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Apple announces Apple Card credit card

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Re: Apple announces Apple Card credit card

#581

Post by coredog64 »

fsloth wrote: post #330
Liquix wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do they gain from offering the card if they are not harvesting transaction data? Is it possible that this is some legal gymnastics (i.e. Goldman-Sachs receives the 'Apple doesn't know' data and promptly send it over to them under an opaque 'we share information with our affiliates' clause)? It does seem like a lot of work and potential risk if the sole purpose is to increase user dependency on the Apple ecosyste…

It's a foot in in the global financing system. Billion people buy their products, and given their price, I'm ready to bet that the number of people who finance their purchase instead of buying with cash is not insignificant. That's lots of interest payments. Once they have a foothold in the finance sector they can start financing their own devices and capture that revenue, instead of letting it slip to third parties.…

Apple has/had a deal with Barclays for financing purchases from the Apple store. They still have to cut Goldman in on the new card, so not really sure how much better it is for them on financing Apple purchases.

Re: Apple announces Apple Card credit card

#582

Post by sf_rob »

jclardy wrote: post #83
ocdtrekkie wrote: post #67

Most interesting claim is that there are no late fees. If you don't pay it on time, I presume they're going to stop letting you continue making charges to the card until you do? But that it never gets you locked into the debt cycle of so many other cards? If true, this is the true real innovation. Or is there interest, but just no fee for not making your payment on time?

There is interest, so you'd still be locked in the cycle. Just a little better off because they don't charge you $30-50 for paying late. But it appears they are much more forward on telling you how much interest you will be paying if you don't pay off the card.

From their website: Variable APRs range from 13.24% to 24.24% based on creditworthiness. Rates as of March 2019

Re: Apple announces Apple Card credit card

#583

Post by repler »

nabaraz wrote: post #25

With the rise of smartphone payments like Samsung Pay, Android Pay and Apple Pay , is there even a need for credit cards? How long until these companies start skipping payment processors like Visa and Mastercard and take the whole pie?

You can actually do it now if you have a bank account on each end of the transaction, and it's in real time (not ACH): https://www.theclearinghouse.org/payment-systems/rtp

Re: Apple announces Apple Card credit card

#584

Post by Cu3PO42 »

dogma1138 wrote: post #573
gsnedders wrote: post #537

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

In Germany the acceptance for credit cards only became large scale after the interchange fee was limited. Today, most stores that accept card payments also accept credit cards, but only MasterCard and Visa. Using an AMEX as your primary card would be a pretty bad experience, because you'd constantly need a backup.

With that said, I'm happy most merchants don't put up with the humongous fees—in the end the prices are just raised to compensate for them.

Re: Apple announces Apple Card credit card

#585

Post by dmoy »

astura wrote: post #410
microdrum wrote: post #387

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's 2% cash back on Apple Pay, 3% cash back on Apple products, and 1% cash back on non-Apple Pay, non-Apple products. Do you know a better card that always gives 2% cash back, no cap?

Fidelity Visa is 2% on everything, no cap, no annual fee. Citi DoubleCash is 2% on everything, dunno if there's a cap, no annual fee. (you have to redeem into a bank account, not as statement credit, to get the full 2%) USAA Limitless is 2.5% cash back on everything, no cap. (military only, no longer available), no annual fee. If you have enough cash invested with Merrill Edge ($100,000, including IRAs) the Bank of A…

Alliant has a flat 2% no fee card too I think, in addition to the 2.5% one.

Re: Apple announces Apple Card credit card

#586

Post by icelancer »

miguelrochefort wrote: post #563
photonios wrote: post #449

I got all excited and then realized that almost none of the new services that were announced will offer me anything as a European. Apple Card most likely won't be coming to Europe any time soon. The streaming service is also not likely to come to Europe as it includes US-only services such as Hulu and Amazon Prime. I am aware that this is a bit of a 1st world problem, but all of these services being US-only can be re…

Americans don't realize how good they have it. A few years ago, I made a list of over 100 things that are available/possible in the US but not in Canada. It almost made me feel like Canada was a third world country. I'm sure I could find it. Here are some examples I can remember: - Amazon Prime - Amazon selection and prices - Amazon Dash - Amazon groceries - Amazon third-party selling - Free shipping in most online s…

> Americans don't realize how good they have it.

Some of us do (me, for example). Travel enough and you realize what is actually awesome about America.

But complaining is something Americans do exceptionally well. It is at our core. Just how it is.

Re: Apple announces Apple Card credit card

#587

Post by nailer »

isostatic wrote: post #250
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.

It's an inevitable end state of capitalism - large companies merge and use monopolitic tactics up and down the chain. That's why we have democratically accountable regulators

> It's an inevitable end state of capitalism - large companies merge and use monopolitic tactics

A free market is the opposite of a monopoly.

Re: Apple announces Apple Card credit card

#588

Post by seqastian »

rickycook wrote: post #570
013a wrote: post #555

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple TV+ was announced for "100+ Countries at Launch".

but the content won’t likely be the same across regions. netflix for example has a very different library depending on where you are in the world. eg CANADA had about 50% of the US library in 2016 (many other regions sitting with UK/AU around 30-40%) ... but it still costs the same, and that’s not even the part that’s frustrating

Apple owns the rights to apple content. As Netflix does to most of their original content. So their original stuff will most likely launch international. What Europe won't get is all the channels cause those might have different plans for different markets. Disney already talked about an international launch of Hulu and most of the HBO and Showtime stuff is on Sky in some European markets which has TV app integration already.

So no we won't have the exactly same stuff but most of it will end up there one way or another (except Netflix)

Re: Apple announces Apple Card credit card

#589

Post by nailer »

sf_rob wrote: post #582
jclardy wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is interest, so you'd still be locked in the cycle. Just a little better off because they don't charge you $30-50 for paying late. But it appears they are much more forward on telling you how much interest you will be paying if you don't pay off the card.

From their website: Variable APRs range from 13.24% to 24.24% based on creditworthiness. Rates as of March 2019

So a doubling time of about 5 to 3 years, for those who don't understand compound interest (which is most humans, hence credit cards being insanely profitable).

Re: Apple announces Apple Card credit card

#590

Post by standardUser »

sfotm wrote: post #344
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.

"If you only plan to use it with Apple Pay"

That's simply not possible, is it? In terms of an all purpose spending card?

I see this as a 1% card with special "categories" that I don't care to keep track of. The world is littered with those. Double Cash is OK, but has international transaction fees last time I checked.

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