Score ‘Free’ AirPods Pro 3 with a New Apple Card — But Read the Fine Print

On Friday, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman teased a very enticing Apple Card incentive coming this week that essentially offers free AirPods Pro 3 for anyone signing up for a new card. However, while he was technically correct about the promotion, which launched today, the devil is in the details.

The predicted sign-up incentive actually offers $250 cash back for anyone signing up for a new Apple Card and buying a pair of AirPods Pro 3, which of course are priced at $249. That’s effectively a free set of Apple’s premium earbuds, but there’s some important fine print here.

Firstly, while that $250 comes in the form of a Daily Cash Bonus, it doesn’t come all at once. Instead, it’s effectively paid out in $25 installments over the course of 10 months.

To make matters a bit more complicated, those Daily Cash Bonuses are somewhat conditional: they’ll only be awarded in months you actually use the Apple Card — and you’ll have to use it more than just once a month for a token purchase.

Specifically, you’ll only get your $25 Daily Cash Bonus in months where you make 10 or more purchases with your new Apple Card. Also, the AirPods Pro 3 themselves don’t count as one of those purchases, and since the qualifying period only runs for 10 months — from July 2026 to April 2027 — there’s no option to skip a month and make up for it later. If you fall short of 10 purchases in a given month, you’ll lose that $25.

The Hidden Catches in the Fine Print

To make matters worse, you have to rack up those 10 monthly transactions entirely on your own. If you share your account via Apple Card Family, purchases made by your Co-Owner or Participants won’t count toward your monthly goal. Apple also warns against combined charges: if a business batches multiple transactions into a single charge on your statement — a common practice for Apple’s own App Store — it only counts as a single purchase.

You’ll also need to keep an eye on your returns. Naturally, returning the AirPods Pro 3 cancels the deal, but returning a standard retail item that drops you below your 10-purchase monthly threshold will result in Apple adjusting your Daily Cash balance.

In other words, you’ll effectively have to front the money for the AirPods Pro 3 and ensure you keep using your Apple Card. That’s not surprising, as this promotion is obviously trying to encourage you to actually switch to the Apple Card as your primary card.

The Silver Linings (And How to Buy)

There are a couple of silver linings that may help persuade you. For one, this promo can still be stacked with any other Apple Card bonuses that come up between now and April 2027, so you may have additional incentives to use the Apple Card anyway. Plus, you can take advantage of Apple Card Monthly Installments to spread that cost out over six months, which might take some of the sting out of it. You’ll still be eligible for the Daily Bonus Cash in this case as long as you purchase the AirPods Pro 3 on the Apple Card — which is a requirement of this promotion anyway.

Specifically, you have to apply for and open a new Apple Card account and then use that same card to purchase a set of AirPods Pro 3 directly from Apple — either online or in a brick-and-mortar retail store — between today (May 18) and June 15, 2026. Purchases made anywhere else, or even purchases of other AirPods models from Apple, don’t count, nor do refurbished AirPods Pro 3 (although Apple has yet to sell these on the refurbished store anyway).

The other piece of good news is that not only can you use Apple Card Monthly Installments, but you can even qualify if you apply trade-in value to reduce the purchase cost. While you can’t trade in an old set of AirPods, Apple will let you use the trade-in value of other qualifying devices to purchase nearly any other Apple product, so if you have an old iPhone lying around in a drawer this could help you save some money on the AirPods Pro 3 while still qualifying you for the Apple Card promotion.

The fine print also implies it’s possible to use an Apple Gift Card or Apple Account balance to pay for part of the purchase, as long as at least a portion of it lands on the Apple Card. Specifically, the terms say “The qualifying AirPods Pro 3 purchase cannot be made entirely with an Apple Gift Card or Apple Account balance” (emphasis ours).

Lastly, this offer is only available for folks opening an entirely new Apple Card account. Adding additional cardholders, whether a Co-Owner or Participant, doesn’t count, and the offer must be redeemed by the Apple Card Owner — the person who applies for the Apple Card.