Apple Warns Your Wallet or Jeans Could Damage Your Apple Card

Here’s something that we never thought we’d see — a company posting instructions on how to clean your credit card. But it gets even weirder than that.

With the Apple Card now available to the public and arriving in people’s hands over the next few days, customers are obviously going to need to know how to take care of it. In a move that could only have come from Apple and its shiny new titanium Apple Card, the company has published a support document quite literally titled How to clean your Apple Card

Now, in all fairness, Apple’s is a very unique credit card in that it’s made out of titanium, rather than the typical plastics found in just about every other credit card on the planet, but Apple wants to make sure you know how to keep that luxurious titanium sheen looking clean and shiny at all times. The document covers not only cleaning methods, but also recommended ways of storing the card to avoid damaging its signature white finish.

No Leather or Denim?

Perhaps the biggest surprise here is that Apple recommends against letting the Apple Card come into contact with certain fabrics, such as leather or denim, as they might “caught permanent discolouration that will not wash off.” Since this is listed in the cleaning section, it’s unclear whether that refers to storing the card in a leather wallet, but it sounds like something that would be good to avoid just in case.

Instead, Apple recommends storing your Apple Card in a “wallet, pocket, or bag made of soft materials” and suggests that it be placed in such a way as to not touch another credit card, since placing two cards in the same slot could cause it to become scratched. You should naturally avoid placing it in a pocket with loose change, keys, or other abrasive objects for the same reason.

Other recommendations are of course a bit more obvious. Keep the card away from magnets, as that could demagnetize the magnetic strip, in the same way as any other credit card. This includes placing it close to a magnetic latch on a. purse or a bag.

Cleaning the Apple Card

Should your Apple Card get dirty, Apple recommends that you gently wipe it with a soft, slightly damp, line-free microfibre cloth, using isopropyl alcohol as a cleaning agent.

Apple specifically recommends against window cleaners, household cleaners, compressed air, aerosol sprays, solvents, ammonia, or other abrasives to clean the titanium Apple Card.

If this all sounds more complicated than using a normal credit card, well, that’s just the price you pay for carrying around a credit card from a company with Apple’s design ethos. After all, much like all of Apple’s products, the Apple Card isn’t just a credit card — it’s a museum piece. Of course, if you mess it up badly enough, you can also simply request a free replacement card, and since the physical card is only necessary for those places that don’t support Apple Pay, you may also just be able to leave it at home.