it’s not, I’d rather just use the website, which I can do without leaving my chair, than go find my phone.
That said, I do understand your criticism of people’s resistance to change. If Apple/GS never snail mails statements, that’s perfectly fine with me. If someone insists on that “feature,” perhaps they shouldn’t get the Apple Card. They have plenty of other choices.
Josh, you say you can download, but not export past statements. What’s the distinction between the two? Also, I can login to my card account on the web with only fingerprint access. Are you calling that two-factor authentication? ―Ken
I’m old school in that I refuse to link my checking and savings accounts to digital bill pay systems and write a proper check to pay my credit card balances off each month. That said I use the late Hardy Macia’s “PocketMoney” on both my iMac and my iDevices with PocketMoney Desktop (PMD) being my primary data entry and then sync the PocketMoney iOS (PMiOS) to it. I don’t have any actual account information like institution name and account number in either PMD or PMiOS. I would primarily prefer to mail a check to Goldman Sachs to pay off the monthly balance on an Apple Card. If that was never possible, then I’d probably upload the amount to a PayPal account and then pay the Apple Card balance using the PayPal account.
Although I usually prefer doing things on my Mac vs. doing the on my iPhone, I can’t see this as something I’d really use.
The one thing Apple could do IMHO to improve Apple Card is to allow me to enter a comment when I make a payment so that that comment would then show up on my bank statement along with the charge. Presently my bank statement just shows I paid to Apple Card, but I have no clue what for.
Does anyone out there use Mint such that they could comment on this new integration?
Yes, it’s as described in 9to5Mac. Easy to add with AppleID and 2FA. Only shows Balance, Available Credit, Total Credit, APR and Total Fees. No transactions.
You can only download them as PDF, which you can’t import into anything. Every time I log in, it asks for an extra two-factor code sent to my iPhone or Mac, but you might bypass that with Touch ID in Safari.
I need to add to my earlier reply that I must verify login, including 2FA, each time Mint accesses the Apple Card site for updates. I don’t have to do that with any of my other financial account.