PSA: Watch out for this potential gotcha on the Apple Card free AirPods deal

Yesterday saw the launch of an unusually generous Apple Card promo, which effectively offers new cardholders a free pair of AirPods Pro 3.

However, we noted that the small print means claiming your free AirPods isn’t straightforward, and there is one particular potential gotcha you need to look out for …

The AirPods Pro 3

We observed that this was the most lucrative sign-up bonus ever seen for the card, but you do have to pay careful attention to the small print.

This is by far the most lucrative sign-up bonus ever offered by Apple Card. The bonus is even more enticing because Apple Card doesn’t have an annual fee [but] the excitement is dampened slightly by the awkward redemption method. You’ll have to make 10+ purchases each month to get that $25 Bonus Daily Cash credit.

Readers in the comments felt it was too convoluted, and also disappointing for existing cardholders.

One particular potential gotcha

While you might think it is straightforward to hit the ten transaction per month minimum if you use it as your primary card, Macworld highlighted a potential way in which this could go wrong.

You’ll also need to watch out for multiple purchases from a single vendor that get bundled into a single purchase. The App Store does this: make several in-app purchases within one or two days, and your card will usually be billed only once. Those bundle purchases only count as a single transaction for this.

Apple isn’t the only company to do this. I’ve also seen this happen with Amazon transactions, even if they weren’t made on the same day. There are probably other companies that do the same.

The key here appears to keep a close eye on your transactions in the app and to aim to comfortably exceed the minimum number in order to allow for any which are subsequently combined.

• Official Apple Store on Amazon
• Discounted AirPods Pro 3
• Wireless CarPlay adapter
• AirTag holders and accessories
• Mac Pro-style Mac mini casing
• NordVPN – privacy-first VPN with no logs and independent audits to verify