Recent changes to Apple Card installments are unfriendly to the consumer, and drastically diminish the value of the card to me by fully eliminating my primary purpose.

I went today to buy myself a new iPhone 15 pro for Xmas to only walk out empty handed. I learned that I cannot use my Apple credit card financing because my network is Mint. I am very disappointed in the system and looking to switch entirely to android, the entire household. Too bad.

I cancelled my Apple Card today. No reason for it now. Hope many do the same.

I totally agree. I recently discovered Apple changed their policy which is absolutely ridiculous. I don't understand the purpose of doing this unless you want customers to shop elsewhere. I don't want to use these 3 designated carriers for my cell service, their prices are so high and inflated. This change is one of the WORST decisions Apple has implemented along with discontinuing the deep purple color.

You only need to designate a carrier. The iPhone you receive will be unlocked, no eSIM lock and inactivated. You just bypass the carrier’s activation screen request and activate on any carrier that supports iPhone and eSIM. This is well documented across the web. Reddit, Facebook, Instagram etc have numerous posts confirming.

What happens in the case of international users, who don't intend on utilizing any U.S. carrier?

You are absolutely right. I was about to buy a 15 pro max for my fiancee. But decided against it because I am not able to finance an unlocked phone with my apple card and I have no intention to pay huge monthly bill for big 3 career. Also I don't want to pay the whole amount for the phone upfront. I was able to purchase iphone for almost everyone in my family because of this apple card finance facility last few years. I think it's time to go back to Samsung. If I knew this before I would have coped the S23 ultra when it was selling with 350 dollar discount during summer sale and my career was financing it as low as 30 dollars a month. Apple has no value for loyalty.

Hats off for a careful “read” of the fine print. 👍

While I don’t necessarily understand the business case for this policy …

… and I’ve always purchased “non-affiliated” phones directly from Apple …

… just because you “select” a carrier doesn’t appear to lock you in to anything.

And I’m assuming that the eSIM provisioning STILL requires overt action by the owner during setup.

“ You’ll need to select AT&T, T-Mobile, or Verizon as your carrier when you check out. An iPhone purchased with ACMI is always unlocked, so you can switch carriers at any time.”

Being able to buy Apple products in installments and unlocked is the only reason why I got the Apple Card. It is a big mistake and borderline deceiving to the customers to eliminate a main feature from the credit card, since this is the reason many customers chose the card to begin with. Apple Card is now obsolete.

So what you are saying is you were able to finance your iPhone 15 PM on ACMI without specifying ATT, TMO or VZN in the past 6 months getting the 3% rebate on the card and ZERO percent APR over the 24 month period?

Because that is the complaint.

Carrier zero percent or third party zero percent is a "less than" solution.

Are there solutions that get you zero percent?

Sure.

They either tie you to a carrier and/or you don't get the 3% cash back.

The whole point of having an Apple Card is the perks.

Putting a curb on a benefit, such as the requirement to have an account with one of the specified carriers is a legitimate complaint.

I'm not arguing that there are "other ways to get most of the way there."

What I've not seen is how you get it all without being a customer of ATT, TMO or VZN.

How do you get?

1 - zero percent financing for 24 months

2 - 3% cash back

3 - an unlocked phone.

You can just link to your answer that tells us how to get all three.

Totally agree that this is wrong in many ways. Many like me want to buy a new iPhone but use another carrier. This puts a barrier in the way of potential customers that may only be able to get an iphone by financing it at 0% interest.

There are multiple ways, to purchase an iPhone and use the installment plan on your Apple Card.

There are just as many ways as before. There are several ways to purchase the iphone on ACMI and not activate on the big 3 US carriers. iPhones on ACMI are not locked to a carrier. Please read the previous posts in this thread. You posted in it, but didn’t bother reading the solutions. 😀

I see no reason to have an Apple Card if you can’t purchase Apple products with 0% apr monthly payment without any carrier you prefer . I’m someone who travels a lot and I change carriers in every different country what they did is just a nonsense.

You haven’t read through the thread. There are several ways to accomplish what you want and not have the iPhone locked to a carrier.

I would suggest filing a complaint with Apple Card Support from your Messages option in your wallet app. They need to know that we are not going to be purchasing phones now without the truly cost saving and network agnostic system they removed. We need SIM free Financing on for our iPhones for users who don’t have these AT&T, Verizon, Or T-Mobile. These Cell companies are rich enough off us, let us choose how we purchase and use our phones!