Huawei to launch Huawei Card (a credit card clone to Apple Card) / Apple Card impression

Huawei to launch Huawei Card (a credit card clone to Apple Card) with physical card and virtual card. You can apply the credit card straight from the mobile wallet.

At this time, information is sparse, Huawei hasn't announce which bank is issuing the card. And the earning is cash back, but no rate is disclosed. The card appears to be Unionpay, so usage maybe limited outside of China.

The key benefits are:

首年免年费，用华为key次年免年费；First year Annual Fee waived, second year Annual Fee waived after using Huawei key (nfc key for cars and luggage bag) 消费返利；Cash back 高铁贵宾厅。Bullet train VIP lounge

I'll follow up on this card as Huawei's phones are very popular inside China, southeat asia, part of Europe. Huawei is also actively developing a handful devices (laptop, tablet, wireless earphone, TV, smart speaker) to form their own ecosystem.

Actually this is not the first attempt by Chinese company to knock off Apple card. Oppo, the sister brand for Vivo and oneplus, released their own version in November 2019.

The credit card is issued by Shanghai Pudong Development Bank with a cash back earning structure: 3% cash back for Chinese domestic spending and 2% cash back for foreign spending. It seems to be UnionPay only though, no VISA or mastercard network, so the usage could be limited outside of China.

Now back to Apple Card, while everyone from the credit card enthusiastic community seems despise it, I find the card to be pretty useful, both domestically and in foreign country. I was an early adopter applied in August 2019. Goldman Sachs pulled TransUnion hard pull, and the card never showed up Equifax report per Credit Karma. It has no annual fee with a 3/2/1 cash back structure (3% apple store with financing available, there are some random retailers added to the 3% categories going along, 2% mobile payment, 1% rest). I'm using it mainly for Apple Pay with 2% cash back which US has adopted it widely. The cash back is almost instant. The default statement and payment day are always last day of the month, which makes it very easy to remember. The statements and bank info (bank account, autopay etc) can be accessed right from Apple wallet. The only downside is that there is no sign up bonus.

I was travelling in Tokyo, Japan in December 2019. I had the chance to try Apple Card for purchasing digital Suica card. The exchange rate is exactly the same as found on xe.com.

From my previous trips to Japan, my experience that cash is used about 30% and credit card is about 70% (I tried to use whenever credit card is accepted to max out my credit card bonus points). And for the 30% usage of cash, I find Suica/Icoca can be used as alternatives about 50% within 30% usage.

Another interesting data point is that when top off the digital Suica card using the mobile app with Amex Green card which has 3X bonus on travel category, Amex only gives 1X point as the merchant is from Suica Keitaikessai, literally means mobile settlement. So this actually puts the Apple Card a higher earning rate 2X cash back than the 1X Amex point which I value at 1.5X at the most.

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