One of the best ways to get your friends and family members to sign up for a credit card you have is with referral bonuses. They get something and you get something and all of you, including the bank, wins. Well, Apple is starting to realize this but doing it in their own way … because that is just what Apple does.
The Apple Card Referral Bonus
The Apple Card was introduced a few years ago with some interesting features and definitely trying to cash in on people’s love of Apple products to go for it. It had become incredibly popular though it also attracted a lot of customers in the sub-prime market who haven’t been paying up as agreed.
But, at the end of the day, it was a credit card that offered bonus cash back for Apple spending, no transferrable points, no sign-up bonuses and just a few rotating cash back deals on a monthly basis. Over time, it may have lost some of its luster so Apple is looking at heading into their biggest event of the year, as far as higher dollar item reveals, with new customers.
What Apple is doing is offering new customers, who apply before September 30 through a referral link from an Apple Card holder, a one-time $100 bonus when they make their first purchase within 7 days. This is the first time that Apple has offered a sign-up bonus to new customers and possibly a test to see how well such a system works.
However, this referral system is not the usual kind since the Apple Card member who is doing the referring – gets nothing at all. Here is what Apple says, in this MacRumors post:
You probably know this already, but we love having you as an Apple Card customer. Right now, for a very limited time, you can help your friends earn $100 Daily Cash. If you refer Apple Card to a friend and they open a new Apple Card by September 30th, we’ll give them $100 Daily Cash if they also make their first purchase within 7 days.
That’s right, Apple loves you being a customer so they want you to be their marketing department and help other people sign-up so they can give them a bonus – and you get nothing at all. 🙂 Let’s see how well this works out and if Apple realizes that it helps incentivize such things if they give the referrer something as well.
Oh, and other banks – don’t you all start getting any ideas about this! 🙂