If You Lose Your iPhone, You Can’t Pay Your Apple Card Bill On The Web

The new Apple Card credit card has an iOS-only app to see transactions and make payments, which means if you lose your Apple device, you won’t be able to pay your bill online.

Apple Card is a new cash-rewards credit card that — Apple purports — is designed to be simple and transparent. But it’s also aimed at keeping you locked into your iPhone.

There are no paper statements with the digital-first Apple Card. Unlike a traditional credit card, everything is accessed through the Wallet app on the iPhone, including transaction histories, total balances, previous statements, and payments. There’s no website to view the latest transactions made on the card or make a payment if you lose access to that Wallet app.

So, how do you pay your Apple Card bill if your iPhone is misplaced or stolen? You could always wait until you buy a new phone, or recover your old one, but a late payment would result in interest charges which, obviously, would not be ideal. Because Apple’s support website doesn’t say, BuzzFeed News posed the question to a customer service representative through Apple’s phone and text message support system (Apple Card is currently available to a limited number of people and members of the press).

According to Apple Support, your options are: 1. Use an iPad or other iOS device to access the Wallet app, or 2. Call Apple Support (not, presumably, with the phone you just lost) and a representative will connect you to an Apple Card specialist at Goldman Sachs, Apple’s bank partner. You’ll need your full name, date of birth, last four digits of your Social Security number, and the phone number associated with your account to make a payment over the phone.

An Apple spokesperson confirmed the support rep’s guidance.

Apple’s website recommends turning on Find My iPhone to help locate and, if needed, remotely wipe missing devices, and adding a passcode for security purposes. Setting up scheduled payments in Wallet can also help prevent a potential late payment, which would result in interest charges.

By comparison, Capital One, Citibank, and American Express Blue Cash cards have two online options — a mobile app or website— to pay your statement and monitor your account. With an Apple Card, you need an iPad as backup, or to get on the phone with a support rep ASAP.

In other words, nearly every other modern credit card offers users a way to access their account with a browser on desktop, giving them the flexibility to pay bills from any device — and Apple Card, despite its titanium, numberless, futuristic veneer, does not.


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