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Apple announces Apple Card credit card

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Re: Apple announces Apple Card credit card

#571

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some people are mentioning regulation but for streaming a lot of it comes down to market size. The US is a huge singular market which all speaks one language. In europe there are many smaller markets each with its own language and set of countries and regulations. Even at big-ish US companies that serve europe, there might only be a small team that services just FR or just GB, and almost never any smaller countries.…

somehow Netflix is available in majority of europe with english-only content and it’s fine. sometimes you can get subtitles even. so I don’t think that it is main reason why europe is second-class citizen in this regard.

The language might not be the biggest problem. The insane amount of regulation we have might be. Besides regulation, there are plenty of other differences between countries within the EU.

For example, we don't have a unified banking system in the EU. Each country has its own preferred method of payment. In the Netherlands they have iDeal. In Belgium Bancontact. Dankort in Denmark. The list goes on [1]. Credit cards are not that common in Europe and not everyone has one. To appeal to a wider audience, one must support local payment methods. This is just one example of where things get more complicated compared to doing business in the US.

[1] select the "Europe" tab: https://www.adyen.com/payment-methods

Re: Apple announces Apple Card credit card

#572

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.

I don't think this is very different from Bank of America or Chase running a payment processing system.

Both issue cards, and run two of the largest credit card processing systems. Bank of America Merchant Services and Chase Paymentech.

Most smaller providers still depend on one of those larger banks networks to process transactions.

You generally always need an acquiring bank to issue cards or process transactions. I believe this is the role of Goldman Sachs in this Apple news.

(Source: I worked at Square for 6 years, and my teams were directly responsible for the network integrations to connect to those merchant acquirers so we could process credit cards.)

Re: Apple announces Apple Card credit card

#573

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And what exactly would prevent Apple from using the same scheme in the UK and Europe at large?

Nothing, except that then their card would have 0% acceptance. Much harder sell to get people to get the card if no merchants accepts it, and harder to get merchants to take it if nobody has one. There's a reason why the credit card market is almost entirely American Express, MasterCard, and Visa. If they wanted to pay higher cashback than the standard interchange rates allow, they'd be charging merchants more than t…

At least in London I've only seen a handful of places that don't take Amex, and as of today I can think of only one a coffee shop I sometimes use.

Re: Apple announces Apple Card credit card

#574

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can see what sure looks a mag stripe at 2m58s in the video at https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/25/18277417/apple-pay-credit... Disappointing.

I'm curious to know what the percentage of places are that 1. Support contactless 2. support chip 3. only support swiping. Secondly, I wonder if they can, for example, have a different number on the swipe, and have that number require extra security (such as approving each transaction on your phone).

Anecdotal - I'm in Canada and pay mostly with credit cards. I don't even recall swiping my card in the past two years. I've basically been doing contactless under $100 whenever I can and chip and pin for all other transactions.

Re: Apple announces Apple Card credit card

#575
post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Target has been resisting and dragging their feet because they really really really want people to use their store card instead.

I would like to use their store card, with some sort of NFC payment system. It's not that hard.

It is not actually NFC, but if you use Target's App you can put your "Red Card" (target's in-house credit card) into your App and have a single scan for both their coupons system (Cartwheel) and payment at once.

Re: Apple announces Apple Card credit card

#577

Earlier quoted context omitted.

somehow Netflix is available in majority of europe with english-only content and it’s fine. sometimes you can get subtitles even. so I don’t think that it is main reason why europe is second-class citizen in this regard.

The language might not be the biggest problem. The insane amount of regulation we have might be. Besides regulation, there are plenty of other differences between countries within the EU. For example, we don't have a unified banking system in the EU. Each country has its own preferred method of payment. In the Netherlands they have iDeal. In Belgium Bancontact. Dankort in Denmark. The list goes on [1]. Credit cards a…

You can pay with a SEPA payment within EU from one account to another in another country, as if making a transfer within a country.

Basically all you need is the IBAN.

The currency will be converted to euro but you don't need to be within the eurozone, only within EU.

Re: Apple announces Apple Card credit card

#578
post #542

> There will be a physical titanium card, too, but there’s no credit card number, CVV, expiration date, or signature. All of that authorization information is stored directly in the Apple Wallet app. Does this mean that the card doesn't contain sensitive information in the chip or mag stripe? Will only work if it's near your phone? If so, this is quite different from status quo, and touches on what the Coin card fail…

It's likely just a regular card and the stripe will be clonable. Saying there's "no number" sounds like a gimmick that has nothing to do with real risks.

Re: Apple announces Apple Card credit card

#579

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Yes, and ultimately Goldman Sachs is a bank and will be held accountable for anything that happens. The jokes almost write themselves. . .

Retail banking, especially credit, is much more regulated than the investment banking shenanigans that led to the 2008 crisis.

Retail banks were on the front lines making the liar loans that got everything started. Investment banks wouldn't have had any bogus mortgages to bet on without retail banks originating them.

The decision to use GS is highly dilutive to Apple's brand.

Re: Apple announces Apple Card credit card

#580

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is the per-transaction fee the rent-seeking part? I get why MC/Visa have a per-transaction fee. I don't understand why there's a percentage of the transaction on top of that. It's not any more work for a $1 transaction versus a $1,000,000 one on their end.

The percentage fee is 1, for rewards necessary to get people to use the card and 2, to cover fraud which is actually a MASSIVE problem and 3, to cover defaults/payment issues. The per-transaction fee existed to cover the additional cost of building out the network (literally running cables and wires to the merchants' stores) and providing card readers. The network is already built and has been paid for THOUSANDS of t…

I have heard running a "cartel" a few times in this thread. I don't understand this term. Could you explain what you mean by that?
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