topic Best Credit Card to Use Making Apple Purchases in Credit Cards

Best Credit Card to Use Making Apple Purchases

credit8502020 — Tue, 20 Apr 2021 16:31:56 GMT

Hi All!

I hope you're doing well! I'm preparing to purchase a new MacBook Pro and considering the best way to purchase it to get the most cash back.

I know the Apple Card is an option, however, I'm researching to find other options as well.

Thanks!

Re: Best Credit Card to Use Making Apple Purchases

K-in-Boston — Tue, 20 Apr 2021 16:42:23 GMT

For across-the-board purchases with ApplePay, US Bank Altitude Reserve gives 3x back on mobile wallet transactions. Not a good fit for everyone (you do need to be a US Bank customer, fairly strict underwriting, $400 annual fee). But that does work out to 4.5% back for everything purchased with ApplePay if you redeem for travel, and the $325 travel credit and 12 gogoinflight passes each year more than offset the remaining $75 for me.

Pairing any card with a shopping portal (like Rakuten) can add to the rewards as well.

Re: Best Credit Card to Use Making Apple Purchases

credit8502020 — Tue, 20 Apr 2021 17:00:01 GMT

@K-in-Boston wrote:
For across-the-board purchases with ApplePay, US Bank Altitude Reserve gives 3x back on mobile wallet transactions. Not a good fit for everyone (you do need to be a US Bank customer, fairly strict underwriting, $400 annual fee). But that does work out to 4.5% back for everything purchased with ApplePay if you redeem for travel, and the $325 travel credit and 12 gogoinflight passes each year more than offset the remaining $75 for me.

Pairing any card with a shopping portal (like Rakuten) can add to the rewards as well.

@K-in-Boston Thank you! I have an Elan Financial Card that gives 5% for Electronic Stores, but was trying to determine if I'll have to use it in the store or can use it online. I want to make sure that Elan is the highest/best at this point.

Re: Best Credit Card to Use Making Apple Purchases

pinkandgrey — Tue, 20 Apr 2021 17:05:44 GMT

Alternatively, there's the Citi Best Buy card which would give you up to 5% back in Best Buy rewards points. Assuming you're a BB shopper...

Or there's also the Amazon Visa if you wanted to buy from Amazon.

Re: Best Credit Card to Use Making Apple Purchases

FormerCollegeDJ — Tue, 20 Apr 2021 17:09:48 GMT

I'll add that the Discover It Cash (typically Q3) and Chase Freedom Flex (typically Q4) usually offer 5% rewards on PayPal purchases during one three month period of the year every year, but you'd have to wait a bit to get your new MacBook if you went that route and wanted to maximize rewards.

Re: Best Credit Card to Use Making Apple Purchases

credit8502020 — Tue, 20 Apr 2021 17:15:42 GMT

@pinkandgrey wrote:
Alternatively, there's the Citi Best Buy card which would give you up to 5% back in Best Buy rewards points. Assuming you're a BB shopper...

Or there's also the Amazon Visa if you wanted to buy from Amazon.

@pinkandgrey Thank you for mentioning the Citi Best Buy and Amazon cards!

Re: Best Credit Card to Use Making Apple Purchases

credit8502020 — Tue, 20 Apr 2021 17:17:48 GMT

@FormerCollegeDJ wrote:
I'll add that the Discover It Cash (typically Q3) and Chase Freedom Flex (typically Q4) usually offer 5% rewards on PayPal purchases during one three month period of the year every year, but you'd have to wait a bit to get your new MacBook if you went that route and wanted to maximize rewards.

@FormerCollegeDJ Thank you for suggesting Discover It & Chase Freedom Flex. I'll need to get my MacBook soon since my hard drive is now failing, but hopefully someone else who will consider making a similar purchase and reads this thread will also be able to consider those.

Re: Best Credit Card to Use Making Apple Purchases

Bradac56 — Tue, 20 Apr 2021 17:36:03 GMT

The Apple card is the best option out there. 3% nearly instantly back on all apple and select merchent purchases and then 2% back on apple pay purchases no caps.

As much as I love the Discover Cash and Chase Freedom Flex they are capped at $75 back so depending on what Mac your buying you could loose out of a good chunk of cash back rewards.

