Apple has revealed more details about its upcoming credit card, and the Apple Card will come with one unique restriction and one not-so-unique restriction.
Thanks to the card’s customer agreement, which was posted publicly on creditor Goldman Sachs’ website last week, we know now the Apple Card won’t play nice with a jailbroken iPhone, via 9to5Mac. And according to Reuters, it will also come with a ban on purchasing cash advances and cash equivalents, with the latter including cryptocurrencies, casino chips, and lottery tickets.
The crypto ban is not so unusual. It’s rare to have a line of credit that can be used for cash equivalents. A number of states also have laws on the books that prohibits the use of credit for items like casino chips and lottery tickets. It would seem neither Apple nor Goldman Sachs has anything in particular against cryptocurrencies, but Bitcoin and other digital tokens would seem to fall under the cash equivalents umbrella.
As far as using the Apple Card on a jailbroken iPhone, Apple is requiring you sign up for the card and be approved via the Wallet app on iOS, and the agreement says your device must be “eligible” to qualify. It looks like this be the case even after you’ve been approved for and receive an Apple Card, with Apple saying you will lose the ability to both “access” and “manage” your account if you do jailbreak your device. Here’s the wording direct from the agreement:
If you make unauthorized modifications to your Eligible Device, such as by disabling hardware or software controls (for example, through a process sometimes referred to as “jailbreaking”), your Eligible Device may no longer be eligible to access or manage your Account. You acknowledge that use of a modified Eligible Device in connection with your Account is expressly prohibited, constitutes a violation of this Agreement, and could result in our denying or limiting your access to or closing your Account as well as any other remedies available to us under this Agreement.
The Apple Card is coming some time later this month, as confirmed by CEO Tim Cook. It’s part of the company’s broader services push that sees the iPhone maker looking to branch out beyond hardware and into software services that can help it build and develop new recurring revenue lines. Yet these restrictions here are reminders that Apple is wading into a world of physical, non-tech products that are subject to all sorts of regulations and laws it has little to no control over.
So if you were hoping the Apple Card might be a bold new form of credit that would let you make purchases that, say, Chase would not, this may be a bit of bad news. For everyone else, it doesn’t seem likely to have a big impact on how desirable the product is. After all, the Apple Card’s biggest draw will likely be as a status symbol for iPhone owners.
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