Apple Expands Financial Ecosystem with Apple Card Family Plan

Need to Know

• Apple Card Family allows two people to co-own an Apple Card in order to track purchases, manage spending, and build credit together.
• Parents can share an Apple Card with their children, using spending limits and controls.
• All purchases will be consolidated onto one monthly bill.
• Apple’s goal is to turn the Apple Card into a tool that facilitates spending and budgeting for an entire family.

Analysis

Apple is expanding its payment tools for customers, announcing this week the launch of Apple Card Family, which allows multiple users to co-own one card.

The Apple Card Family allows two people to co-own an Apple Card and also enables those owners to share the card with children over 13 years of age. The Apple Card Family allows users to track purchases, manage spending, and build credit together, while enabling spending controls and limits for children, to teach good financial habits. All purchases will be consolidated into a single monthly bill.

Apple Card holders can add up to five people to their Apple Card account, which is done by sharing their Apple Card with them within Apple’s Wallet. All people must be part of the same Family Sharing group, and individuals who are 18 years or older can be added as a co-owner. Indeed, Apple Card Family is modeled on the Family Sharing program, which allows multiple family members to access subscription services such as Apple Music, Apple TV+, and iCloud services.

“We designed Apple Card Family because we saw an opportunity to reinvent how spouses, partners, and the people you trust most share credit cards and build credit together,” said Jennifer Bailey, vice president of Apple Pay. “There’s been a lack of transparency and consumer understanding in the way credit scores are calculated when there are two users of the same credit card, since the primary account holder receives the benefit of building a strong credit history while the other does not. Apple Card Family lets people build their credit history together equally.”

The launch of Apple Card Family marks a significant step forward for Apple, as it continues to position itself as a financial services provider. Apple Card was launched in August 2019 as a digital alternative to traditional credit cards. Apple Card is built the Apple Wallet, and connected to the Apple Pay digital payment service.

The Apple Card has seen substantial growth since its launch just under two years ago. In Q1 of 2020, Apple attributed much of its 9% year-over-year growth — and a large portion of its new iPhone sales — to the Apple Card, which promoted 24 interest-free payments to pay off new iPhone purchases. In June 2020, Apple expanded its payment program for Apple Card holders, allowing them to finance Mac and iPad purchases, in addition to new iPhones.