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Apple announces Apple Card credit card

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Re: Apple announces Apple Card credit card

#311

I don't thing it is healthy to have big entities like this control fundamental services like payment processing. How long before the opaque governance of the App Store is applied to their payments offering? How long before activists start making this a new vector for deplatforming? Apple also announced a news offering ( https://www.techradar.com/news/apple-news-plus ) and I think the same concerns apply there.

Fortunately there are a lot of banks and a lot of credit cards. There are only a few credit card networks, but this doesn't make things better or worse.

Re: Apple announces Apple Card credit card

#312
I want to know what sort of extended warranty insurance they will provide. There was no mention of this in the presentation today. They mentioned giving 3% cash back on anything bought from Apple. Right now American Express is giving me 3% back on all computer purchases and extending AppleCare by 2 additional years. I made the most recent purchase with that card via Apple Pay.

So if I went out and bought a new MacBook Pro today, either AppleCare or American Express will pay to repair or replace it for the next 5 years, until March 25, 2025. (Just for using the card).

Re: Apple announces Apple Card credit card

#313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

??? Wait? What? Apple doesn't know what I buy. At least not currently. How can they know that? Only Mastercard and Visa know that. Maybe Apple could buy that information from Mastercard or Visa? Is that what you're saying?

i never said Apple knows what you buy. They just know a lot about you based on using their devices / services.

I don't know man?

I'd wager that Google, Mastercard, Visa, and AT&T each know way more about me than Apple does. That's not even counting companies like Amazon, Target, etc. It seems to me that with respect to privacy, Apple is the least of my problems.

Re: Apple announces Apple Card credit card

#314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. I'm so sick of businesses relying on people not cancelling to exist, and thereby making their calcellation process as time consuming and obtuse as possible to reduce consumers chances of cancelling. Consumers should be able to just NOT pay for a service, and then it's on the service-provider to turn off the customer's access. I can't tell you the amount of services I've past up on simply because I don't want to…

There is a tricky balance to the point you have raised. If the business makes the process too easy, the attrition will increase and the pricing structure will have to go up for the remaining buyers. When that happens, you would come in here to complain that the prices of goods & services are exorbitantly high. "Invest some time in a better product" is not an appropriate solution since consumers have different incenti…

No. I personally wouldn't complain that prices are exorbitantly high. If the price should be higher to cover the cost, it should be higher! It should NOT be hidden in an absurdly complex cancellation process. That's my opinion.

Maybe you feel differently. But know that a lot of people feel the other way also.

Re: Apple announces Apple Card credit card

#315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Point taken. You could also argue that having multiple big entities doing payment processing is better for everyone to the extent that they are competing. I mean, Mastercard and Visa are undoubtedly going to pull every lever at their disposal to take out Apple. (And to take out Amazon and Walmart as well if they decide to jump into this thing.) So rather than wishing that Apple were NOT a payment processor, I guess a…

> Mastercard and Visa are undoubtedly going to pull every lever at their disposal to take out Apple. The Apple card isn't competing with Mastercard and Visa -- in fact, it uses the Mastercard payment network. It's competing with credit cards issued by other banks on top of the MC and Visa payment networks (and AmEx/Discover, which unlike MC and Visa combine the payment network and card issuing). I doubt the other ban…

>I doubt the other banks are too afraid of Apple though, I didn't see anything so compelling about the Apple card that would cause it kill other credit cards.

Interesting. I thought it offer fairly good Cash Back, no Fees, no hassle, ease of use. Even if it manage to reach 10% of the US iPhone users it will be a serious damage to other CC. While I may not get the best Rebate and Points when using Apple Card, I don't think those few percentage are worth it for my privacy.

Re: Apple announces Apple Card credit card

#316
post #11

Not sure what to think of this. Somehow I would prefer if Apple kept building technology platforms that then enable other parties to develop solutions but instead they seem to be moving into a totally integrated platform. The business success is there but from a technology point of view I find Apple has been pretty unexciting over the last years. They have turned into a well run big tech company like Microsoft under…

To be fair, the guy behind all of their innovation died more than a decade ago.

> the guy behind all of their innovation died more than a decade ago.

Who?

Re: Apple announces Apple Card credit card

#317
post #11

Not sure what to think of this. Somehow I would prefer if Apple kept building technology platforms that then enable other parties to develop solutions but instead they seem to be moving into a totally integrated platform. The business success is there but from a technology point of view I find Apple has been pretty unexciting over the last years. They have turned into a well run big tech company like Microsoft under…

> instead they seem to be moving into a totally integrated platform

Apple has been traveling this path for what, decades now? It can't possibly be a surprise. I suppose we could all wish it to be different, but this is in line with what they've been doing for a long time now.

Re: Apple announces Apple Card credit card

#318
post #131

It seems to me that Apple can offer reduced fees due to the fact that they'll have less fraud as a result of requiring touch/face ID for every purchase. While interesting, it doesn't come close to solving what I feel is the largest problem with cards in the US today -- interchange fees.

This really isn’t why. Fraud cost is negligible.

Apple literally gets a cut out of every NFC transaction. So they get to double dip here.

Re: Apple announces Apple Card credit card

#319
How does one pay the bill to Apple? I never owned a credit card, only debit cards, and they are tied to your bank account. As I understand it, bank transfers pretty much doesn't work in the US and it not really the way you'd want customers to pay of credit card bills anyway.

Denmark has a services that will ensure that your bills are paid automatically, on time, from a bank account you choose. I just never heard that the US having anything similar.

I would assume that you can't pay of you bill with another credit card, seeing as that would be illegal, at least in some countries.

Re: Apple announces Apple Card credit card

#320
post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My understanding was that Goldman Sachs will have that information and they will be responsible for fraud prevention etc. -- they just won't share it with Apple.

Oh great, now I feel much better.

Goldman is a client of Apple's. It's possible that they do some shady shit, but it's also possible that they don't want to fuck up their relationship with the world's most valuable company or jeopardize their entry into the consumer space.

Their profit motive might save them. Or it could be a disaster, who knows. My guess is that Goldman would trade on the aggregate data

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