Apple is preparing a retail-store push for the Apple Card that could hand new sign-ups a $249 cash-back reward tied to AirPods Pro 3, according to a report published May 15. If the promotion goes ahead during the week of May 18, the rebate would effectively cover the full retail price of the earbuds for customers who open the card and buy the product.
The reported offer would be one of the biggest public Apple Card signup incentives since the credit card launched in 2019. Neither Apple nor JPMorgan Chase has publicly confirmed the promotion.
The timing matters because Apple is trying to use its stores more aggressively as entry points for services, not just hardware. Apple Stores already serve as onboarding centers for offerings including AppleCare, iCloud+, Apple One and device financing, and Apple Card is increasingly part of that mix as Apple pushes financial products such as Apple Pay, high-yield savings accounts and installment financing more deeply into its services strategy.
The card itself has had a rocky run. Apple confirmed in January 2026 that JPMorgan Chase would take over the Apple Card portfolio over the next 24 months, ending the partnership with Goldman Sachs. Reports tied to that transition said Goldman sold roughly $20 billion in Apple Card balances at a significant discount after delinquency rates climbed higher than expected, a reminder of how difficult the business became behind the scenes.
That backdrop helps explain why a flashy signup bonus would stand out now. Apple has largely avoided the large upfront incentives common in credit cards, instead marketing the card around privacy, Daily Cash rewards, Wallet integration, spending transparency and the titanium physical card. Still, issuers across the industry routinely spend hundreds of dollars upfront to win new customers, and analyst estimates during Apple Card’s early rollout suggested Goldman Sachs spent roughly $350 to acquire each new customer.
The reported promotion would fit that math. As one industry write-up put it, Apple could essentially give away AirPods Pro 3 with the new Apple Card promotion. What remains unclear is whether Apple will keep the offer narrow, how long it will run and whether it is meant mainly to slow the card’s transition or simply to revive interest in a product that has never relied on big bonuses to draw people in.
For now, the most important fact is that Apple appears ready to use one of its best-known retail hooks to sell a financial product at a moment when the card business is changing hands and the company wants services growth to do more of the heavy lifting.
