Apple announces Apple Card credit card • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple announces Apple Card credit card

#341

Post by blowski » Mon, Mar 25, 2019, 7:16 PM UTC

lawn wrote: post #277

ralusek wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look no further than the recent issue where Patreon competitor Subscribestar had payment processors Stripe and PayPal stop processing their payments for _political_ disagreements with the purported beneficiaries of the donations through the platform. PayPal said that it was actually one of the underlying payment processors, and it was suspected to be MasterCard. That incident was the first time I've ever taken the ne…

And people still wonder what problem cryptocurrencies tries to solve.

I don’t think people are wondering what problems crypto currencies are trying to solve, more whether they are a good way to solve them.

Re: Apple announces Apple Card credit card

#342

Post by filoleg » Mon, Mar 25, 2019, 7:16 PM UTC

jki275 wrote: post #157

oarsinsync wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kinda want the ability to cancel a virtual card at will too, which isn't possible via Apple Pay.

The concept of virtual cards is that they're essentially single use -- they cancel themselves.

I think, the parent comment meant that they would like to get a virtual card, so that they can attach it to a service (e.g., create a virtual card for paying your netflix subscription only, and then another card for hulu only, etc.), and then simply remove that virtual card when they want to stop using that service. Especially helpful if the service makes you jump through a ton of hoops to cancel your subscription.

Re: Apple announces Apple Card credit card

#343

Post by buryat » Mon, Mar 25, 2019, 7:16 PM UTC

mrweasel wrote: post #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…

thats exactly how you pay the credit card bill in the US, via a direct transfer from your bank account or by sending a check

Re: Apple announces Apple Card credit card

#344

Post by sfotm » Mon, Mar 25, 2019, 7:17 PM UTC

standardUser wrote: post #296

Seems like a subpar card in terms of points. I also find it odd that Apple, a company notoriously averse to discounts and deals, is entering a sector absolutely dominated by nothing but discounts and deals.

Far as I know, this doesn't come with an annual fee. If you only plan to use it with Apple Pay, it's competitive with Citi Double Cash, which is considered one of the top tier cash-back cards you don't pay yearly for. It seems fairly competitive to me.

Re: Apple announces Apple Card credit card

#345

Post by rhegart » Mon, Mar 25, 2019, 7:17 PM UTC

ralusek wrote: post #189

throwawaysea wrote: post #172

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.

Look no further than the recent issue where Patreon competitor Subscribestar had payment processors Stripe and PayPal stop processing their payments for _political_ disagreements with the purported beneficiaries of the donations through the platform. PayPal said that it was actually one of the underlying payment processors, and it was suspected to be MasterCard. That incident was the first time I've ever taken the ne…

Yes that scared me. Extreme activists can cut you off from access to payment processors. We are a relatively cashless society and you are potentially at the mercy of the mob to survive. The mob’s definition of a Nazi becomes broader every day. I truly believe the pendulum is swinging the other way however. Once corporations realize that, this should stop. 4 years ago the majority stood with the mob because they like me believed the mob had decent ideals but were overzealous. Every day more people discover that the mob are morons on a power trip and a sense of morality more infantile than good/evil children stories.

Re: Apple announces Apple Card credit card

#346

Post by IOT_Apprentice » Mon, Mar 25, 2019, 7:17 PM UTC

ajra wrote: post #219

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know this is a MasterCard, but it'd be more interesting if they were able to take out the $0.35 transaction fee on every transaction. This is the bread and butter of every payment processor, and it's complete rent seeking, AND supposedly all the major processors are going to RAISE it at roughly the same time in the coming months. Eliminating the set transaction fee could open up so many potential businesses. But I'…

Sounds awfully cartel-like. Unfortunately I agree with you regarding the lack of incentives Apple has. IIRC, the money for cash back rewards comes out of the interchange fee. How do you get consumers to adopt a card that's opaquely better for businesses and immediately worse for themselves?

If you are looking for a cartel, look no further than experian, transunion et al. Those firms define your credit worthiness and are hacked at will, spilling out all you credit and PII info.

Re: Apple announces Apple Card credit card

#347

Post by snotrockets » Mon, Mar 25, 2019, 7:17 PM UTC

lawn wrote: post #277

ralusek wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look no further than the recent issue where Patreon competitor Subscribestar had payment processors Stripe and PayPal stop processing their payments for _political_ disagreements with the purported beneficiaries of the donations through the platform. PayPal said that it was actually one of the underlying payment processors, and it was suspected to be MasterCard. That incident was the first time I've ever taken the ne…

And people still wonder what problem cryptocurrencies tries to solve.

the underutilization of modern cpus?

Re: Apple announces Apple Card credit card

#348

Post by bunderbunder » Mon, Mar 25, 2019, 7:17 PM UTC

throw0101a wrote: post #191

bunderbunder wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not allowing you to carry a balance makes the card less flexible, since it takes away the ability to use the card to finance items you can't afford to pay in full right now. At least in the US, charge cards also (historically) charged higher fees to retailers, so a lot of stores wouldn't accept them.

> [...] ability to use the card to finance items you can't afford to pay in full right now. Given the rates charged by many cards, I'm not sure you'd want to do that. The US has an average of 15%: * https://www.creditkarma.com/credit-cards/i/average-apr-on-cr... * https://www.valuepenguin.com/average-credit-card-interest-ra...

I've done it before.

Never for truly big ticket items, but sometimes the $5 or whatever in interest to carry a small balance for a month isn't worth the extra effort it would take to free up the cash I'd need to pay it off in full without dipping below the minimum balance I like to keep in my checking account, and it's also not worth $5 to me to wait another month before replacing that busted transmission.

Re: Apple announces Apple Card credit card

#349

Post by matwood » Mon, Mar 25, 2019, 7:18 PM UTC

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #310

elefantastisch wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't the risk of fraud make a $1 million transaction much more expensive to handle?

Yes. This is roughly half of the transaction fee. The other half is to self-fund the rewards illusion that gets customers to use the card.

> rewards illusion

Maybe if you don't pay your balance every month, but the rewards are very real for me.

Re: Apple announces Apple Card credit card

#350

Post by astura » Mon, Mar 25, 2019, 7:18 PM UTC

zaphirplane wrote: post #231

eridius wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple said they've engineered the service such that Apple does not know what you're purchasing or even what vendors you're shopping at. If Apple doesn't know this, they can't very well apply arbitrary rules to it.

I wonder how you can challenge a fraudulent transaction when that information is missing

Read here to learn about credit card partners, and how it works:

https://www.doctorofcredit.com/everything-you-ever-wanted-to...

Essentially, in this case, the underlying bank (Goldman Sachs) handles all the finances and the partner (Apple) lends their name/brand and receives a small kickback on card activities.