Re: Best Credit Card to Use Making Apple Purchases

FormerCollegeDJ — Tue, 20 Apr 2021 18:01:53 GMT

@Bradac56 wrote:
The Apple card is the best option out there. 3% nearly instantly back on all apple and select merchent purchases and then 2% back on apple pay purchases no caps.

As much as I love the Discover Cash and Chase Freedom Flex they are capped at $75 back so depending on what Mac your buying you could loose out of a good chunk of cash back rewards.

Not necessarily - if someone spends $2000 in a 5% category quarter on Apple products via PayPal, here would be the rewards breakdown:

*Discover It Cash/Chase Freedom Flex: $80 in rewards ($75 in rewards on $1500 in spend, $5 in rewards on $500 in spend)

*Apple Card at 3% rewards: $60 in rewards

Now if that someone had other spend in the 5% category that for the quarter would be a significant percentage of $1500 in spend, then the Apple Card makes more sense. But for under $3000 in spend in a quarter, the Discover It Cash or Chase Freedom Flex at 5% rewards would come out ahead of the Apple Card at 3% rewards if those are the only cards the user has available to him/her for electronics purchases through PayPal or Apple.

Re: Best Credit Card to Use Making Apple Purchases

M_Smart007 — Tue, 20 Apr 2021 18:32:46 GMT

IIRC? ..I think @Anonymous had a good explanation on how to buy Apple at a deep discount.

Re: Best Credit Card to Use Making Apple Purchases

Bradac56 — Tue, 20 Apr 2021 18:45:55 GMT

That depends on if the OP wants to jump through hoops like paying through paypal wallet and/or use multiple cards for categories. The apple card is the easiest and best case if you just want to buy apple products and even better if you use the other nine 3% merchants.

It just depends on how the OP normally spends money - simple or complex & how much spend a month? Is a $3k laptop a major expense or is it just another regular purchase?

Re: Best Credit Card to Use Making Apple Purchases

Anonymous — Wed, 21 Apr 2021 01:37:18 GMT

@M_Smart007 wrote:
IIRC? ..I think @Anonymous had a good explanation on how to buy Apple at a deep discount.

Christmas time at Costco with 4% back from the Citi Costco Visa card (2%) & Executive Membership (2%).

That Mid-2019 Macbook Air was already $300 off ($799.99) from the Apple store price of $1,099. Same model #. Plus the included 4 year warranty with 120 day theft/damage protection (card benefit + Costco 1yr add) that would have cost an extra $249 at Apple.

Best place to buy Apple stuff is, in order:

Costco (even with cash and a $60 membership you save a lot over Apple.com)
Micro Center (if you're lucky enough to have one close by)
Somewhere else online
Apple.com

Re: Best Credit Card to Use Making Apple Purchases

Anonymous — Wed, 21 Apr 2021 03:52:41 GMT

@FormerCollegeDJ wrote:
I'll add that the Discover It Cash (typically Q3) and Chase Freedom Flex (typically Q4) usually offer 5% rewards on PayPal purchases

Discover certainly is Q3 this year and the previous two, but wasn't a category before that. Freedom hasn't announced for 2021, and was Q4 for 2020 and 2019, but was Q2 in 2018. So a little early for "typical" but probably true!

Re: Best Credit Card to Use Making Apple Purchases

Anonymous — Wed, 21 Apr 2021 03:55:38 GMT

@Bradac56 wrote:
That depends on if the OP wants to jump through hoops like paying through paypal wallet and/or use multiple cards for categories. The apple card is the easiest and best case if you just want to buy apple products and even better if you use the other nine 3% merchants.

It still really depends. If I use my Altitude Reserve whenever I encounter mobile pay (which is almost true), then using it to buy apple products at at a store using it is going to beat the Apple card.

Re: Best Credit Card to Use Making Apple Purchases

SPChaser — Thu, 22 Apr 2021 09:09:19 GMT

@FormerCollegeDJ wrote:
I'll add that the Discover It Cash (typically Q3) and Chase Freedom Flex (typically Q4) usually offer 5% rewards on PayPal purchases during one three month period of the year every year, but you'd have to wait a bit to get your new MacBook if you went that route and wanted to maximize rewards.

