With Apple Card rolling out to more users, we’ve learned additional details about things like cashback, approval odds, and more. Now, it seems that iPhone Upgrade Program payments fall into the 3% Apple Card cashback category, even though they aren’t billed through Apple.

As a quick refresher, you get 3% cashback on Apple Card purchases made through Apple. This includes things like the App Store and iTunes, Apple Music, hardware purchases, iCloud, and more. Apple Pay purchases from any retailer earn 2%, while everything else earns 1%.

  • Get 3% back on everything you buy from Apple, whether you buy it at an Apple Store, apple.com, the App Store, or iTunes. That includes games, in‑app purchases, and services like your Apple Music subscription and iCloud storage plan.
  • Get 2% back every time you buy something using Apple Pay. That’s in every category, with no limits. Imagine all the things you use a credit card for every day — at Target, Walgreens, Lyft. You’ll get 2% back on just about everything.
  • If you happen to come across a store, website, or app that doesn’t take Apple Pay yet, use your titanium Apple Card to get 1% of those purchases back in the form of Daily Cash.

Interestingly, it appears as if iPhone Upgrade Program monthly payments fall into that 3% category. Even though these loans are generally billed through Citizens One Bank, Apple Card counts the payments as an Apple purchase, and thus gives you 3% cashback.

Whether or not the iPhone Upgrade Program would count as an Apple purchase was one of the early questions we had about Apple Card. It’s nice to see that this is something Apple seemingly considered ahead of launch.

This means every time your monthly iPhone Upgrade Program payment is processed, you’ll get 3% cashback deposited onto your Apple Cash card. Apple Pay cashback is made available everyday through Apple Cash.

As Apple winds down its partnership with Barclaycard, there’s speculation that it might also soon offer special financing for Apple purchases through Apple Card. This would be a nice addition for Apple Card holders coming over from the long-running Barclaycard Apple rewards partnership.

Thanks, Tyler!

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