Matthew Panzarino has a good overview of how Apple Card works.

The whole piece is interesting, but what I really like is this - Panzarino writes:

* The physical Apple Card, of course, has no number. The app displays the last 4 digits of the card number that is on the mag stripe of the card only, you never see the full card number.

• Instead, Apple provides a virtual card number and virtual confirmation code (CVV) for the card in the app. You can use this for non-Apple Pay purchases online or over the phone. This number is semi-permanent, meaning that you can keep using it as long as you want.

• But you can hit a button to regenerate the PAN (primary account number), providing you with a new credit card number at any time. This is great for situations where you are forced to tell someone your credit card number but do not necessarily completely trust the recipient."

Coming from a country where credit card fraud is rife, this is a fantastic feature! In South Africa, it is necessary that you never let your card out of your sight when it is being used by an employee in a store or elsewhere. This feature alone, would be worth it for me.

This is the type of user experience elevation that Apple does so well. They have the ability to take a process that is considered accepted and add steps that make you wonder why somone had not done it before. Clearly, much of what is detailed in the article is only possible due to Apple's position at the intersection of device, service, technology and user experience.

I hope that this move pushes the rest of the credit card industry to adopt more intuitive and secure practices.