Thanks @FormerCollegeDJ for sharing this info! Wifey just got the Flex and we've been planning on purchasing two MacBook Pros later this year prior to getting the card. This will be a great way to maximize our purchase 😎.

Re: Best Credit Card to Use Making Apple Purchases

SPChaser — Thu, 22 Apr 2021 09:19:26 GMT

Just gotta say thanks to everyone. Really invaluable info when considering I'm going to spend $6-8,000 on a couple apple products.

Re: Best Credit Card to Use Making Apple Purchases

FormerCollegeDJ — Thu, 22 Apr 2021 11:03:11 GMT

@SPChaser wrote:
@FormerCollegeDJ wrote:
I'll add that the Discover It Cash (typically Q3) and Chase Freedom Flex (typically Q4) usually offer 5% rewards on PayPal purchases during one three month period of the year every year, but you'd have to wait a bit to get your new MacBook if you went that route and wanted to maximize rewards.
Thanks @FormerCollegeDJ for sharing this info! Wifey just got the Flex and we've been planning on purchasing two MacBook Pros later this year prior to getting the card. This will be a great way to maximize our purchase 😎.

I should note it isn't a guarantee Chase will offer PayPal as a 5% quarterly category on the Chase Freedom Flex (and Chase Freedom) in Q4 2021, but they have offered PayPal as a category sometime during the year each of the last three years. In 2020, they also had a quarter (Q3) where Amazon was a 5% category.

You can see a listing of the Chase Freedom's/Chase Freedom Flex's past 5% quarterly categories at the following link (scroll down a bit to see the listing):

https://thepointsguy.com/news/activate-chase-freedom-5x-earnings/

Re: Best Credit Card to Use Making Apple Purchases

SPChaser — Thu, 22 Apr 2021 11:14:38 GMT

@FormerCollegeDJ wrote:
@SPChaser wrote:
@FormerCollegeDJ wrote:
I'll add that the Discover It Cash (typically Q3) and Chase Freedom Flex (typically Q4) usually offer 5% rewards on PayPal purchases during one three month period of the year every year, but you'd have to wait a bit to get your new MacBook if you went that route and wanted to maximize rewards.
Thanks @FormerCollegeDJ for sharing this info! Wifey just got the Flex and we've been planning on purchasing two MacBook Pros later this year prior to getting the card. This will be a great way to maximize our purchase 😎.

I should note it isn't a guarantee Chase will offer PayPal as a 5% quarterly category on the Chase Freedom Flex (and Chase Freedom) in Q4 2021, but they have offered PayPal as a category sometime during the year each of the last three years. In 2020, they also had a quarter (Q3) where Amazon was a 5% category.

You can see a listing of the Chase Freedom's/Chase Freedom Flex's past 5% quarterly categories at the following link (scroll down a bit to see the listing):

https://thepointsguy.com/news/activate-chase-freedom-5x-earnings/

Much appreciated follow up DPs Definitely didn't miss @Anonymous point this. Before reading this thread wasn't giving much thought as to the best place or card to purchase Apple products.

Re: Best Credit Card to Use Making Apple Purchases

credit8502020 — Tue, 11 May 2021 02:28:22 GMT

UPDATE: So it appears that, at this time, buying from the Apple Store directly using the Elan Card may be the best way to get the most cash back. Elan offers 5% on Electronic Stores.

Of course, please feel free to share any other alternatives. I haven't found anything higher than 5%. With Elan you earn 5% cash back on your first $2,000 in combined eligible purchases each quarter. Anything (accessories, etc.) over $2,000, I can easily purchase with another card to maximize cash back.

Thanks!

Re: Best Credit Card to Use Making Apple Purchases

CreditCuriosity — Tue, 11 May 2021 03:53:23 GMT

Eligible for educational discount also using a CC? Back when I worked for a university that possibly was the cheapest way to get one at one point in time. Although not a student worked for university/medical center and got said discount. Also some states have tax free days or a few of them a year that could be 9-10% off right there depending on state, just another thought. Usually those days happen before a semester.